The Solar System

Try this link

1. How does a comet differ from an asteroid?
2. What produces magnetism on the rocky planets?  Is there a similar mechanism on the gassy planets?
3. How is the Kuiper belt similar to the Oort cloud?
4. What evidence do we have of asteroids in our solar system?
5. There's a belt between Jupiter and Mars?  What is it?
6. What is the purpose of a ring on a planet?
7. Where are the strongest winds in the planetary system?
8. Do we have evidence of plate tectonics on orbital bodies beyond our own?
9. Where is the most likely place to find water on other planets?
10. Is there another place with a moon-earth size that is proportionally big?

Problem Solving in Astronomy Friday

Friday:   Yesterday, we talked about EVIDENCE and its role in science.    For the first five of the following, you must make a CLAIM and support it with EVIDENCE and a RATIONALE.   For Problem 6, make a claim on the PRO side and the CON side.   Each and every one of you must do this and hand it in on paper, using what you remember from yesterday.  While you may discuss at your table, no outside resources allowed.  Hand in.   This should take 15-20 minutes.

Problem 1:  How can we use the moon as a clock throughout the four weeks of its cycle?

CLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

Problem 2:  How can we figure out the distance to the planets using Kepler and Brahe's data?

CLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

Problem 3:  Why was time such a problem for the world of astronomy?

CLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

Problem 4:  Why was it hard to figure the speed of light?

CLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

Problem 5:  Why do the tides and the moon rise/set time change?

CLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING


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Part 2



READ AND DISCUSS:    (you may jigsaw this, with people reading different parts and then sharing back and forth)

http://science.howstuffworks.com/moon-landing-hoax2.htm/printable

Problem 6:  Why do people believe that the moon landings were faked?
CLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING

CLAIM
EVIDENCE
REASONING
===============Second 45 minutes==========

Please subdivide into the groups, and take a look at each of the Lunar Missions Apollo 11-17.  You need to prepare a Highlight slide show that tells us the basic highlights--who, what, where, why, and how they traveled.   The first place to start is by going to

http://moon.google.com

The data shown will send you to a list of Nasa data if you click on the link that accompanies the photos.

Other resources include http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/ and http://nineplanets.org/

NOMA

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_noma.html

Religion  Science  History


Bill Nye/Neil Tyson DeGrasse
Galileo
Aristotle
Tycho Brahe
*Egyptian Society
*Mayan Astronomy
Kepler
Giordano Bruno
Newton
Carl Sagan
Pope Gregorian

Astronomy/Astro Lab, Day 1

Day 1: What is Astronomy?

• Watch the video. Write 3 questions about what you see. Carl Sagan is a critical friend to astronomy, who helped popularize it in the last half of the 20th century.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDfTLSb01xs 
• 
  

• You will be given a copy of skymaps, with a Northern, Equatorial, and Southern projection. On each of them, find
1. The Ecliptic
2. Orion
3. Castor/Pollux
4. Ursa Major
5. Ursa Minor
6. Casseiopeia
7. Cepheus
8. Draco
9. Polaris
10. Bootes

http://vimeo.com/38101676#at=0 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByD5by_PL64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKXBtWHExwQ

Monday

Thank you for taking my class. I have enjoyed working with you, and it is my hope that you leave this class with a sense of wonder.  Please hand in your final projects by tonight, or call me if that is not possible. 


================

Last reflection opportunity (extra credit):   Today, the theory of general relativity has been utilized, along with the COBE project, to talk about the Big Bang.  You can read about it here:


http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26605974 


1.  Summarize the point of the article in terms of the Big Bang--what type of evidence is present, what does it say about the Big Bang in the first second?

2.  Note that scientific evidence is not the same as religious evidence or political influence.   Does this discovery matter in those realms?  Think of past scientific discoveries (Galileo, Bruno, or Tycho Brahe) in your opinion.

Wrapup: The Big Ideas on Friday and Monday

There is so, soo much to learn about astronomy, and we've only had a 9 week slice.  Even so, there are some big ideas you should take with you.

Step 1:

For each of the BIG IDEAS, one link is listed.  You must find two others for each.

(Finding 10 links--10 points)

Step 2:  

You must provide a list of works cited, and a one to three sentence summary of each one.  

You must list the Title of the Page, as well as a URL. 

(Summary of 15 links--75 points)

 NOTE:  Google is not a reasonable citation.

