2009 marks the 400th anniversary in celebrating Gallileo’s use of a telescope to study the night sky. As a prelude to the International Year of Astronomy, NSDL offers the first seminar in the 2008 Fall Series: Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story on Thursday, September 25th. Our NSDL experts, Dr. Cathy Ezrailson, Assistant Professor of Science Education at the University of South Dakota and Dr. Susana Deustua, Researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute and co-chair of the US International Year of Astronomy. This is a free online presentation and registration (see program link) closes Thursday afternoon. One resource our presenters will highlight deals with looking at star spectra. This interactive from the Annenberg/CPB Projects has images of spectra of elements usually found in the atmosphere of stars. During the web seminar presentation, Dr. Deustua and Dr. Ezrailson will discuss the life cycle of stars, star spectra, and review the basics of light spectroscopy. For another interactive on light that deals with blackbody radiation (objects that absorb the light that falls on that object such as a light bulb or the sun) check out the Physics Education Technology or PhET site for this simulation. An archive of the seminar presentation is available after the day of the presentation. Also available is a resource list that accompanies each of the web seminars in the series.
Celebrating Astronomy: NSDL Web Seminar, Thursday Sept. 25th
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 3:54 pm
Written by: Robert Payo
Posted in Topics: General, Physics and Astronomy, Teacher professional development
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Thanks, Robert for suggesting all of these resources for astronomy and simulations. Please also note that we have many more resources: lesson plans, simulations, teacher content support and student tutorials for physical science and astronomy K-12 on The Physics Front digital library at http://thephysicsfront.org
Thanks, Cathy
NSTA Web Seminar
Instead of class today we enrolled ourselves into a NSTA web seminar about Astrology. It was really interesting to use Elluminate technology as a classroom; I felt like I was actually in class and was able to ask questions, reply to questions, and engage in converstation with the others in the seminar. It was neat to be learning with others from all over the U.S., there was even a woman from Australia. I learned more about stars in this one session than I have probably learned in my whole life. I learned that stars are massive hot glowing balls of gas and are made up of 70 to 80% hydrogen. We were shown pictures of stars forming, learned about high and low mass stars, and were shown simulation videos. All of the material that we were shown was really interesting and informative. We were also given the links so that we can see them again and possibly show future students. At the end of the seminar we were offered a list of web resources that could be very useful to learn about science and to relay that knowledge onto students. They inluded videos, lesson plans, and much more relating to the field. The web seminar was a new and interesting experience for me and I plan on attending more of them!
Sorry, I could not figure out where to post this. For those of you that do not know this, the physical science class did not meet on Thursday in the classroom; instead the majority of the class had class online. A web seminar was being advertised and Dr. E really wanted us to be able to participate in it so this is where we spent our Thursday class period. I was able to easily access the web seminar whereas some of my fellow classmates found it extremely difficult. After logging on, the main person in charge greeted everyone, answered any questions that anyone had, and then immediately started asking questions to try and get to know us. Participants were permitted to look at the web site or do whatever they desired for about a half hour while other individuals tried accessing the web site. Soon after the half hour, the web seminar started in which everyone was asked particular questions and the answers were then graphed for everyone to see the results. Then the seminar began where the students learned interesting facts about stars the sun, and planets. I knew some of the simple facts such as the sun is five billion years old and stars do not move around in space in zigzag patterns. On the other hand though, there were also quite a few things I did not know: scientists classify stars based on their spectra, there is a point where a star needs a lot of light, atoms and molecules in the cooler outer layers absorb light so we can observe an Absorption Spectrum, when you are looking at a star there is a certain signature scientists look at to categorize them, planets form around stars form accretion of smaller bits after the central star forms, or from a clump orbiting the main star, and finally astronomy is a dynamic science; new discoveries add to our knowledge of the universe and our own solar system. As one can see, I learned a lot of interesting information from the web seminar. At first I was really regretting having to watch the seminar for an hour and fifteen minutes, but once it was over I was pleased to have seen it. I really enjoyed changing up the class atmosphere and partaking in the web seminar instead of physically going to class. I hope that we are able to do this again sometime; I think the web seminar was a very good experience!
