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Online reading assignment: quantum leaps, sun's outer layers (SLO campus)

Astronomy 210, fall semester 2015
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 quantum leaps, and the sun's outer layers.


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.
"Electrons have the correct energies to be able to jump up to orbits in order jump down and give off photons."

"That sunspots come in pairs. I never knew that! It is interesting because this happens due to temporary magnetic regions that they have."

"Everything is interesting since I am not too familiar with this section."

"How Egyptians viewed/explained the sun as having wings and fire-spitting cobras. It was like a mini-history lesson within the astronomy material."

"How hot the sun is. Like, I knew it was hot, but wow."

"That sunspots aren't hotter than the rest of the sun's surface."

"I really enjoyed the presentation on quantum mechanics. Until I read about it in the book, I assumed that knowledge of quantum mechanics was outside of my scope of understanding. The movement of electrons from one orbit to the next was very cool."

Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"Sunspots being temporary magnetic regions on the sun."

"Chemistry!"

"Photons and electrons to be particularly confusing. Mostly because I haven't taken chemistry in quite a few years."

"Chemistry is almost as dry of reading as history! But not too bad, just takes a little time."

"The analogy between a lightbulb filament and sunspots."

"Electrons and how they move orbits by photons. It's all a little wordy to understand, maybe we can dumb it down in class a little, with a flow chart or something :)"

"Nothing was too confusing to me."

An electron in an atom must emit a photon when it jumps from a __________ energy orbital to a __________ energy orbital.
lower; higher.  ****** [6]
higher; lower.  ******************************* [31]
(Both of the above choices.)  * [1]
(Unsure/guessing/lost/help!)  * [1]

An electron in an atom must absorb a photon when it jumps from a __________ energy orbital to a __________ energy orbital.
lower; higher.  ******************************* [31]
higher; lower.  ******* [7]
(Both of the above choices.)  [0]
(Unsure/guessing/lost/help!)  * [1]

The exterior of the sun, from inner to outermost layers, are the:
(Only correct responses shown.)
inner: photosphere [74%]
middle: chromosphere [79%]
outer: corona [72%]

State your preference regarding miso soup.
Strongly dislike.  [0]
Dislike.  [0]
Neutral.  ****** [11]
Like  ******* [7]
Strongly like.  ******************** [20]
(I don't know what miso soup is.)  * [1]

Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"If I have only done like 4 homeworks am I failing?" (Then you've only missed two so far, and if you don't miss any more, you'll still get a 100% on the online reading assignment points.)

"Is extra-credit available at some point?" (Yes. Sooner than you think.)

"I'm finding the group work very difficult for learning purposes. It's hard to never have my own paper personally graded because that's the way I learn what mistakes I need to fix. Next class I'll try printing out the handouts/in-class assignments and using them in class to see if that helps." (Yes, many students do just that.)

"I LOVE MISO SOUP THANK YOU FOR ASKING." (You're welcome.)

"Miso is the best when mixed with rice and Sriracha. Mmmm...home cookin'." (#dayum)

"The miso soup I usually get is stagnant, only when I stir the soup then I see movement." (Sounds like someone needs to order piping hot miso for homework.)

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