Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Students have a weekly online reading assignment (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com), where they answer questions based on reading their textbook, material covered in previous lectures, opinion questions, and/or asking (anonymous) questions or making (anonymous) comments. Full credit is given for completing the online reading assignment before next week's lecture, regardless if whether their answers are correct/incorrect. Selected results/questions/comments are addressed by the instructor at the start of the following lecture.
(The following questions were asked after the last lecture, but prior to the final exam.)
Discuss the most interesting aspect of this course, and explain why this was personally interesting for you. (Graded for completion.)
The following are all of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"Learning about the stars and the consellations using the star wheel. Also about learning how to tell how massive a star is by the luminosity and the color, I found that very interesting because to learn that's how they can tell how big a star is and going more in depth that there is massive one, meduim and low mass stars.!"
"i really liked learning about everything in general. i was surprised to find out crop circles are phony."
"I think the most interesting aspect of this course was learning about the different orbits and all of the compositions of different planets."
"The most interesting aspect of this class were the online reading assignments. They really helped me out to get an idea of what was going to be taught before I was actually learned it."
"Honestly, this class was challenging for me, I didn't undertand too many concepts, but what was interesting was see all the crazy stars how many and all the funky names!"
"In general i liked it all because it was very interesting. I liked moon phases, telescopes, planets, the big bang theory, amongst others but the class was fun overall."
"I didn't know that light years (of stars and planets) meant how many years away a body was from Earth."
"It's very difficult to narrow it down to just one. The class as I whole was very enjoyable and very engaging. I found the subject matter to be very fascinating most of the time."
"The second half of the course as a whole was quite interesting...once we started learning about planets and their characteristics"
"I enjoyed the beginning when we learned about constellations and how to find them in the sky, because I can show off my mad astronomer skills. :)"
"The whole thing was very interesting because I really only had basic knowledge of astronomy.
i have always been interested in space. i dunno what the most interesting part would be"
"i really enjoyed learning about our solars system and also the big bang theory. just seemed really interesting"
"I really enjoyed learning about how big our universe really is. That is an aspect right? I don't know. I just didn't realize how truly small we were until I took astronomy. I also liked learning about different star types: low mass, medium mass, massive, etc.!"
"the most interesting part of astronomy class was the star wheel. Throughout the whole semester it was the easiest part of class and it was fun looking up constelations** and shtuff
formation/aspects of black holoes; because i've always wanted to know and now i see it's mind-blowingly (yes, i needed to make up the word blowingly to describe it properly) amazing."
"Um geez personally i liked the lab much better. maybe learning about some star positions so you can actually look into the sky and know more than just the dippers."
"Learning about the planets in our solar system. I think it was interesting to learn how different they are from ours."
"I really enjoyed the real photos of space incredible to think about the vast space that we live in.
the study of the moon phases. I've always had a facination of the moon so now it's exiting knowing which phase each moon is in when ever I look at the sky."
"It was interesting to learn about space! I've never learned anything this massive."
"I liked chapter 1 with the moon phases, the changing positions of stars relative to Earth and also the different star types, the big bang and learning about the drake equation. I generally liked everything."
"I thought that the most interesting part of this course was asking if life exists on other planets because I have always been curious about that."
"the most interesting aspect of this course was learning about the constellations and getting to use the star wheels. i love the stars and everything out in the universe and learning to use the star wheels was a lot of fun."
"I really liked learning about the moon! i guess i really liked it because its always been something i look at with lots and lots of questions!!"
"I enjoyed using the star wheels. It was the most interesting because I could actually look at the sky and know something. The info about planets and stuff like that was not as interesting because I couldn't see it as easy as just looking up in the sky."
"i really thought that the star positioning and moon phases were the most interesting because it was easy to understand and i found a really cool way to remember them"
"I think i'd have to say learning about the stars and using the star wheel because its just something i've always wanted to know how to do... how to find the constellations and stuff."
"I enjoyed the part about the beginning of the universe, it was a good concept to ponder"
"The overall layout of the course. I have never had a lecture course that was so group oriented."
"Moon phases i was always kinda wondering about their patterns"
"How looking farther into space is looking farther into time. I never thought of it that way that's all."
"i liked the cooper cooler effect because it made sense to me and we got to experiment with it ourselves."
"i like the big bang theory...idk i like everything we talked about its hard to pick one
the most interesting part of this course would be learning all about stars and constellations. Getting a star wheel!!"
"rad"
"I think the most interesting thing to me were the different theories astronomers have had throughout history. It was personally interesting to me because I think it's cool how it has developed and how a long time ago, some theories weren't too far off."
"i loved everything"
"the most interesting aspect of this course was probably learning about the OBAFGKM graph and how the luminosities depended on size and or temperature."
