Friday Research

We'll be starting the second unit, which is gaining an understanding of how our solar system formed, how big it is, and the characteristics we notice.   It's this observation that leads to science.  

STEP 1:  Notes, and a table for the Rocky planets, the Gas planets, the moons, and the bits and pieces.  Compare and contrast as you go through this slide session.



STEP 2:  Write 5 questions to which you do not know the answer about planets

STEP 3:  Find out about the core,surface, and atmosphere of each the planets by making a second table.

Go here or 

Go  Nine Planets

Or use the books in the room.  


STEP 4:   Summarize

What is the time it takes for a planet to spin on its axis?
What is the time it takes for a planet to rotate around the sun?
How do the movements of the moons compare to those of the planets? 
Are there patterns in the materials that make up each of the planets, or are they random? 
What about the climate on the planets?
Is water found on each planet?

I'm sure there are more questions we will think of as we do this, but this is our starting point.

Take Home Test, Unit 1--Due by Sunday Night (Friday if it is handwritten)

You may hand-write this and turn it in or you may type it and share via Google Docs.



Question 1:  You are required to go to a meeting for government class, so you choose one of the the following two options.  (6)

Option A:  A school board meeting is focused on the approval of the new science standards.   There is a group of people who are protesting because the standards choose the 'false religion of the big bang and evolution' over 'Biblical Truth and creationism.'   What's the problem, and how do you solve it?

Option B:  Your cousin calls you in a panic, asking for advice.   S/he has had a reading done at a local fortune telling shop, and it said that, according to the stars and the planets, s/he is in a 'critical time of decision-making that must carefully be navigated to resolve the future.'   What type of postive/negative feedback should you give?

Question 2:  Pick two of the following constellations and use an online planetarium program like Stellarium to find the distances in light years, and the absolute magnitudes of the brightest 5 stars. Tell me the program used. Make certain that you are not all picking the same constellation by working two people to one computer.(5)

• Draco
• Cassiopeia
• Cepheus
• Ursa Minor

Question 3:  Using the Powerpoint for the first unit as needed, explain why we have seasons.(5)

Question 4:  Why can both hemispheres see the constellations on the Ecliptic, but not all people can see the northern star(5)

Question 5:  How was the work of Galileo a combination of science, religion, and politics?  Repeat this question for another astronomer mentioned in this class (10)

Question 6:  Pick one of these science pairs and tell me how one is connected to another in the study of Astronomy. (8)

• Galileo/Newton
• Brahe/Kepler
• Aristotle/Galileo

Question 7: Why does parallax tell us that not all stars are the same distance from earth? (3)

Question 8: Explain why studying starlight is a journey into the past. (3)

Viewing the Universe through Models

Model 1:  
Can you see the following from the Northern Hemisphere?  Do they touch the Celestial Equator?  What about the Ecliptic?


The North Star (part of Ursa Minor)

Crux

Orion

Taurus

Lyra

Bootes

Gemini


(you'll need to look up the RA and DEC table from the last post)

Use this to check your answers.
http://astro.unl.edu/classaction/animations/coordsmotion/radecdemo.html

Model 2:

Phases of the Moon

Use the Oreos, a light bulb and a ball to help document the phases of the moon.   Create a sketch for each of the 8 phases showing the moon's placement, and use an Oreo to nibble so the phase of the moon is shown in the creme filling.

Take a picture of your sketch, the Oreo drawing.

This applet may help.

http://astro.unl.edu/naap/lps/animations/lps.swf

Model 3:
Azimuth and Altitude

We will do this in class for Manchester.

Go to http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/AltAz.php
Find the latitude and longitude of a city to type in for Part B.
Type in an interval of 60 minutes and gather the chart data for 3/21, 6/21, 9/21, and 12/21
Save the values for each on a google doc


Pick a city that is at or above +50(N) or -50(S) latitude
Pick a city that is at or below +30(N) or -30(S) latitude

Graphing:

Create a graph that has as its x-axis the coordinates 0 degrees to 360 degrees (azimuth) and as its y axis 0 to 90 degrees (altitude)

Graph the altitude and azimuth pairs for the four different dates in four different colors.

Scientists are People Too

It's all well and good to think that science is the noble pursuit of knowledge, but again, and again, scientists have proven that there are human frailties associated with the study of science.  

Ego, personality, pride, greed, and fortunes have caused science to work out well and work out poorly for individuals, regardless of their knowledge.   These traits allowed one scientist to rise while another falls.   I

Take a look at these sites and write a one page list of observations of how science, politics, religion and humanity are connected in the stories of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler  DUE FRIDAY

http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/formal/icecore/The_Astronomers_Tycho_Brahe_and_Johannes_Kepler.pdf

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/brahe.html

http://www.pafko.com/tycho/home.html

Space Models

Looking Back in Time

The Sun Against the Background of Stars

Why Do the Seasons Change?

Rising and Setting of the Sun




Constellations:  RA/DEC

Friday

Part 1:  Finish your astronomer data.

Part 2:  Connect the words from Wednesday to the proper astronomers

Part 3:  Take a look at the short video clips on youtube regarding Wednesday's project.   Correct as noted.  Be careful to have taken a look at this by Monday.

Readings for Wednesday

Read :  

http://www.bluffton.edu/~bergerd/nsc_111/science3.html

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/index.html


Summarize sheets:   for each, you must include a sketch, a one-two sentence summary, and an analogy.  

For example, if something that was circling my house,
I might draw a five-sided figure for my house, a bee for the something, and an arrow.   This is a picture. 
I might explain that the house did not move but the bee did.   This is a sentence of explanation.
I might say a permanent marker spot on a spinning cd worked the same way.  This is an analogy.  

1. geocentric, 
2. heliocentric, 
3. epicycles,  
4. retrograde motion, 
5. size of the earth, 
6. parallax, 
7. measurements before telescopes, 
8. measures after telescopes, 
9. Kepler's three laws,  
10. laws, 
11. the law of Universal Gravitation
12. Zodiac

Astronomy project (Teams of 2)

You are going to explore the lives of some famous astronomers.   You will have ONE day to do this, so think carefully about your goals and how you divide and conquer.   The project is due at the beginning of class on Monday, but we will be doing other things tomorrow.

You must find the following:

• are they heliocentric or geocentric?
• when is the time period in which they lived?
• was politics, religion, or science their realm of work?
• who paid for their work as astronomers?
• did they have access to telescopes?
• why do they matter?

First, check the book in the front (they are paper and battered) and summarize, including the page #. Then, confirm it with a web reference (preferably from the site we used yesterday), and find a picture. Finally, create a Google presentation that compares the similarities and differences of the astronomers.

You must include all the astronomers marked with a *, plus 2 others in your presentation, for a total of 9.

1. Aristotle
2. Galileo*
3. Hipparchus
4. Aristarchus
5. Eratosthenes
6. Tycho Brahe*
7. Pope Gregory*
8. Nicholas Copernicus*
9. Johannes Kepler*
10. Isaac Newton*
11. Ptolemy
12. Albert Einstein
13. Stephen Hawking
14. Annie Cannon
15. James Van Allen
16. Carl Sagan
17. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Day 1

Today, we'll look at some big concepts in astronomy by taking a look at the two videos below and the published power point.  

Sagan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iunr4B4wfDA

DO THIS ON YOUR COMPUTER with a partner, NOT AS A CLASS.  Stop and think when you find something that interests you and talk to the partner.  Your goal is not to memorize, but to think.

Big Questions:

a) what is the difference between astronomy and astrology?
b) how has astronomy changed over time?
c) what are the big things we see?