This was definitely a learning experience for me, as I have never attended a web seminar before. I found it very interesting and I really liked how interactive it was. It allowed for much more interaction than a regular lecture. There were a couple of things I picked up from the seminar:
-This year is the “International Year of Astronomy 2009″
-Stars are actually massive hot glowing balls of gas, just like Pumba said on the Lion King.
-Mass is the most important factor in star creation.
-There are two types of starts high and low(the sun) mass stars
-Light is a particle and a wave.
I did find the whole experience to be a little overwhelming. There was a lot of information jam-packed into this one session. Overall though, it was a really great experience. I really appreciated all the helpful links I picked up from the seminar:
astronomy2009.org
hubblesite.org
compadre.org
thephysicsfront.org
Today we did not have class, instead we had to attend a web seminar. Dr. E helped put on this program along with two others.
This seminar was over stars. Overall I felt like the information was above my head. I did not understand alot of it. I did learn a few things….
1. Stars are massive, hot, glowing balls of gas.
2. They are born in the orion nebula.
3. Initial mass is the most important physical factor that influences star formation.
4. Stars are classified based on their spectra, which provides us with information on: temperature, composition, brightness, and distance.
5. Planets form around stars from accretion of smaller bits (planetesimals) after the central stars form, or a clump orbiting the main star (Jupiter).
The web seminar was interesting. I would do another one, but only if it was less complex and on a different subject.
Today in class we performed an online assignment. We joined in to a Webseminar. The seminar was about stars and astronomy. The biggest element of the stars is hydrogen, then helium and metals. The stars are hot, glowing balls of gas. An interesting fact that I found was that stars are born in the Orion Nebula. Also, the most important factor in how a star evolves and eventaully dies is it’s initial mass. There are two different types of stars, high mass and low mass. High mass stars are very bright, burn “fuel” rapidly and have short lives. Low mass stars are less bright, “burn” for billions of years and have very long lives. There were also many other facts about stars that I think would be very beneficial in the classroom. I think that it is important for students to learn about the stars and how they are formed.
Instead of meeting at our regular class time, we participated in a Web Seminar. The seminar was titled “Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story” and our teacher was one of the presenters. Going into the seminar, I was a little concerned, because I had never done something like this before and I did not know what to expect. But, the concept of a web seminar is great. I really thought it was cool to have this live time discussion with people around the country (and Australia too). I thought it was neat to have so much interaction in the form of chats, white board markings, and the use of other tools such as the pooling feature and emotion icons.
As far as the content of the seminar, the seminar covered topics such as how stars are formed, information about the star life cycle or stages, how to classify stars, what happens when a star dies, and resources that we can use to help us use this information in a classroom. As far as providing more details about the content, I am afraid that I can not do that. I have had very little instruction in astronomy, meaning I really did not have much background on this topic going into the seminar. As a result, I felt that most of the information was going right over my head. When they asked for questions, I did not even know where to start asking questions. I am hoping that the resources given can help me get a better understanding of the topic so I can successfully teach my future students about astronomy.
Today, we did not have actual class. I just got done watching and interacting in an online seminar. I really enjoyed the seminar. I felt that it was very interactive. It was really neat that people from around the world and the United States were able to get on and talk with everyone. I learned quite a few things today. One thing I learned is that the initial mass determines the life of the star. You have to classify stars based on their spectra. Atoms and molecules in cooler outer layers absorb light- we can observe an absorption spectrum. Atoms and molecules in the hotter corona emit light - we observe an emission spectrum. Planets form around stars from accretion of smaller bits after the central star forms, or from a clump orbiting the main star. The last thing that I learned was that the astronomy is a dynamic science. New discoveries add to our knowledge of the universe and our own solar system. I felt that the seminar was very helpful to me so that I could learn more things about the world around me.
Today, instead of class, we viewed a WebSeminar on stars. The webseminar worked very well, and I did not have any trouble viewing or participating. It was an interesting way to learn new content and I think that students would find it to be a good change of pace. I liked how everyone could participate. However, I do not think this WebSeminar would be appropriate for elementary school students. The content and the presentation of the content would not reach them. The content would be advanced for students who have no background knowledge in stars. I found the presentation hard to get into, and I think students would have a hard time as well. I really liked the “movies” in the WebSeminar. I think those were a great way assist in understanding, I believe young students would respond well to them.