"I really enjoyed P-dog's unconventional lectures and the way the class was run. It definitely took some getting used to but I know that I gained long-term knowledge through the in-class activities and real-life examples, rather than just memorizing information which I would forget after the semester."
"starwheels cuz i like the stars"
"I liked learning about the various planets and how much they differ from one another."
"I got the girls number who sat next to me"
"the milky way... very interesting to learn....."
"The formation of stars and planets, also how size and activity effect lifetimes. I had no idea our planet and our sun were not very old compared to the universe."
"It was all interesting. I've always been interested in space."
"The most interesting part of this course for me was working with groups, it was hard to get used to."
"I really enjoyed the group activities because if i didn't understand what we were learning then the group could help me"
"Learning the creation of the universe the matter and antimatter state is quite mind blowing"
"life of planets"
"constellations because they were interesting"
"I rather enjoyed the moon phases because that is something you can so easily check and explore each night."
"The most interesting part of this course is understanding how the universe began, and trying to grasp all of the material as a whole and conceptually piece together all aspects of the universe in a way that you can understand it when you go to bed at night. How the stars were born, what happens in a black hole, are we the only living organisms in the universe?"
"stuff"
"I thought the big bang theory was very interesting.. It brought interest to me because it deals with the begining of our planets."
"The most interesting aspect of this course was how P-dizzle took the concept of whatever subject he was talking about for astronomy and related it to ordinary things. For example the Turkey and Cornish hen and relating them to planets and how they cool."
"I liked this course beacuse I want to be an astronomer. I enjoyed just learning the material in general."
"the interaction of the students and their different personalities getting along"
"Gaining a better aspect of how things originally formed in the universe, and a better perspective how tiny we are in comparison to the universe. it is enlightening."
"The most interesting aspect of this course was learning about black holes cause I think they're pretty cool and amazing that we know so much about them."
"the most interesting part of the course was the last class, just because it was fun. other than that, learning about black holes and novas and such... cuz mysteries and explosions are just cool"
"I liked the phases of the moon topic, it was the easiest to understand and interesting."
"Its the cosmos. dig it."
"I really liked the course as a whole. I thought it was taught well and the material was presented in a manner that was eas to understand."
"The most interesting aspect of the course was the examples : who farted, cornish hen, cooper cooler. I love examples, makes it easier to remember things."
"The most interesting thing to learn in this class were how stars live their life course. This was interesting to me as I never understood the concepts behind why some stars were brighter than others."
"stars...cause i just love them"
"I really enjoyed the starwheels--though basic it allowed us to gain skills we can use any night."
Discuss the most confusing aspect of this course, and explain why this was personally confusing for you. (Graded for completion.)
The following are all of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"Sometimes in the lecture I would feel like I would understand it but when it came to doing the in class assignment on some of them I would be confused or I wasn't sure about how to do it!"
"when your not specific about your answers."
"The most confusing aspect of this course personally was learning the moon phases."
"Learning about star life stages was the most confusing aspect of this course. I always would mix up the different stages with different stars."
"Pretty much all of it to me was confusing so it was frustrating at times..."
"i just could not grasp the concept of absorption, emission, and also i got totally lost when talking about main sequence stars, white and red dwarfs, supergiants. it was very confusing."
"I still don't fully understand star parallax and how it correlates with absolute and apparent magnitude."
"There were a few concepts that I found somewhat challenging to grasp, so there were times I was confused on the material, but overall I can't think of anything that really inhibited my ability to learn."
"Probably learning about the light spectrums...took me a while to distinguish between the three."
"Electrons and all that jovian halo stuff... Because i just didn't really understand it."
"I had the hardest time with the moon cycles. It was just very hard for me to remember it all and then apply it."
"i lot of this class was confusing. it was different than what i expected. momorizing stuff and the really scientific stuff was hard."
"starwheel. definately haha"
"The teaching style was different then I was used to, but I got used to it. Also, the light spectrum was a little difficult for me...don't know why, but it was."
"The whole effing course was confusing and i was super frustrated throughout every lesson, except for the star wheel"
"bing bang; i don't particularly agree with it and see how it is plausible given the physical laws of our universe"
"OH there was one really confusing part but i forgot what it was. somewhere in the middle of the coarse. i think it was right after learning about star death."
"Everything having to do with protons, eletrons..etc that stuff is just over my head."
"Really the first few quizes were the most difficult, some of the wording was a bit abstract, but they got easier as we went along."
"Understanding some concepts was confusing because it wasn't gone over in much detail during class."
"There's a lot of scientific principles that interrelate and sometimes it was hard to make those distinctions and connections between all the concepts."
"Some technical things, like the physics was a little harder to grasp, but it wasn't that bad."
"For me, the most difficult part of this course was understanding the sun and how it works. I was confused about how magnetic fields can create sunspots among other things."
