Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Although this is a blatant "shoop" job, there are often slow news days where broadcast media outlets decide to air news on astronomically mundane events.
Take for example, the summer solstice, which happens in late June every year. And on a particularly slow news day in late June 2006.
Worse yet is when they interview people on the street about the summer solstice...or even so-called "experts" to talk about the astronomy behind the news.Can you do better? Let's get to making you "experts" on cycles of the sun!
(This is the third Astronomy 210L laboratory at Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA. This course is a one-semester, optional adjunct laboratory to the Astronomy 210 introductory astronomy lecture, taken primarily by students to satisfy their general education science transfer requirement.)
Since the procedure for this laboratory is rather straightforward, where students gather data on the position and motion of the sun, and support/refute statements using evidence from this data, we'll spend time here instead talking about what Bill Nye ("The Science Guy") likes to describe as "PBJ"--the "passion, beauty, and joy"--of the sun's cycles.
Consider what the sun does every day. Or have you?
Ever notice when the sun just happens to be rising (or setting) right along the road you happen to be driving? And if you drive along this road regularly over the course of a year, how often does this inconvenience/safety hazard occurs? 
Have you ever seen the green flash during the sunset? Try and look for it the next time the view of the horizon is clear at sunset.
And since the sunrise and sunset times shift over the course of the year, this affects the number of daylight and night hours.
Ever get the "winter blues?" Seasonal affective disorder ("SAD") is the clinical depression caused the lack of sunlight during long winter nights.
Instead of medicating this condition, exposure to a solar-spectrum light is an effective treatment for SAD. Or maybe just spend more time in a tanning booth. 
Starting this laboratory, you'll be formulating answerable research questions.
Work together in groups during the exploration portion of this laboratory...
...intended to get you familiarized with the heavens-above.com interface.
After completion of your exploration and evidence-based arguments, brainstorm as a group to come up with a research question that can be answered by gathering evidence from heavens-above.com.
After coming to a consensus, write your group's research question on a whiteboard, and then have your instructor approve it, which may involve broadening/narrowing the scope your question. Leave the edits (don't erase) and display your final whiteboard research question for other groups to read and critique.Don't worry about answering your research question this week. In next week's laboratory you will formulate another research question, after which you can gather evidence for in order to answer.
References:
- Tim Slater, Stephanie Slater, Daniel J. Lyons, Engaging in Astronomical Inquiry, W.H. Freeman & Company, New York, 2010,
whfreeman.com/newcatalog.aspx?disc=Astronomy+%26+Physics&course=Introduction+to+Astronomy&isbn=1429258608, pp. 13-22.
4 comments:
Astronomy 210L, Spring Semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Online post-lab assignment 2
Discuss the most interesting aspect of this lab, and explain why this was personally interesting for you.
The following are a sampling of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"Seeing the pattern of the sun as it rises and sets throught the year. Changes of rize/set times, and position on the horizon. Day-to-day you don't notice it, but once you sit down and look you can see how the position of the sun (in relation to life on Earth) changes as the Earth rotates on its axis, as well as it continues on its annual orbit around the sun."
"It was really interesting to learn about the changes in the sun set times. It's something that we see everyday, however, it is rarely awarded much thought by people unconcerned or unaware of astronomical sciences. It gave me a better worldly view on 'trivial' aspects of my life that I seemingly take for granted."
"I thought determining how much the time of sunset and sunrise changes over the course of the year was interesting. Even though I knew that those times change, obviously, it was cool seeing the big picture - i.e. seeing that the time of sunset generally changes by about 25 minutes per month."
"the most interesting thing about the lab was that the sun and the time that it sets only differs about an hour each season."
"i liked making our own experiment because it felt like we were learning more by practicing."
"Trying to formulate an a question that was answerable using the star chart was fun and challenging"
"The most interesting part of this lab was being able to figure out exactly when a certain constellation would be in the night sky before it would be out of view."
"The most interesting aspect of the lab was creating a question at the end."
"I think the most interesting aspect of the lab was watching how the stars move across the sky. It didn't occur to me how quick the stars move across the sky and out of sight."
"The most interesting aspect was seeing how the stars moved through out the day. This is interesting to me because I would have never stopped to think about the stars changing position as the sun changed position."
"The most interesting part of this lab was being able to get a sense of when sunrise and sunset was. I can now tell people when the sunset is gong to be."
"I liked liked looking and really seeing how the stars move in a matter of hours, and then months."
"It is interesting that the sun and stars move at relatively the same pace across the visible sky, even though the sun in much closer than everything else we see."
"I loved making up a testable question at the end, it was harder than i thought, and really brought my group together."
"Collecting the data was interesting. I found it interesting because we were able to tell around what time the sun would set and how the postion changed."
"An interesting part of the lab was seeing that the sunset times don't change as much as i thought over the course of the year. Its basically 20 minutes every month"
"the most interesting was how the sun shifts to the northeast up until the summer solstice and back down until the winter solstice it seems like common sense now but still"
"It was interesting to see an application and to answer questions about how the stars move. It helped me understand better."
"The most interesting part was learning that I could figure out when the sun will set a year from today."
"I liked learning about the constellation Orion. Thats the one I can always find in the night sky."
