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 on reading textbook chapters and previewing presentations on the Milky Way's shape, size and composition, spiral arm structure and formation, and the history of its formation.
Selected/edited responses are given below.
Describe something you found interesting from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally interesting for you.
"The Milky Way is trippy."Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"The nucleus of the galaxy because a supermassive black hole sounds like it could hold the key to the origin of existence. Perhaps if two supermassive black holes collided at opposite directions a new big bang could occur to create another universe."
"Globular cluster positions."
"Learning that dark matter makes up most of the Milky Way."
"Before stars existed neither did any metals, because metals had not yet been cooked up by the stars, and atoms more massive than iron are made only by short-lived nuclear reactions that occur during a supernova explosion explains why lower-mass atoms are more common, and higher-mass atoms like gold, silver and platinum are so rare and often valuable."
"I didn't know that dark matter was an actual term. It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie."
"That even though dark matter isn't visible, it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist."
"How you find the mass of the Milky Way was really interesting. I thought it was interesting because I have always been curious if you can find the mass of the galaxy and if you can how would you find it."
"What I found interesting was the age of the Milky Way, because I think its cool how old are galaxy is and how long it has been around."
"I found it very interesting seeing where we are in the the entire universe. It is crazy seeing how small we are compared too how much is out there."
"Nothing because I know how to read and thus can understand the textbook."If you did not have access to a mirror, what could you do to find out whether or not you're having a bad hair day while camping?
"Dark matter."
"I thought that the monolithic collapse model was pretty confusing."
"How stars and globular clusters move at the same speed in the Milky way?"
"Spiral arm star formation and the density wave theory."
"The disk component stars were confusing because why is all matter confined to plane of rotation? Wouldn't there be somme matter that gets away?"
"Look at the reflection in water/cell phone/glasses." (13 responses.)Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"Ask a friend." (7 responses.)
"Comb/shave/cover with a hat/don't worry about it." (5 responses.)
"Look at your shadow." (1 responses.)
"Have you read up on the newly-discovered type 1ax supernova? I can't recall what happens, other than a white dwarf remaining, but it might be something to include in next year's class!" (Yeah. Every year there is more stuff to teach in astronomy. Thanks, science.)
"P-dog! You were right! I'm not doing that bad in the class, thanks for all your help so far!" (Key words: 'so far.' Keep it up.)
"What would you do if you did not have access to a mirror while camping, what could you do to find out whether or not you're having a bad hair day?" (Uh, Mrs. P-dog.)
No comments:
Post a Comment