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 Earth's rotation/precession/revolution/tilt, the moon's motions and cycles, and watching two video presentations on the flipped class: "What Is the Flipped Class?" and "How the Flipped Classroom Works."
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.
"Why we have seasons, because I always thought Earth's distance mattered and if it was closer to the sun it was summer, and if it was further it was winter. But the distance is always about the same."
"The flipped class is a bit different for me. I've never been in a class that applied those methods, so it'll be something I'll need getting used to."
"Learning about where star names are from, and why they are named what they are."
"That Polaris won't be the north star in the future because at some point the future generations will have a different north star."
"Precession--I didn't know that the axis wobbled and the amount of time it takes to get back to its original location is incredible to me."
"That the sun moved across the sky with different paths in the year--summer solstice, vernal/autumnal equinox, and winter solstice. I truly thought the sun crossed the sky at the same point all year round."
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"Pole wandering, because I didn't see a clear reason why that happened."
"The differences between science and pseudoscience. At first I didn't understand all too much being that I had no clue what pseudoscience was, but after reading further in the chapter my confusion cleared up."
"Phases of the moon, including the different verbiage used to talk about it. I have never learned about this in particular before, so I am very intrigued but would love to find out more information about it."
"I am having a hard time telling the difference between the waxing and waning phases."
"The phases of the moon confused me more than I want to admit. I'm not used to the terminology for astronomy, and the phases seem to throw a lot of them at you. I do hope we go over them in more detail in class."
The constellation Virgo is just above the east horizon, as seen by an observer at 11 PM in San Luis Obispo, CA. What date is this? (Ignore daylight saving time.)
February 20. **************** [16] April 25. ** [2] July 4. [0] August 20. ** [2] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) ******** [8]
Match these cycles with their approximate duration.
(Only correct responses shown.)
Earth's rotation: 24 hours [93%]I believe astrology is able to make accurate predictions about my future. (This is just an opinion question, there are no right answers.)
Earth's revolution: one year [86%]
Earth's precession: 26,000 years [89%]
The moon's revolution: one month [82%]
Strongly disagree. ***** [5] Disagree. ******** [8] Neutral. ************ [12] Agree. ** [2] Strongly agree. * [1]
Briefly explain your answer regarding your belief/disbelief in astrology. (This is just an opinion question, there are no right answers.)
"Astrology is just for fun as it has no true science to back it up."
"Seems pretty legit, if science backs it up."
"I don't believe that my sign, and how the planets and stars align change or effect my life or future in any way."
"I think it is a cool concept, it is just a confusing area for me."
"I don't believe that celestial information and zodiac signs are divine. I have never had a reason to believe in it."
"I love astronomy and this course should find all of clarification and my belief in science should be made stronger, while I basically will ignore astrology."
"I have always been into astrology such as horoscopes. So I will say I read mine often, but I do think that it isn't completely correct for every single person, neither do I think that, say, every Virgo is the same type of person."
"I believe astrology helps us further our education and knowledge when it comes to people wanting to go deeper and trying to find out more about the universe, so it does help people who want to be the best."
"I disagree that astrology is able to make accurate predictions about my future because I don't know how the stars can effect my everyday choices in life."
"I do not believe in astrology, specifically horoscopes, because the traits assigned to each sign can be looked at in a very biased way. People are too varied and hard to classify for these signs to have real meaning. I'm really curious as to who originally detailed each sign's traits? I have a feeling this individual or group just liked the idea of random people sharing vaguely similar personality traits and wanted to have fun connecting (or dividing) people with an interesting-sounding system. I believe astrology falls into the same line of thinking as holistic medicine and Freudian psychology; as in it's utter bull----."
"My belief lies heavily with the accuracy of what I've found with a daily horoscope I read. It seems to almost always connect with my emotions or conflicts during that time of my life, which could be coincidental, but who knows."
"It can be argued that the position of certain stars could have an effect on the natural world, I find it difficult to believe that their positions would affect human affairs. There is the fact that for centuries humans used the positioning of stars for directions which in turn would result in a change of behavior, however when talking about actual predictions of human affairs I don't see the logic in it."
"I have a strong belief that your destiny is already set for yourself, but you are still able to control whether it is positive or negative for yourself."
Place these moon phases in chronological order in their cycle (starting with new moon).
(Only correct responses shown, in unscrambled order.)
New moon: first [93%]
Waxing crescent: second [68%]
First quarter: third [75%]
Waxing gibbous: fourth [64%]
Full moon: fifth [61%]
Waning gibbous: sixth [64%]
Third quarter: seventh [71%]
Waning crescent: eighth [68%]
Explain what is different about homework in a flipped class.