Instead of class on Thursday, we enrolled in a web seminar about Astrology on NSTA. It was a really great experience because we used Elluminate technology and I have never dones that before. It was interesting becuase our whole class was on there at the same time and we were able to use a lot of different features and ask many questions at the same time. During the seminar we were able to communicate with the presenters and our classmates. It was a great opportunity to learn with people who were from different areas of the United States as well as from different countries other than the United States. This session was about Astrology and I found it really interesting and learned a lot about stars that I did not previously known. The pictures were really cool about how stars form, high and low mass stars and videos of the stars. It was great to answer questions during the seminar because I generally did not know many of the answers and that was a great learning experience. It was gret to have a list of we resources that we are able to use when we become teachers. Thank you for this opportunity and I can’t wait to attend more of these!
On Thursday we were asked to attend an online web seminar instead of actual class. This was a very interesting, new way for us to learn. Not only did we have students from the class, but there were people from all over the country and the world interacting with us. This brings many different perspectives and they may have questions that we may not have thought of to ask the instructors. One of the things I thought was most interesting was that stars are made up of mostly hydrogen and we can somewhat predict when stars will die. We were able to use simulators online that helped us better see how things worked. We were able to ask any questions we had and they were answered to the fullest. I think web seminars are a good idea to use in classrooms.
Interesting comments about the recent NSDL web seminar: Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story. Please ask questions if you have them about things you need more info about. We need to clarify the difference between Astronomy and Astrology? They are totally different concepts. Astrology is The study of the positions and aspects of celestial bodies in the belief that they have an influence on the course of natural earthly occurrences and human affairs but is NOT a science. Astronomy is: the science which investigates all the matter-energy in the universe: its distribution, composition, physical states, movements, and evolution.
Thanks for participating in the seminar and on this blog. It was great to have such wonderful participants.
Dr. Ezrailson
Thanks everyone, for your comments! It was great to have such a large turnout and I look forward to hearing more from all of you at University of South Dakota (all of you USD Coyotes out there!). Be sure to check out the most recent blog posting for Learning Digital K12 that talks about the next web seminar scheduled at the end of October.
Jessica Fries-Gaither at Ohio State University is the editor for the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine for teacher professional development at the elementary education level. You’ll find lots of resources on how to integrate science and literacy using the polar regions as a focus of study. I hope to see you all at the next web seminar!
Kind regards,
Robert
Today instead of class we had a web seminar. This was my first web seminar I had ever attended. At first it was a little awkward but it did get better. Yet, the content at times was a little hard to understand since my knowledge in Astrology is not very good.
I learned quite a bit from today’s seminar but at times it was very hard to follow and was over my head. I have not had any classes on Astrology since my freshman year of high school and even then it was minimal. I felt like today’s seminar was more for people who know about astrology. Sometimes it was very hard to understand the content of the lecture.
Today I learned that a star is made up of seventy to eighty percent of hydrogen, twenty to thirty percent of helium and the rest is other elements from the periodic table. Next, I learned the definition of a star which is: massive, hot, glowing balls of gas. I also learned the difference between high mass and low mass stars. High mass stars are bright, burn fuel rapidly, live short lives while low mass stars are less bright and burn for millions of years. People can categorize stars by temperature, composition and brightness. The sequence of a star’s life is: Nebula, protostar, main sequence star, red giant, variable stage, planetary nebula, white dwarf, and finally, black dwarf.
This lecture helped me learn a few things about stars to teach in my future classroom. At the end of the lesson there was also websites I could visit to find ideas for my classroom. This experience was a great one to have. It was nice to be able to be a part of a web seminar. It is a great use of technology.
Posted by Jessica
Today we did not have class. Instead, we were assigned to attend a web seminar that our professor was a presenter at. The web seminar was called Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story. I was a little apprehensive about this because I really wasn’t sure what to expect. However, I found that this seminar was very helpful. Not only did it provide a lot of new information (I know close to nothing about astronomy or stars), but it provided a new way of learning and sharing knowledge that I have never experienced. About 80 people attended this seminar from all over the world. It is really great that technology can provide such a unique learning experience. I was also provided a ton of resources through this seminar that may be very useful in the future:) I can not say that the most I got from this was the valuable information provided because astronomy is so foreign to me that it was almost overwhelming, but I can say that I took away a lot from experiencing a new way of learning.
