ASTRONOMY PROJECT 2002
We will be dealing with ASTRONOMY as our final area of interest. The time will be relatively brief, and therefore you need to begin working on things purposefully and immediately.

Your main task will be to work in a team of two to create a presentation on a topic to be presented to the class during the week of June 3-7. The presentation should be no less than 10 minutes and no more than 15 minutes in duration. The presentation must involve some form of multimedia, which may include video, powerpoint, animation, interactive web pages, or a format that is approved in advance by the instructor. Your audience is the class: enthusiastic, enthralled, interested and informed high school physics students.

A rubric has been developed for the project presentations, and is now online. The total value of this project will be approximately 100 points, with a solid, well documented, well presented project possibly earning that total. For groups that go "over the top", totals above 100 points are possible.

During the period between May 20 and May 31, the class will have access to the video production lab, L14B, and may use that facility to search for information online, to develop video or powerpoint presentations, and to set up the final presentations. The Library can also be used for research. Scanning of pictures and diagrams can happen in the video lab or in the Mac Lab. Limited numbers of video cameras will be available to borrow for limited times.

The list that appears below is preliminary, and the topics that appear there may be split up into smaller parts and/or supplemented as you work with your topic. You need to learn as much as you can about your topic in a relatively short time, and then construct your presentation. A number of video laserdiscs are available to use, and can provide some dramatic pictures or graphics to use with your work.

A List of Possible Topics:

  1. A history of astronomy from Ptolemy to Newton
  2. How do we navigate using the stars and/or sun?
  3. The astronomer's tools from ancients to about 1950
  4. The modern astronomer's tools
  5. Kepler's Laws
  6. Our Sun
  7. Comets
  8. Formation of the Solar System
  9. Stellar Evolution
  10. Galaxies
  11. How the Universe is Organized (Cosmology)
  12. The Big Bang
  13. Dark Matter, Dark Energy
  14. Quasars
  15. Pulsars
  16. Black Holes
  17. Evidence for an Expanding Universe
  18. Special Relativity & Astronomy
  19. General Relativity & Astronomy
  20. Relationship between Particle Physics & Cosmology
  21. Search for Intelligent Life (SETI)
  22. Current and scheduled NASA missions

 

Posted 5/18/02