Astronomy and Space Science

Welcome to Astro-Venture! ...Search for and design a habitable planet!

Lecture on special relativity.

Finish Ellipses, and tell the rest of the story about models of the solar system.

Finish the Kepler's Law lab; tell the rest of the solar system model story

We draw ellipses and then analyze them in the context of Kepler's Laws.

First Law: A planet moves in an ellipse with the sun at one focus.
Second Law: A line connecting the sun and the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
Thirds Law: The period of a planet's orbit cubed is proportional to its semi-major axis squared.

We visit the library to check out an astronomy book or science fiction novel.

Your task: review the book, identify the grade level through a readability analysis, write a topic outline or plot synopsis.

Novel:
Author/Publisher/Title information/ISBN number
Plot synopsis
Character analysis (protagonist, antagonist, essential conflict)
Astronomy or Physics content
Science fiction only (no fantasy please)
What assumptions are made about the rules of physics in the story and how to they figure into the plot? (i.e., antigravity, time travel, magic is conserved, etc. )
Readability Analysis (Frye Scale)



Nonfiction:
Author/Publisher/Title
Chapter Outline-- One paragraph per unit or chapter
Readability Analysis (Frye Scale)
Date of Publication
Three ideas from the book, thoroughly explained with examples, of something not yet taught in class
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/fry/fry.html

Your entries should be typed, submitted electronically in plain text or MS Word format. Please do not plagiarize other book reviews, Amazon.com book reviews, or book jackets. There is no particular length requirement, but you should expect to write several paragraphs about the content, plus at least a page for a summary or synopsis. Consider 3-5 pages, double-spaced, 1 inch margins using 10-point type typical.

Books should be of substantial length. Books for youngsters can be reviewed, but if the readability index is lower than 9th grade you should review 2 books; if lower than 5th grade, 3 books. Try to avoid dictionaries, picture books, comic books, graphic novels, and other low-content books.

We visit the library to check out an astronomy book or science fiction novel.

Your task: review the book, identify the grade level through a readability analysis, write a topic outline or plot synopsis.

Novel:
Author/Publisher/Title information
Plot synopsis
Character analysis (protagonist, antagonist, essential conflict)
Astronomy or Physics content
Classify as science fiction or fantasy (define)
What assumptions are made about the rules of physics in the story and how to they figure into the plot? (i.e., antigravity, time travel, magic is conserved, etc. )


Nonfiction:
Author/Publisher/Title
Chapter Outline
Readability Analysis (Frye Scale)
Date of Publication
Three ideas from the book, thoroughly explained with examples, of something not yet taught in class
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/fry/fry.html

Your entries should be typed, submitted electronically in plain text or MS Word format. Please do not plagiarize other book reviews, Amazon.com book reviews, or book jackets. There is no particular length requirement, but you should expect to write several paragraphs about the content, plus at least a page for a summary or synopsis. Consider 3-5 pages, double-spaced, 1 inch margins using 10-point type typical.

Books should be of substantial length. Books for youngsters can be reviewed, but if the readability index is lower than 9th grade you should review 2 books; if lower than 5th grade, 3 books. Try to avoid dictionaries, picture books, comic books, graphic novels, and other low-content books.

We draw ellipses and then analyze them in the context of Kepler's Laws.

First Law: A planet moves in an ellipse with the sun at one focus.
Second Law: A line connecting the sun and the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
Thirds Law: The period of a planet's orbit cubed is proportional to its semi-major axis squared.

SPACE.com -- Space Sports Closer to Reality

The first major model of the solar system was Aristotle's, followed by Ptolemy's. How did these models explain the observed mysteries of the solar system?

The first major model of the solar system was Aristotle's, followed by Ptolemy's. How did these models explain the observed mysteries of the solar system?

A series of mysteries about the solar system will be presented.

Then we will begin learning about the concept of "modeling" in sicence and how we learned the solar system operates.
Today's lesson will present these mysteries:
Speed diffeerences,
brightness changes
retrograde loops
inferior and superior planets
Why there is an ecliptic
plus a couple of others

A series of mysteries about the solar system will be presented.

Then we will begin learning about the concept of "modeling" in sicence and how we learned the solar system operates.
Today's lesson will present these mysteries:
Speed diffeerences,
brightness changes
retrograde loops
inferior and superior planets
Why there is an ecliptic
plus a couple of others

Finish the movie and turn in the movie notes.

That'll be all of them except that new one.
Space

Finish watching the movie, go over handout and turn in.

Activity: Scale model of the solar system

Design a scale model of the solar system showing the spaces between the planets and the sizes of the planets to the same scale. Handout. If not finished in class, treat as homework.

We begin watching the film October sky in class. There are some video alerting notes.