Step 3:  Create a prezi, a video journal, a podcast, or a series of toons or memes to tell me about these big ideas.  Make a CLAIM, support it with information(EVIDENCE) from the websites you reviewed, and tell me why the concept matters (REASONING)

(Personal reflection Scoring)

• mentions each of the five points (5 points)
• gives a solid Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning for each of the five points (30 points)
• turns in a digital product that includes personal identifier and tells me why astronomy matters in a reasonable way (10)

TOTAL PROJECT:  140 points

Big Idea 1:   Space is HONKING BIG. 

http://www.wordwizz.com/pwrsof10.htm

Big Idea 2:  Despite the idea of NOMA (Stephen Jay Gould), science, religion, and politics overlap on regular occasions.  This causes problems with pseudoscience and a lack of scientific literacy.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/humor/roswell.asp

OR

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3027651/the-price-of-ignoring-climate-change-is-far-higher-than-we-think

Big Idea 3:  The money spent on NASA, telescopes, and monitoring equipment has benefits to human beings that include technology advances, protection, and civilian use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_Operational_Environmental_Satellite

Big Idea 4:  The ideas of many individuals, including Einstein, have a big impact on our understanding of features in the universe and the Big Bang 

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7423298/ns/technology_and_science/t/putting-einstein-test/#.Ux9GPPldWSo

Big Idea 5:  Light is our primary tool for observing the universe, and scientists have developed multiple ways to utilize this.

http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es2802/es2802page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

Understanding the Premise of the Big Bang

We'll be looking a series of 6 links during the first part of class.  On each one, you need to read and click on the links provided:   Summarize using the white boards.  You have until 1:55.

Early Models of the Universe

The Cosmological Principle

You are NOT the Center of the Universe

The Timeline

What's Microwave Got to Do with it?

Understanding the role of Cobe


==============================
Discussion
==============================



What Hubble Deep Field Tells Us

You must find out about each of these:
1.  What is HDF-N?
2.  What is Deep?
3.  Stare and Compare
4.  Sample Size


===================
Discussion
===================

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/dark-matter.html

Unit 5

Einstein Ideas

Make summary statements on the following:

1.  What do you 'get' about general relativity?
2.  Why does 'special relativity' matter in the study of light?
3.  How do we use Einstein's idea of gravitational lensing?
4.  How do we find new planets using light?
5.  Why is finding inhabitable planets so tough?
6.  What is the Big Bang?  How do Penzias and Wilson figure into it?
7.  What is the structure of the universe?
8.  How many generations of stars have lived and died?  How do we know?
9.  Do you believe there are aliens?  Why or why not?







Please do the exercises found here
http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys230/lectures/planets/Lens_Nav.swf

The Stars and Galaxy Game Quest

Hmmm.   It's been a long time since this quarter started.   Loooooonnng.

So here's what I need you to do.

Create an understanding for this unit for others

• stellar life cycles
• HR diagram
• pieces in a galaxy
• the pressure vs. gravity balance
• the size of a solar system
• the size of a galaxy
• the idea of blue shift and red shift
• the H 21cm radio line
• the colors of stars
• Annie Cannon's work
• types of galaxies.

Here are some ways you can do just that:

http://textadventures.co.uk/quest

http://scratch.mit.edu/

(tutorial  http://www.teach-ict.com/programming/scratch/scratch_home.htm)

http://www.toondoo.com 

Star Death, Galaxies, and the pieces of Mass

Today, you will turn those turntables into a galaxy of choice.  It must include the following

• a black hole
• a dust cloud/nebula
• stars that include the O B A F G K M L classification  
• a Cepheid variable
• a globular cluster
• a solar system
• some dark matter
• halo stars
• gravitational lens

Along with this you will need to include a series of two post-it note explanations for each component of the galaxy.  Post its are on the table.   The first note should an explanation of the component, and the second note should provide some idea of why I should be interested in the piece at all?

There are sooooooooooo many links out there to research these pieces that I've only provided a few.   Consider the source---in this case, Wikipedia does very little to inspire interest, even though it does tell you something about the pieces

http://www.spitzinc.com/pdfs/educ_guide_blackholes_nasa.pdf 

http://www.space.com/15396-variable-stars.html 

http://www.space.com/15421-black-holes-facts-formation-discovery-sdcmp.html

http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/stellar_evolution.html


Understanding 21-cm Lines

Now that you have your turntable, let's stop and think.

You are in a car on a snowy night.  The heater and radio are running as you put it in gear and pull out of the parking lot.   You travel down the street and turn to head home.  Suddenly, a gust of violent wind makes a temporary whiteout, and you have to cope.  Suddenly, your cell phone rings.

What wavelengths of light are affecting you at this moment?

=========================




Part II (start after about 50 minutes, if you have time) 


How accurate is Eric Idle's song?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_Song (be ready for discussion)


Seeing Galaxies takes some practice, so going to here will be a good start.   It should take about 20 minutes to read through and see the galaxy types.

Next, go to the SDSS database, which took pictures for the first web site.   You will be learning about galaxies, and going through the first 2 exercises and the first 4 questions.  Take the time to collect the data on paper, and hand in what you have completed at the end of the hour.