"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it." — Albert Einstein
Astronomy (4°)
Schedule (2nd semester)
- Week of Monday, March
22: Astronomy Role-Playing Project
(short week)
- Day 1
- Introduce project
- Select research teams
- Day 2
- Science writers: begin writing an article fleshing out 'Leap Day '04'; include quotes from interviews with scientists at various institutions. Feel free to be creative; I will check to make sure it doesn't interfere with the consistency of the world
- Research teams: begin writing a website (you may use Word, Contribute, or any program you feel comfortable with); this website should describe your team (no last names), your research interests, your research institutions, and should include helpful links to your institution and observational instruments. Examples include Caltech Observational Cosmology and the Supernova Cosmology Project. E-mail your site to me by the end of Day 3.
- PIs: decide among yourselves (with input from teams) how we will divide up the constellations
- Day 3
- Continue working on projects from Day 2; e-mail first draft website to me (remember: no last names); science writers: e-mail first draft article to me.
- PIs: announce constellations (or delegate this responsibility)
- Check the role-playing project site for links to astronomy research paper preprints which might be useful for your project. The links are listed next to your name.
- Be sure that your data analysts
have received the first set of data for your research group,
mailed to your SI
Prep account; be sure to ask me if you don't understand
what the data is intended to represent.
- Day 1
- Week of Monday, March
29: Astronomy Role-Playing Project
- Day 1
- Theorists and data analysts begin processing raw data
- PIs: coordinate with research team members to create a schedule of events over the next week or two. We need to have: (a) a press conference to assure the jittery public that the "first look" at the data is going well -- some preliminary results can be announced here; (b) a formal meeting of the St. Ignatius Astronomical Society (SIAS) with plenary and parallel speakers addressing different topics (example) -- results of data analysis will be announced here; (c) due dates for publication of research papers describing the results of the data analysis (examples); and (d) due dates for accepting proposals to use astronomical instruments (example); also, plan a few breaks when we can sit back and watch NOVA's "Elegant Universe" in class
- Outreach specialists and instrumentalists: begin preparing for press conference as described in last paragraph
- Day 2
- Continue work of Day 1; consider forming collaborations between research teams if necessary
- Day 3
- Outreach Specialists: prepare for press conference
- Data analysts: work on data analysis!
- PIs: consider format of press conference
- Instrumentalists: learn about your instrument and how it can be used to provide more data for your data analyst
- Theorists: consider the data from the data analyst and figure out how it can be used
- Science Writer and crackpot: work on new article regarding the "new astrology" popping up around the world
- Day 4
- Press conference -- a panel discussion hosted by the outreach specialists.
- SIAS meeting will begin Wed, April 21st, the Wed after Spring Break; begin considering what your meeting abstracts will look like, how many talks you wish to give, and who will give them. PIs should nominate one or two of their own to give the "major" (plenary) talks at the conference
- Proposals for use of instruments will be due by the end of class on Tuesday, April 6th
- Day 1
- Week of Monday, April 5: Astronomy
Role-Playing Project (short week)
- Day 1
- All teams: work on semi-formal proposals for use of instruments (yours and others) to make additional observations that will be released to you as 2nd run data. (Sample proposals and information about how to write a proposal can be found at: HST 1, 2, 3, Keck 1, Chandra 1)
- PIs: work on schedule for meetings next week
- Science Writer and Crackpot: work on new article
- Day 2
- Continue work from Day 1. At end of period, turn in proposals to instrument specialists in the appropriate group (or to the PI if the instrumentalist is absent.) All members of the group should be able to contribute to making a great proposal. And yes, part of proposing is "giving up the game" so that the people you are proposing to know what you're trying to discover.
- Day 3
- Begin watching the Elegant Universe series (movie break!)
- Day 1
- Week of Monday, April 12: No class or assignments: Spring Break!
- Week of Monday, April 19: Astronomy
Role-Playing Project
- Day 1
- 2nd run data delivery to data analysts (all in-house proposals)
- announcement of acceptance or rejection of submitted proposals
- data analysis
- Day 2
- theorists and data analysts: continue data analysis
- Day 3
- 1st Annual Meeting of the St. Ignatius Astronomical Society
(Day 1)
- Plenary talk(s) (10 min + 5 min questions each)
- UCSC's Mel M. on Keck measurements of galaxy spectra
- Princeton's Sean Q. on MAP measurements of CMB radiation
- Harvard's Vince H. on Chandra/Integral measurements of gamma-ray spectra
- 1st Annual Meeting of the St. Ignatius Astronomical Society
(Day 1)
- Day 4
- 1st Annual Meeting of the St. Ignatius Astronomical Society
(Day 2)
- Parallel discussion session leaders
- A1: Carly R. on SDSS (results); B1: Mick T. on Chandra & X-rays; C1: Andrew H. on Galaxy Distances (results)
- A2: Stephanie H. on Galaxy Redshifts (methods); B2: Jacob K. on Antimatter & Gamma-rays; C2: Jeff B. on Cepheid Variables (methods)
- A3: Nick C. on Strangeness (and the image); B3, C3: Cancelled
- 1st Annual Meeting of the St. Ignatius Astronomical Society
(Day 2)
- Day 1
- Week of Monday, April 26: Astronomy
Role-Playing Project
- Day 1
- Movie break: Elegant Universe Chapter 2
- Day 2
- Continue data analysis with your group
- Begin writing final research papers (see this page for the proper format -- click on "PDF" to see the paper). Acceptable research papers (1) introduce the topic through reference to similar or foundational work done by others; (2) describe in complete detail the procedure used to arrive at a scientific conclusion; (3) include an abstract, an introduction, a conclusion, figures, and a bibliography or reference section; and (4) contain an interesting result that has arisen in independent, creative research. Papers are due Friday AM.
