Phys 104 – AstronomySummer-1

Who can name this artist?

A little about me...

Physics and Astronomy Prof at GWUDirector of the Williams Observatory

GWU – 3 years, Teaching overall...14.

This is Going to be Totally Sweet!!!!

The Montillation of Traxoline

It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristerlate large amounts of fevon and then

brachter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the

future because of our zionter lescelidge.

(attributed to the insight of Judy Lanier)

The Montillation of Traxoline It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is

a new form of zionter. It is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristerlate large amounts of fevon and then brachter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the future because of our zionter lescelidge.

Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences.

1. What is traxoline?

2. Where is traxoline montilled?

3. How is traxoline quaselled?

4. Why is it important to know about traxoline?

A Commonly Held Incorrect Model of Teaching and Learning

A Commonly Held Incorrect Model of a Student’s Conceptual Framework

Traxoline is a form of zionter...

Tabula rasa

But the human intellect, which is the lowest in the order of intellects and the most removed from the perfection of the Divine intellect, is in potency with regard to things intelligible, and is at first "like a clean tablet on which nothing is written", as the Philosopher [Aristotle] says. (Aquinas, Summa Theologica 1.79.2).

From How People Learn

“Students enter your lecture hall with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for the purposes of a test, but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.”

HOW PEOPLE LEARN, National Research Council, National Academy Press, 2000.

Key Results from Cognitive Science and Education Research

1. Learning is productive / constructive -- learning requires mental effort.

2. Knowledge is associative / linked to prior mental models and formal structures.

3. The cognitive response is context dependent --what and how you learn depends on the educational setting.

4. Most people require some social interactions in order to learn effectively.

Learning is an ActivityActivity

I intend to be a guide by your side,

not a sage on a stage.

What Students Retain:

10% of what you read 20% of what you hear 30% of what you see 50% of what you see and hear 70% of what you discuss 80% of what you personally experience 95% of what you teach someone

Can Lecture Tutorials intellectually engage students at a level that is more effective than traditional lecture at

promoting deep conceptual change?

• Pre-Course: Students take a 68 question survey• Post-Lecture: Questions administered in subsets• Post-Lecture Tutorial: Questions administered in

subsets

Pre-Course mean: 30% (nA=39,nB=42)Post-Lecture mean: 52% (n ~ 100)Post-Lecture Tutorial: 72% (n ~ 100)

Former Students Speak OUT(focus group)

• “I liked the Tutorials -- they were very helpful. I am not a science person, but feel that I learned a lot from them.

• “Why don’t all professors use tutorials during class?”

• “The student interaction and tutorials are a very effective approach to both teaching and learning. I guarantee most students will retain most of this course.”

• “And then the tutorials? I don’t know who ever thought of that. But it’s really how classes should be taught….The tutorials [review concepts] because they break it down. You start with something so simple…and then it slowly gets to more [complicated].”

Former Students Speak OUT(focus group)

WHO ARE YOU??!!?!?!?

Are you a professional student or are you an amateur?

You are responsible for your own education.

My wish is that this experience will make you a better human!!

Breathe!!!

Life is a journey not a destination!

The journey in this course, will bring forth

a new understanding of your place

in the universe.

Clever or Cute is not Sciencehttp://www.milaadesign.com/wizardy.html

• Don’t let Cute be confused with REALITY!!• Creating a website that shows that you know

the numerical sequence that produces the number 9 = Cute but not Clairvoyant!!

• NOT ALL THINGS ARE REAL OR EVEN CLEVER, BUT SCIENCE IS BOTH OF THESE EVEN WHEN IT LATER TURNS OUT TO BE

INCOMPLETE OR WRONG!!!!

Science is not…

• A list of previously known facts about nature.• A list of names or terms.• A list of equations handed down from

ancient times.• A set of laws that were discovered by Dead

White Guys a long time ago and are kept from the general public.

Science Is…• A continuing process that

– seeks to understand the rules and laws of nature– uses systematic observations– uses mathematical models– experimentally tests ideas

• Subject to independent verification

These are the components of the scientific method (observe, theorize, predict, test, and modify) used

to comprehend the universe.

A scientific theory is a collection of ideas that explain a phenomenon in a way that is consistent with

observations and experiments.

For Something to Be Science

It must be quantifiable (measurable) It must be testable It must be falsifiable

What do Astronomers do?