That was the first web seminar I have ever been in and I thought it was really neat. It was cool how so many people could learn at the same time, make comments and questions and give input all together. I feel this could be the future of schools. I was really glad to be a part of this particular seminar is because I love stars a lot and always have. The lady that talked the most knew so much about them and went through the slides well. We learned that hydrogen is what makes up stars, as well as being how to predict how old they are, as well as predict when they will die. Most stars have names and they are all accounted for, which is crazy with how many stars are out there! I would love to learn this same information in an imax theatre, 3-D! How cool would that be! Overall it was a great experience to be able to say I have participated in a web seminar now.
instead of class Thursday, we attended the web seminar called “Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story” on NSTA. Although it was a lot of information to take in for one night, it was a very interesting seminar to watch. All the presenters did an excellent job and seemed to know what they were talking about. It was neat to see the spectrum pictures and see where the sun falls in a spectrum. It was also need to see what a star consists of. I never realized that all of those different elements made up stars, so that was neat to see. This was also a fun experience since it was held over the internet on a program called “Elluminate.” The seminar was also very hands-on. Viewers could ask questions in a chat box and give their input. Also, the resources that were given during the presentation will help me in the future when I am a teacher. The presenters used great websites to show us what we can use when we teach. These will be great use to me if I ever teach science. I appreciate the hard work it took to present this seminar. Overall, the web seminar was a very neat experience.
We did not have physical science class today. Instead we were required to watch a web seminar put on by NSTA. I was not that excited about the web seminar, because I did not know anything about astronomy, but it actually ended up being interesting and very beneficial. I was new to elluminate, but it is actually really cool how you can talk to people from all over the country. Learning how to use elluminate was the most beneficial part of the web seminar, for me, because I needed to learn how to use it for my Basic Skills in Technology (TET200) course. Some of the things I learned from the web seminar included:
-The most common element found in stars is Hydrogen.
-A star is born in the Orion Nebula.
-Stars die by explosion, producing black holes.
-I also got good ideas on how to teach my future students about astronomy!
I really liked Robert; he was very helpful in teaching us how to navigate through elluminate. I also thought it was cool how he could poll the audience and then put all the results together into a chart.
Overall, I enjoyed the astronomy seminar more than I thought I would. I have one more science class to take for my major, and it just might be astronomy!
I have to say that the seminar was pretty cool. It started off with a short seminar pertaining to how to use the tools provided such as typing, stamping, and so forth. For example, after signing in, we were asked to stamp on a map of the United States, where we were from. From this stamping, we were able to see that people all over the United States were signed in and ready to begin the seminar. After these brief instructions, the seminar began, and the two presenters took over. Dr. E started off with an introduction to the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The presentation then began which covered a wide variety of information pertaining to stars. During this seminar we learned statics stating things such as, “Stars are made of 70-80% hydrogen, 20-30% helium, and 1-2% metals.” Definitions were also given. For example, the definition of a star can be defined as a massive, hot glowing ball of gas. We learned about start nurseries, and that stars are born in the Orion Nebula, in the Orion constellation. Other information we learned included information pertaining to high and low mass stars. High mass stars are bright and burn rapidly. An example includes the Rigel in the Orion constellation. Low mass stars are less bright and can burn for billions of years. An example of this type of star includes the sun. We also learned how to classify stars. One thing I found particularly interesting pertaining to this seminar included information on the Helzprung Russel Diagram. We learned that this diagram is to astronomy as the periodic table is to chemistry. Another piece of information I found interesting informed us listeners that planets form around stars from accretion of smaller bits (planetesimals) after the central star forms, or from a clump orbiting the main star (Jupiter). The speakers then provided videos to demonstrate this. We also learned the ways that stars die. For example, massive stars die in an energetic explosion, medium sized stars become whiles dwarfs, and we are still looking for answers as to what happens when low mass stars die. During the seminar, the speakers took time to answer questions that anyone attending the seminar may have. Some people came up with great questions. Towards the end of the presentation, Dr. E provided the listeners with resources for teachers such as thePhysicsFront.org and other places pertaining to science. We were able to applaud the speakers through an applaud button. All in all, the maximum number of attendees reached was about 80 people, a pretty good number. Looking back on this experience I can say that it was not only a great way to incorporate technology, but was also a great educational opportunity. Through attending this presentation, I was able to learn a great deal of information pertaining to stars including formation, death, and everything in between. Overall, it was a great educational opportunity.