Astronomy 210L, Spring Semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Online post-lab assignment 2
Discuss the most confusing aspect of this lab, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
The following are a sampling of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"Trying to formulate a question at the end of the lab. We haven't done so before, and it was an interesting challenge."
"A 'confusing' part of this lab was generating a research question. Because I do not know much about astronomy, it was hard to try and think of an answerable question to pose."
I found it confusing that our sun didnt stay with the same constellation as it moved through the sky."
"The most confusing aspect of this lab was understanding the winter and summer solstice pertaining to the shift in sunset times."
"Nothing was too confusing, except for maybe coming up with a fully formed question at the end of the lab."
"writing the question. it was hard to think of a question that hadn't already been asked yet."
"This most confusing part of the lab was explaining how someone could track the position of the sun during a semester. This is because the question was worded weird and i had a hard time understanding what it was asking me."
"How much information had to be entered"
"trying to come up with a specific research question."
"Coming up with a good research question."
"The most confusing part of the lab was how to come up with a good research question. None of ours seemed to work."
"The most confusing part was writing out the step by step procedure again, I didn't really understand how else you could do it without simply 'recording the sun.'"
"I was most confused about why West is on the right side of the star chart."
"The most confusing aspect for me was simply figuring out in my head that the stars are not moving, rather the earth is."
"The question part was pretty confusing because we had to formulate a question out of nothing that all our group plus P-Dog agreed upon."
"The most confusing part of this lab was switching the times around to get the suns direction horizons. It took my group a little while to get it but by the end it was second nature."
"the most confusing aspect of this lab was trying to understand where a star would be at a certain time on a certain day"
"The part that i found most confusing was making steps to tell someone how to research how the noon-time sun's position changes over the course of a semester."
"Coming up with our own research question was difficult for me."
"The military time, that is always confusing to me I can never remember the trick on how to convert it."
"Very straightforward lab; the heavens above website was a little confusing the first time but is becoming easier to navigate."
"I had a hard time formulating a research question."
"I was confused how the computer would say a constellation was on a horizon but my star wheel would say a different thing, but I think it's because of different locations."
"the research question was the most difficult because i don't complete understand how to compose the question"
"I never realized how difficult it can be to ask a research question."
"The hardest part was the research question at the end, but probably because we weren't sure what to expect from it."
"The most confusing part of the lab was figuring out how often the sunset changes for each month."
Astronomy 210L, Spring Semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Online post-lab assignment 1
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in lab.
The following are a sampling of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"Do the everchanging sun rise and set times simultaneously affect the rise and set times of the moon?"
"Can you briefly explain how the change in seasons affects the sunset times?
what is your favorite constellation? "
"What exactly is a quasar? "
"Any tips for doing better in this class? "
"when are we going use telescopes? "
"I never thought about how each constellation set/rose until now, but this helped to make sense"
"A lot of the questions in the lab were a little redundant. "
"I like how we switch groups weekly. "
"I really enjoy this class.
Are we going to learn more about the history of constellations? "
"Astronomy is Awesome. "
"ASTRONOMY FO' LIFE. "
"If you could become an astronaut, would you ever want to travel in space? If so where would you want to go? "
"I had fun looking up some of the stranger constellations I wasn't familiar with (Fornax??). Also, can we request to work with certain group members again? "
"Are we going to learn about how some constellations got their names? Or the historical period in which they were discovered? It looks interesting! "
"Are their any fun labs? "
"If Jackie Chan grew a mustache as badass as yours, who would be more badass?? "
"does the solar shift decide when a eclipse occurs? "
"I am enjoying this astronomy class."
Astronomy 210L, Spring Semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
Design an answerable research question, propose a plan to pursue evidence, collect data, and create an evidence-based conclusion about an aspect that you have not completed before. (Have your instructor approve your whiteboard research question before proceeding further.)
Section 30679
"How does the Leo's constellation position in relation to the sun change over the course of a given year?"
"How differently does the noontime sun position change in London vs. Sydney over this semester?"
"Today, how many hours were the moon and the sun visible at the same time?"
"How does Jupiter's midnight position in the sky change over the year?"
"During spring, at 3 AM, how many nights is Venus visible?"
"How does Jupiter's visible hours in the night sky change over this week?"
Section 30678
"How long does it take for the sun to move between the constellations Leo and Virgo?"
"How does the position of constellation Pegasus change over the course of a month at midnight?"
"How does the position of Cephus in the sky change over a year at 3 PM?"
"How does the position of Aurigus change for one month at 9 PM every night?"
"How does the moon's position in the sky change at sunset over a period of a week?"
Section 30680
["What constellations never go below the horizon?"] "Which constellations never go below the horizon from 12:45 PM to 8:45 PM on August 28, 2011 in San Luis Obisopo, CA?"
"Does the monthly sunset time change at the same rate in San Luis Obispo as in Juneau, Alaska?"
["Why does the sun move about the sky throughout the year with the same constellation?"] "How does the position of the sun and Capricornus relative to one another change throughout the year?"
["What direction do the constellations move in the southern hemisphere?"] What direction doe the constellations move throughout one night in the sky above Melbourne, Australia?"
["What day would the sun be highest overhead?"] "How many weeks will the noontime sun be greater than 60° above the horizon in San Luis Obispo?"
"How do the sunrise and sunset times in San Luis Obispo, CA compare to that of Sydney, Australia during different seasons throughout the year?"
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