- Crackpot: begin a crackpot research paper similar to the ones others are working on but discussing "the message"
- Science writer: write a news article, but this time use it to describe this role-playing project, what went well and what went not so well. Be sure to integrate quotations from students into the work, and to interview, at least briefly, more than half the students in the class.
- Day 3
- Continue data analysis with your group
- Continue writing final research papers
- Day 4
- Continue data analysis with your group
- Continue writing papers; final research papers due by Friday AM by e-mail to me
- Day 1
- Week of Monday, May 3:
- Day 1
- Review and celebration of research papers
- Peer & teacher evaluation; prize nominations
- Day 2
- Movie break: BBC Planets "Terra Firma"
- Day 3
- Astrophysical Journal Club ("ApJ Club"): It's a tradition among scientists to have a weekly "journal club" where researchers get together, read current or important papers from the Astrophysical Journal in common, and discuss the papers informally. Typically one person is assigned to lead the discussion of a certain paper. Here are some examples of journal clubs at UCLA, Harvard CFA and Berkeley.
- Hand out abstract packet for review.
- Day 4
- ApJ Club: make some decisions among us which groups of students will treat which papers. Each group will concentrate on three papers, perhaps with some overlap between groups.
- Day 1
- Week of Monday, May 10:
- Day 1
- Inform me of which paper you would like to study for the ApJ Club.
- Study a paper in-class
- Day 2
- ApJ Club study
- Movie break: BBC Planets "Giants" (1st half)
- Day 3
- Turn in paper-reading worksheet to be handed out in class
- ApJ Club presentations/paper talks: Sean Q.
- Day 4
- ApJ Club presentations/paper talks: George T. and Stephanie H.
- Movie break: BBC Planets "Giants" (2nd half)
- Day 1
- Week of Monday, May 17 (short week)
- Day 1
- Dr. Philhour out: study period
- Day 2
- ApJ Club paper review & study / Q&A
- ApJ Club presentation/paper talks: Roger C., Jeff D., Bryan D.; Jacob K ; Michael O'M.
- Turn in paper-reading worksheet to be handed out in class
- Day 3
- ApJ Club presentations/paper talks: Amy L.; Mick T.
- Movie break: BBC Planets "Atmosphere" (1st half)
- Day 1
- Week of Monday, May 24 (activity schedule week)
- Day 1
- Seniors out?
- Day 2
- Final reflections and informal analysis of course
- How to succeed in college science courses
- Day 3
- Senior Day
- Final versions of Role-Playing papers due by e-mail to me: make it look great, as this is the final, bound version that we will share with our families, our teachers, and next year's astronomy class!
- Day 1
- FInal exam week
- Final exam: apparently, I have to give a final exam. It doesn't really fit in with what we've been doing, so I'm going to make a compromise. (As usual, seniors who have an A (90.0+) in the class at the time of the exam do not have to take it.)
- The final exam will be worth only 150 points, with 50 of those points based on group work. I will be passing out actual current astronomical research papers to each of you. The paper will cover a topic related to the research concentration of your group in the role playing project. (For instance, the Caltech team may get a Hubble Space Telescope paper, etc.) For the first half of the exam, you are to write an analysis of the paper based on your understanding of astronomy. This will be an open-book exam, and you are allowed a sheet of notes if you want. You will turn in your analysis, then spend the rest of the exam period discussing the material with your group. Your group as a whole will turn in a second analysis (based on your combined contributions) at the end of the period.
- Analysis questions will be passed out with the research papers. Questions may include general things such as "What is this paper about?" to more detailed questions such as "Why would we expect this object to produce emission rather than absorption lines?"
- Lastly, we will practice such analysis in our ApJ club in the weeks before the exam. This exam is meant to be holistic in that there is no way to cram for it -- either you've been paying attention, learning the material, and curious about it, or you haven't been.