On the 25th of September, Dr. Ezrailson was one of the key speakers for the Web Seminar “Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story.” We watched the seminar instead of having class with her that day. I thought that using Elluminate as the source of interaction was a great tool for learning. It was fascinating to see all of those people connected and interacting with one another. It is a new alternative to learn then just being in a classroom. The Web Seminar had a lot of interesting facts about the stars and astronomy. Some of the basic information that I was given was something I learned in the eighth grade, but some of the information went in depth about it. Learning about the sun and what makes up a star was really cool and seeing how to use the color spectrum that scientist use to categorize stars in. When you look at a star, you have no idea of what it takes to makes star. Having the pictures, movies, and interactive questions made the seminar fun and you could see if you understood them. Technology is a great tool to use with learning, and this is one way to get interested in science and other subjects that people struggle with. For this seminar, it is advanced for elementary children, but for secondary students, it’s a great way to learn. Thank you for letting us use this recourse. Thank you for letting us be a part of your seminar.
So, instead of class today, our teacher gave us two options. We could either sign up and go to the webseminar she was teaching and blog about, or we could do an alternative assignment. Then, we were supposed to blog about in our blogs for the class about what we learned.
I learned to use lots of free and cheap materials for your classroom, and baby bottles make wonderful graduated cylinders. I honestly was amused at the baby bottle fact. I had never really thought about that and tipped my proverbial hat to the originator of that idea. Using the free and cheap materials was a given for me. Lots of my science teachers used cheap and free materials for science time when I was in elementary school. Milk cartons for a plant pot so we could observe a plant growing is an instance.
Also, going to a web seminar was not only beneficial to those who learned about the content area, but they were also able to understand better how to use the online tools that our moderators, leaders, used in our web chat.
Stars are mainly composed of hydrogen, then helium; and most of the universe is made up of hydrogen as well. A nebula is a star nursery, meaning most of the stars are born/start out in a nebula. A star’s lifestyle is determined by the struggle for equilibrium between gravity and pressure. The most influential factor to how stars are formed is the mass of the intital gas cloud. A star is born from collapsing cold clouds of intersteller gas and dust. High mass stars are not very hot, but are bright and don’t live very long in universal terms. Low mass stars are not very bright, but are very hot and live very long in universal terms.
Dark energy plays a large universal role in the formation of stars. Although I don’t know what dark matter is…it sounded cool though! Stars tend to lie in distinct regions. Classifying a star is based upon a spectrum, and can provide information as to the temperature, composition, brightness, and sometimes distance of a star. Emissions from a star give off light, and observing an absorption/emission spectrum allows a person to determine the heat/temperature of the star. The type of spectrum determines the type of star and how to categorize them.
Types of stars and what they mainly burn and how they burn:
Main seuqence stars: turning hydrogen into helium
Giants: burning helium
Super Giants: burning oxygen
I forgot what the white dwarfs burn
Rock clumps form around a star and lump together to form a terrestial planet (Venus, Mars, Mercury, Earth). Rocks can also form around a gassy planet (possible explanation to Saturn’s rings and some of Jupiter’s moons). This theory makes me think about the asteriod belt between Mars and Jupiter. Conicidence? Probably not; in fact that’s probably why the asteriod belt is there.
Class today was replaced by an online session held at 5 pm. We instead listened to and watched an astronomy lecture. Though it was long long, it was also a bit interesting. I have taken a couple of astronomy courses [not to be confused with “astrology,” which is the study of one’s star sign and how the stars influence a person’s life], so most of the information acted as a refresher.
I enjoyed the interactive aspects of the webseminar. We were able to listen as four different moderators spoke, view different diagrams and charts, watch video clips, ask questions, and interact with many other people. I think webseminars are a great way to incorporate a lot of technology and interactivity into a class. With the amount of technological knowledge most students already possess, I think something like this would be great for them!
What I learned during the star seminar was….
- The make up of stars are 70-80% hydrogen and 20-30% helium.
- Starts are massive, hot, glowing balls of gas.
-Star lifespan is determined by the struggle for equilibrium between gravity and pressure.
-Smaller individual clumps may form single stars, binary stars, mul. Star systems, planetary system.
-A star is born from collapsing cold clouds of interstellar gas and dust. Clouds rotate as they collapse.