"The difference is that you already know what the teacher will teach so you have time to make questions and in class you have clarification time and experiment time so once you leave class you will be more knowledgeable. In a conventional class the teacher teaches and since everyone learns differently not everyone is getting the knowledge or helped needed to understand what is being taught."
"We students get to preview what is to come up in our next class."
"Through homework in a flipped classroom, students are acquiring knowledge on their own and applying the knowledge during lecture and class time."
"In a conventional class homework may involve assigned material that will then be covered again in lecture followed by another independent assignment. In the flipped class the students have access to the lectures before hand so the homework would be to look over the lectures and come prepared to class with questions and participate in activities that apply the learned material."
"I feel that the homework in a flipped class is meant to prepare people for class so that understanding can be met in the classroom instead of worrying about understanding the lesson at home through the homework."
"By the time we hear the instructor lecture, our pre-reading should make learning easier."
Describe where/when most student learning occurs in a flipped class.
"Most of the learning should occur in class. It is where the student can engage with the teacher by asking questions and working with other individuals in the class."
"Well, in a flipped class it allows you to ask more questions about something or talk with other classmates so the most learning occurs in the class."
"In the classroom, as opposed to the conventional class where learning is done at home."
"At home. Class time is used to fill in any gaps students may have stumbled past in their reading."
"At home, but if the topics covered at home are not clear they are to be gone over in class."
Pick one piece of student advice from the previous semester, and discuss why you agree (or disagree) with it.
"'Make it to class, do the online reading assignments, spend time reading, get involved. Your teacher is there to help you.' I liked this advice the most because the student included how the professor is there to help. That is important for me because it made me realize this is going to be a comfortable class to talk to the teacher about any questions I have when it comes to the class."
"'Ask questions.' For example, at my new job I spent the first couple weeks asking my managers and supervisors hundreds of questions (no matter how specific) to get everything down. Now that I've asked almost every question possible (sometimes more than once), I've finally gotten most things down correctly and confidently."
"'Ask questions.' I have questions I should ask and not be embarrassed to."
"'Study and go over the online presentations and reading assignments before class, it will make learning things much easier.' I thought the presentations would be overkill, but they really help. The book is a tad dry (even with all the cool pictures)."
"'Don't get caught up in all the various subjects. Eat this thing one bite at a time.' I agree with this statement, because, like anything, its much easier to handle things piece by piece. Especially if you have a full course load. It can be easy to lose track and lose priorities. I feel that if you can keep yourself organized and take the class a little bit at a time, you will be much more successful."
"'Make sure you do the reading assignments, and go to class.' I completely agree with this advice especially for a class like astronomy, from the reading so far I have gathered that vocabulary is a key part and if we don't do the reading our lack of understanding of the material and vocabulary will hurt us in the in class activities and the tests. Showing up is great advice especially if this is a flipped class since we will be doing a lot of activities that will help apply the knowledge we have learned from reading or presentations."
"I feel like a lot of people had to suggest that we should go to class at all costs. I really feel like this is going to be the key to success in a class like this especially because it seems to be run as a flipped class where the point of it is where I have to show up to class everyday ready to learn and ask questions about what I reviewed before class."
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"Why won't we ever see the other side of the moon?" (The moon rotates in such a way to keep the same side facing Earth. If you had to circle around a bear such that you would always keep facing it (because you never turn your back on bears, I guess), that's similar to how the moon moves around Earth to keep the same side facing Earth.)
"How would Earth be different if it wasn't tilted?" (We wouldn't have different seasons throughout the year.)
"I understand the 'flipped classroom' is your style of teaching/classroom. However I set aside the time for learning during the scheduled class times, and my outside of class time is occupied by work OR homework, but learning all of the concepts by reading a textbook or slides and then homework is a loss of the class time allotted. Please at least go over the topics in these chapters." (The "flipped" nature of this class is not meant as a substitute for instructional time in class; student preparation time is intended to prepare you (and the instructor) to best make sure of instruction that occurs in class. So I will be sure to cover the specific topics (or all of them, if necessary) in class as needed.)
"Were you always good at math?" (Well, according to some of my K-6 math teachers, not really.)
"I have done a lot of self-study in the area of astronomy. This class is my first formal educational experience, and I look forward to seeing how much I have already learned on my own when compared to this college level class! I look forward to this class."
"Just going over the moon phases, kinda lost with them."
"I need a lot more practice with the starwheel."
"I would really like to go into more detail about the moon phases during next class. I am already thoroughly enjoying this class and look forward to the rest of the semester. Thank you!"
"How long did it take you to grow that awesome mustache?" (This summer will mark my 25th mustacheversary.)
"Do you believe astrology could predict your future?" (Eh, not really.)
"I am very excited to learn about astronomy especially having P-dog as a teacher. I have heard great things and I can already tell I am going to enjoy this class a lot!"
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