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 eclipses, and an preliminary overview of the history of astronomy.
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.
"Precession. I had no idea that after thousands of years, our zodiac sign changes because of precession. It was engaging to learn about these changes because of the sky shifts. I was amazed at how Polaris wasn't a north star before."
"Eclipses are really cool and I've always wanted to know what has to occur in order for them to naturally happen."
"The differences between solar and lunar eclipses was interesting. The differences make more sense after reading about it on the presentation."
"I found both the solar and lunar eclipses interesting. The textbook does a well job in explaining what each of them is and how they can be predicted. I also wasn’t aware that there were more than two types of eclipses."
"I didn't know that there were specific eclipses such as partial or annular. I thought there was only total eclipses. I also found interesting how they tell you to look at a solar eclipse safely, though it makes sense so you don't harm your eyes."
"Retrograde motion. It took me a little bit too understand the concept, but blew me away when I actually figured it out."
"Finding out who were some of the big names is astronomy was interesting especially because for those that I knew about I had forgotten what they 'did.'"
Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"Learning about the moon's phases was confusing for me. Especially the 'all the moon questions' diagrams. I didn't know how to determine the overhead time until I positioned the moon in its orbit. This was because it was difficult to have the images of all the phases memorized."
"Something that I found confusing was the timing of an eclipse. It looks similar but just the time of the motions of earth inside the moon."
"I don't know the difference between a lunar and a solar eclipse."
"Overall everything was straightforward, I am slightly confused on how to identify each type of eclipse. Like I know the different types there are, I just don't know how to fully distinguish them from each other. Also, are we supposed to memorize all of the astronomers and what they did?"
"The retrograde motion of Mars. I am confused on why it seems to slow down and even come to a stop. I am confused on what causes this and is it just for Mars."
"Skimmed the reading but I got them mixed up and review would be nice. "
"Nothing really seemed too confusing, just interesting. I would like to go over the moon phases during an eclipse and the different kinds of astronomers."
A friend of yours has a birthday on March 30. According to your starwheel, the sun would have been located in front of which zodiac sign on that date? (Ignore daylight saving time.)
Aries. * [1] Taurus. [0] Gemini. [0] Cancer. [0] Leo. [0] Virgo. * [1] Libra. [0] Scorpio. [0] Sagittarius. [0] Capricorn. [0] Aquarius. ** [2] Pisces. *************** [15] (Unsure/guessing/lost/help!) [0]
I believe astrology is able to make accurate predictions about my future. (This is a follow-up question.)
Strongly disagree. ** [2] Disagree. **** [4] Neutral. ******** [8] Agree. **** [4] Strongly agree. * [1]
Briefly discuss what you know now (that you didn't know before) that may (or may not have) affected your earlier opinion regarding your belief/disbelief in astrology. (This is a follow-up question.)
"I remained neutral again, I still don't really understand how astrology would be able to predict my future, but I'm genuinely curious as to someone can do that."
"I now know that my astrological sign has changed since the ancient times and now I'm not so sure what sign I truly am."
"Nothing has changed. Astrology is pure fabrication."
"I honestly don't disagree with astrology nor do I believe in it, I did however learned that throughout time the constellations move as Earth rotates and that they don't always line up with their zodiac signs (if that makes any sense)."
"I still feel as though it holds some power as I shared before because I went according to my mood not from listening to my zodiac as apparently when I did it was all wrong. But it did make me doubt myself a little so now maybe my belief isn't so strong."
"I didn't know much about eclipses. All I knew before was the moon going in front of the sun and big shade occurring on a certain part of the planet. Yet now I know the more elements they have such as the umbra and penumbra. Which made me believe that there's more out there than I thought there was."
"My answer is still the same from the other reading assignment."
"I went through a brief phases where I'd use a few horoscope/prediction apps and sites to track if my day was going to go fine or not. Almost every prediction was exactly the same between references and the predictions themselves were almost entirely accurate for daily, weekly and monthly."
"My belief that astrology 'controls my life' is still neutral--however it was really fun pissing off my friends this weekend showing and proving to them that they were wrong about their zodiacs."
"Precession still blows me away about how much it affects, and the fact that astrologists still base their 'science' off of star charts from thousands of years ago makes me believe it's completely fake."
"What I know now is that the zodiac signs in astrology can have a meaning to you. Each sign has their different meanings and each person has a sign depending on their birthday."
"Same thing as before I just haven't had any impact."
Match the phase of the moon during these eclipse types. (Only correct responses shown.)
Total solar eclipse: new moon [84%]
Partial solar eclipse: new moon [53%]
Annular solar eclipse: new moon [42%]
Total lunar eclipse: full moon [89%]
Partial lunar eclipse: full moon [63%]
Place these astronomers in chronological order of their historical contribution to astronomy. (Only correct responses shown.)
Aristotle [79%]
Ptolemy [68%]
Copernicus [74%]
Tycho [47%]
Kepler [53%]
Galileo [42%]
Newton [58%]
Match these terms with their descriptions. (Only correct responses shown.)
Ideas accepted as truth without further examination: first principles [79%]
Predictions that could be tested by observations: hypotheses [63%]
Universal statements of cause and effect: rational laws [63%]
Describe phenomena without explaining why it occurs: empirical laws [47%]
Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"Could you please go over eclipses, it was very confusing for me to understand."
"Will we be shown visuals of the different types of eclipses during class?" (Yes.)
"It would be very helpful to know the answers to the the reading assignment after submitting it." (At the top of every reading assignment, there is a link so you can go over the answers to the previous reading assignment.)
"How did astronomers knew where and what was in space with very little technology?" (That is the history of astronomy, as it progressed from non-scientific thinking to the first science.)
"Will any of this be on the quiz we have tomorrow? If not will there be a quiz based on this information?" ((1) No, not on Quiz 1. (2) Yes, this new material (eclipses, history of astronomy, planetary motion) will be on Quiz 2.)
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