• Make observations using telescopes.• Analyze data/results of observations.• Create theories about what is seen and what might exist

yet unseen.• Create computer models that simulate what occurs in

the universe.• Invent, design, and build instruments that let us see

beyond the Earth!BUT, most astronomers do NOT spend much time looking

through telescopes.

Understanding the Universe!!

Viking I Lander Picture from 1976

1999 Picture from the Mars

Pathfinder Lander

Note the remote-control rover, Sojourner, next to

a Martian rock

2004 Opportunity Landing Site – and tracks

We did it!! Huygens takes first images of Titan (a moon of Saturn) and survives the crash landing!!

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html

GO CONFIDENTLY IN THE DIRECTION OF YOUR DREAMS!!

LIVE THE LIFE YOU’VE IMAGINED.

AstronomyWeek 1

No Lab This Week—We'll start lab on Sep. 3 Constellation Cards – Get Started Mastering Astronomy Assignment ABCD Cards

Example Tutorial Question You observe a star rising due east. When this

star reaches its highest position above the horizon, where will it be?

A) high in the northern skyB) high in the eastern skyC) high in the southern skyD) high in the western skyE) directly overhead

Two of the most fundamentalquestions of all time:

Where are we?

How did we get here?

The Local Group

The Local Supercluster

The Milky Way

Earth

The Solar System

The numbers in astronomy are so large, and small, that astronomers use scientific

notation.100 = 1

101 = 10

102 = 100

103 = 1000 5.3 x 103 = 5,300

104 = 10,000 8.9 x 104 = 89,000

and, for small numbers

10-1 = 0.1

10-2 = 0.01 2.1 x 10-2 = 0.021

10-3 = 0.001 6.6 x 10-3 = 0.0066

Astronomical distances and sizes are very very, very, very large. So, astronomers use

different units.One “Astronomical Unit” (AU)

average distance between Sun and Earth

• 93,000,000 miles

• 150,000,000 km

• 1.5 x 108 km

Distance Light Travels in One Year

is a “Light-year” (LY)

•9.46 x 1012 km

•63,000 AU or 6.3x 104 AU

•0.307 parsecs (pc)

At the scale of the size of a planet or moon we describe things in terms of kilometers (km).

At the scale of the Solar System, distances are described in terms of the Astronomical Unit or AU (avg. distance from Earth to the Sun).

Mercury is 0.387 AU and r=2,440 km

Venus is 0.723 AU and r=6,051 km

Mercury is 1.0 AU and r=6,378 km

Mars is 1.52 AU and r=3,397 km

At the scale of the Milky Way Galaxy, distances are described in terms of Light-years, which is the distance light travels in one year.

Thousands of km

Astronomical Unit

A few to about 1,000 Light-years

10,000 to 100,000 Light-years

Millions of Light-years

Billions of Light-years

What do you think?

Do the stars stay in the same position in the sky all day/night long?

What do you think?

Do we see the same stars all year round every night?

What do you think?

What causes the stars to move? Do the stars actually move in the way they

appear to be moving from Earth? Is the daily motion of the Sun different from

the stars?

Consider the dome of the sky over our heads….

mixing bowl

inverted mixing bowl ….

Consider the dome of the sky over our heads….

Imagining a spinning Celestial Sphere

surrounding Earth aids in

thinking about the position

and motion of the sky.

Celestial Sphere Rotation

Celestial Sphere Rotation

North Star

Star A

Star B

1

1

3

3

2

2

4

4

Earth’s Equator

Figure 1

Celestial Sphere

Celestial Sphere Rotation

Celestial Sphere Rotation

Celestial Sphere

Star A

Star B

1

1

3

2

2

4

4

3

Figure 2

Horizon

Tutorial: Position – p.1 Work with a partner. Read the instructions and questions carefully. Talk to each other and discuss your answers with

each another, but BOTH write in your own book. Come to a consensus answer you both agree on. If you get stuck or are not sure of your answer, ask

another group. If you get really stuck or don’t understand what the

Lecture Tutorial is asking, ask me for help.

Celestial Sphere

Celestial Sphere Rotation

Celestial Sphere Rotation

Celestial Sphere

Star A

Star B

1

1

3

2

2

4

4

3

Figure 2

Horizon

Is the horizon shown a real physical horizon, or an imaginary plane that extends from the observer and Earth out to the stars?

Can the observer shown see an object located below the horizon?

Is there a star that is in an unobservable position?

When a star travels from being below the observer’s horizon to being above the observer’s horizon, is that star rising or setting?