July 13, 2005

Bob Gotwals (Bob2) took over today and gave the class an overview of the remaining week and a half. They would continue to learn more about different types of science and the application of computer modeling and visualization in those fields, leading up to an independent group project devoted to a subject of their choice.

Next, Dave Joiner, an astrophysicist and professor at Kean University in New York, was introduced to the class. He began by asking the students a few questions about space. He explained to them that space is big, smoky, and dark, and showed them how data is collected through telescopes and radio arrays. This data is then fed into computers for research and analyzed by astrophysicists. For every million 100m^3 cube of space, he told them, there is one piece of dust. It is this dust that prevents the night sky from being light. Then he showed them a model of the earth orbiting the sun and explained why the earth was moving around the sun and not floating away.

After snack, Dave gave a brief history of astronomy and an explanation of how it had evolved into what it is now. Then, he showed them some high quality images of nebulas, illustrating how different things look when viewed close up. While looking at the pictures, the students realized that there were three types of galaxies: spherical-shaped, spiral-shaped, and a sort of hybrid. They noticed that spiral-shaped galaxies tended to have a section of dark sky, probably caused by large amounts of dust blocking the light. Then, the students modeled a galaxy using GalaxSee, a program for modeling stars and galaxies. Then, they used an applet called GalCrash, an applet that simulates galaxies colliding. Dave then challenged them to simulate the collision of the Antennae galaxies.

After the kids came back from lunch Bob2 lead into class by discussing the goal of the class. He discussed the main ideas or interests that students may posses like science, modeling, or education. Bob then told them how our interns, area high school and college students, develop applications for teachers and scientists, who then in turn use them to help students learn more. Based on their performance in the class there was an opportunity for them to become one of these interns.

The first afternoon activity involved an application called Starry Night Pro. This program is a simulation of the night sky at certain areas and at certain times. The students were able to find the constellations in the sky on the day they were born. Bob2 taught them about precession (the earth's wobbling motion), constellations, stars, and much more. There are over 9,000 stars, he explained, but only 3,000 are visible by the naked eyes. Also, there are some 80 constellations and only 54 are visible from the northern hemisphere.

The next activity allowed the students to work in groups and use their brains to explore the Starry Night program. They were challenged with learning something new using the application. After snack they wrapped up and finalized their presentations on Starry Night. The first group talked about the ecliptic, a path through all the zodiac signs. The other seven groups also presented what they had learned, giving them practice for future scientific presentations and their final project.