"the most confusing aspect of this course was learning the difference in stars. i had a difficult time trying to understand those concepts."
"The most confusing well nothing really was confusing maybe what we did today in class with the alien thing but its just a lot of memorization"
"Discussing what massive stars and medium-mass stars and low mass stars become was confusing. I still don't think I understand what supernova's and nova's do or what a planetary nebula is.
the most confusing was the absorption line widths."
"ughhh i don't know i think it was learning about telescopes but that's only because i missed the day we went over it."
"None, all of it was presented concisely"
"All of the spectrum business. I didn't understand the overall concept when they were first introduced and from there on I just got more and more mixed up. Just when I thought I knew them backwards and forwards I missed the multiple choice question on the midterm."
"Never quite got a feel for the star wheel. I entered the class late though may have been a factor
HR diagram. I know how to remember OBAFGKM but I don't know what it really stands for."
"Probably the part about the stars and how far away or close they are because there was math involved and you had to remember little equations."
"at first reading and understanding the star graph, with the giants and super giants etc...it was a little confusing, but i got it in the end"
"i had a hard time understanding moon phases but i get it now!"
"rad"
"The most confusing thing would probably be finding certain things on the star wheel, and the moon phases. I understand some of the concepts, but applying them was sometimes confusing"
"the theory of the big bang"
"the most confusing part was probably learning about the parallax angle just because i honestly didnt get it."
"I was confused about if the groups were randomly generated, why did I keep having the same people in it every other week, and why are there some people I never was in a group with?"
"how planets form..i just didnt get it"
"The most confusing was the star wheel because i can barely read an analog clock."
"She didn't call me back."
"the star wheel hard to use it...."
"Um, why I missed the 8th question on our last quiz. =("
"A lot of it was tough, but none harder than the others."
"Most of the time I didnt feel prepared for the in class activities, so they were the most confusing, either that or trying to take notes."
"The lectures...i didn't really understand a lot of what you were teaching us."
"Little details about how our universe works"
"its was during the first couple of weeks, I still have problems understanding how the planets move"
"the different types of rays and telescope. Just didnt get it"
"I did not enjoy the light spectrum's. They were confusing."
"The most confusing part of this course was really trying to imagine the stars, how big they are in relation to the earth, how hot they are in relation to anything we know (2,000K--what does that even look like!) and so forth. This is space, less than .001% of the population really thinks of it beyond just 'being there.'"
"stuff"
"probably umm i don't know haha"
"The most confusing aspect of this course was not having enough time to go over a subject where all the class was confused. It's is kinda hard to explain because i had no idea what to talk about."
"The most confusing part of this course would probably been some of the in class activities. Sometimes it was hard to relate them to what we were learning in lecture."
"big bang theory....and the evolution part....big assumptions made that dont make sence"
"using your online waiverx site. it was very helpful and convenient once I figured everything out."
"The most confusing aspect of this course was remembering the time line for low/medium/massive stars, it confuses me every time which time line has what in it."
"I don't know, the Big Bang was kind of confusing, wrapping your head around all that happened in such a short amount of time...and like, how? why?"
"The different sizes and temperatures of the stars. i didnt get that smaller stars could be hotter."
"what we did on that last quiz. i bombed it."
"Sometimes it was hard to figure out the right answers to some of the questions the insructer would ask. Most times answers were unclear."
"Memorization. My reading comp. sucks @$$."
"The class structure was confusing in general at first... The fact that it was nearly impossible to take notes was confusing... But the group activities and P-Dogg's dedication to helping came through."
"what metal came from what"
"I believe the moon phases confused me the most.. I don't really know why."
Tell a student who is about to take this course next semester what he/she needs to know or to do in order to succeed in this course. (Graded for completion.)
The following are all of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"Attend Class everyday, read, ask questions if confused or not sure about something, do online assignments and just hold on tight and enjoy the outerspace adventure with P Dog! =)"
"READ, COME TO CLASS, STUDY, REVIEW, READ."
"They should talk with other students during the flashcards to make sure they understand the concepts. They should also read the text book along with the material we learn in class in order to perform up to par on the quizzes."
"Do your reading! It helps a million."
"I think you either really enjoy and understand it, or it's pretty difficult...get help from the classmates who really understand!!"
"attend each class because missing one can throw you off. pay attention and take good notes, and have P Dog as a teacher because he makes it easy and fun."
"Do your readings, and always show up for class. you'll need every point you can get your hands on.
Make sure you remember to do the online reading assignments. The class overall was very straight forward and self explanatory, but you've got to remember to do those assignments!"
"make sure you study the flashcard questions...usually a good number of the questions come from that selection"
"ASK QUESTIONS. Make sure you understand the material before you leave."
"Study from the sources that are available online because when you do the whole course becomes a lot easier."
