20130507

Online reading assignment: runaway planets, jovian planets, and dwarf planets (oh my!) (NC campus)

Astronomy 210, spring semester 2013
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 runaway planets (Venus and Mars), jovian planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), and dwarf planets (and the International Astronomy Union classification scheme).

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.
"Learning about the difference between the terrestrial and jovian planets and how their temperatures and other factors are affected by their distance from the sun."

"The time lapse video from Mars was really cool."

"IAU rules and classes: the criteria that astronomers use to identify planets."

"The greenhouse affect Is interesting because I didn't know it was related to mass."

"Venus' frustrated volcanoes when the magma is trying to push out through the crust like the gophers in The Simpsons, but the crust doesn't allow the magma that easily until it's stored and finally comes out."

"The crust on Venus didn't break into moving plates, and that there is no sign of plate tectonics. I didn't know that."
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"What is outgassing and why are planets called runaway planets?"

"I don't understand how if they saw Pluto they hadn't seen all the other Pluto-sized icy bodies around Pluto."

"I know that the massive planets are able to retain heat longer than the low-mass planets, but I don't understand if Neptune or Uranus either retains or loses heat because those two planets are further away from the sun."

"Mars' volcanoes: we know volcanoes are there, but Mars is cold and dry, so how does that work?"
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"Why is the grading scale so confusing?" (It is confusing only if you are used to averaged grading scales, where your grade goes down if you stop accumulating points. In this grading scheme your grade remains the same if you stop accumulating points.)

"Is Quiz 8 included in our posted grade online?" (No, because Quiz 8 is credit for taking the in-class education research surveys, which take place in the last week of class.)

"How much bigger would Jupiter have to be to be a brown dwarf star?" (The cut-off between a jovian planet and a brown dwarf is around 13 times Jupiter's mass.)

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