"study"
"read the book. haha especially for quizzes"
"You must study the old quizzes, flash card questions, and read. I didn't read much, but I know it would have helped if I did. Also, if you have a question don't be afraid to ask. I would always hear people around me saying they didn't get it, but they never raised their hands to say so. Chances are if you don't get it, someone else doesn't either. Also, doing the old quizzes and sending them to P-Dog to get the right answers helps a lot!"
"I would tell the student that is planning on taking astro to read the book and the chapters a million times and to study all the flashcard questions a gagillion times in order to succeed."
"do the online assignments and try to be intelligent. this isn't a cake class but come now; it's fun, you should do well if you are moderately paying attention."
"You need to know how to take notes from lecture not whats written on the projector. You'll be golden if you can do that."
"Use the flashcard questions, old quizzes, and the book to study."
"Do not miss class, do all of the reading assignments, and in class activities and really pay attention to the lectures."
"Review old quizes from other semesters!!!"
"Do all the in-class assignments, take all the online surveys, study flashcard questions, and study old tests and quizzes and you will be golden."
"They need to pay attention to the in-class presentations and study all the archive tests."
"Obviously, they need to read all the assigned chapters and sometimes reread certain parts that are difficult to understand. Something that has been helpful to me is looking at the flashcard questions outside of class and attempting to answer them."
"go to all the classes, participate in the in-class activities and study everything before every quiz or test in class."
"You dont need to know anything going into the class but deff need to attend class and review for the test and stuff but i had a blast and it is going to be fun!"
"Keep all quizzes."
"you gotta remember the analogies"
"ummm make sure to remember to do the online reading assignments and to pay attention in class."
"How to use as starwheel"
"I still haven't figured it out myself."
"Make sure you get all the points you can (reading assignments online!)"
"Do all the reading assignments. Print out all chapter questions and quizzes."
"I would say study and read the book."
"find friends to go over stuff with you, most of all study FLASH CARD QUESTIONS!!!! they help the most!!!"
"STUDY STUDY STUDY"
"rad"
"Listen to the lectures more than the book, because the book is more confusing, so if you understand things from the lectures, you will understand the book better"
"don't f**k up"
"to succeed in this course go to every class, honestly its not that bad and itll really help you pass."
"ATTEND THE LECTURES. First of all, 8 points are possible with the in-class activities. Secondly, quizzes and midterms are based on these in-class activities and P-dog's lectures, instead of material directly from the book. I have not opened my textbook since week 3 or 4 and have been doing fine, but I know if it were the other way around I would not be doing as well."
"dont over think shit"
"Study the old tests and in class assignments."
"Free condoms always break"
"Do your online homework."
"Get involved in the activities, don't let the other teammates do all the work. Also, genuinely try and get the right answer on the flash card questions. I hardly touched my book, only as a dictionary of definitions I needed to memorize."
"Go to class and study"
"Take notes all the time."
"Read the chapter before class."
"Prepare for the test a couple days early to catch up if you didn't feel like goin to the 3 hr class all the time and do the reading assignments"
"just study, and do your assingments"
"pay attention and study"
"Just go to class everyday and you will be fine."
"READ the chapters. TAKE separate notes other than the ones in class. READ THE CHAPTERS. It will be GREATLY beneficial. (Trust me, I failed three of the first quizzes even though I did everything in class--trust me, you aren't doing EVERYTHING--and the reading material is actually mapped out to be easily comprehensible)"
"take it"
"study hard and show up 2 class"
"You need to know that P-dog is the shizz-nit and listen and take notes of his lectures. Also, take the time to read the chapters in the book and go over the sample quizzes and test for more information on subjects p-dog faintly goes over."
"take notes from the powerpoints and actually study for quizzes."
"show up every class and dont drop out"
"Make sure to study before all quizes and tests. show up to class every time. take advantage of group study and extra credit."
"You need to study a decent amount for every quiz/test and read stuff in the book as well as going to class."
"study. don't slack and study. and do the easy stuff! max out on reading assignment and in-class points!"
"go to class, study a little bit."
"I didn't take notes. Do well on the in class activites. check your answers with other groups. do all the reading assignments. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE OLD QUIZZES. What he says is on the test/quiz is going to be on it (ex: if he says its from an old quiz, study that quiz) o yeah keep your old quizzes to look at."
"They need to read the book."
"Read and re-read. Ask for help."
"You need to keep on top of group activities, do the practice quizzes and tests, and read the bold terms. Email trial tests to P-Dogg for corrections and helpful information! He is super helpful.
Track your grade, study group activities, flashcard questions, and old quizzes and tests. Don't stress, P-Dogg is chillllll."
"go to all the classes"
"Upgrade all your weapons, save often, and when in doubt: jump."
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