-High Mass stars are:Bright, burn fuel rapidly, have short lives, Rigel in the Orion Constellation
-Low Mass stars are: Less bright, burn for millions of years, have long lives, Sun, brown dwarfs.
-Atoms and molecules in the hotter corona(as in the sun) emit light- so we can observe an emission spectrum.
-Planets form around stars from accretion of smaller bits (planetesimals) after central star forms, or form a clump orbiting the main star (jupiters) form earth, venus, mars
Overall, I found this seminar extremely interesting and I learned alot!
Today we did not have class in the classroom, we had a web seminar. This was my first time participating in a web seminar and I really enjoyed it. This seminar was called Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story. This a very informative session and was also very interactive. I was not sure what to suspect when starting the seminar but it was great because it was easy to follow and you could learn a lot from the comforts of your own home. you were also able to communicate to one person or the entire class bye typing in the comments bar and selecting who you wanted to see what you wrote. The also took time to answer any questions that you had. I think that this is a great tool for teachers and I hope that I will take full advantage of this when I get out there and begin my teaching experience.
We had to watch a web seminar tonight at 5:30 pm about stars. It took me awhile to get logged on because I didn’t have the web address to get to Elluminate. But then I finally did and it was interesting. There was a lot of information covered and since I’m not interested in science it was hard to pay attention. But I did find out that in about 5 billion years or so the sun will become a big red giant star. That is pretty crazy to think what the world would be like then. Also, the stars initial mass determines it’s life. If it has a low mass it will live longer and will be less brighter than a higher massed star. These are some interesting things to know about stars. In the web seminar they had interactive tools and I think that made it more interesting and it was hands on partially instead of sitting in a classroom. Elluminate is definitely a good tool to do things like this and I can see it becoming very popular. It could take place of classes, and instead of going to class you would go to Elluminate instead or something similar. I think it was a good experience overall.
I know it is a little late to be blogging about the web seminar considering it was a week ago, but better late than never. The web seminar talked about stars. Honestly, the information was way over my head but I still thought it was really informative. I learned about high mass stars and low mass stars. High mass stars are brighter and have short lives compared to low mass stars, and low mass stars are less bright and have longer lives than high mass stars. An example of a low mass star would be the sun. I also learned that stars are classified on a spectra by temperature, composition, brightness, and even distance in some cases. Dr. Susana Deustua said this was her first web seminar, and it was my first web seminar too. Even though it was Dr. Deustua’s first time proctoring a web seminar I think she did a good job. It was really fun to be able to talk to people all over the world. I thought it was just going to be people from the US (there were people from coast to coast in the US) but there were people from Asia and Australia as well. Overall, I had a very good first experience I would be interested in doing another.
After watching the web seminar, I was overwhelmed with questions and higher thinking of the concepts presented. There were many facts that I had absolutly no clue about I was really surprised by the fact that stars, contain approxminately, 1-2% metal which makes sense to me now that I look at the difference between how high mass stars are composed and how low mass stars are composed. There was a ton of information that also surprised me about the birth and expolsions of stars. When looking at the power point upon how a star dies through an energetic expolsion of a suprtnove which produces blackholes. The author also states that the formation and explosions are far more violent and complex than anyone had ever imagined. I thought Dr. E made a great comment whaen she stated the differences between the different terms of Astronmy. When speaking upon a topic that not many people are familuar with it is easy to become confused with different terms, ( thos ethat are close in spelling) epecially when teaching kids these misconceptions and confusions are easily made. Very intriguing presentation I was left with thinking more deeply about the topic, so for me it was a great learning experience.
I thought that this web seminar was very interesting. I have always been fascinated with astronomy, so it was wonderful having the opportunity to learn a little more about the subject! One thing that I learned from this seminar is that approximately 13.5 billion years ago the milky way galaxy was actually a nebula! I also learned about how stars are classified by using a spectra, which provides information on temperature, composition, brightness, and in some cases, distance. Another thing that I found interesting was the differences between hot and cool stars. An O star is considered to be a very hot star at 20 degrees K. An M star is considered a cool star, coming in at around 3000 degrees K. Our sun is a G5 star, which is close to 6000 degrees K. I also found it interesting that cool stars actually have molecules surrounding their atmosphere; while hot stars only have elements.
This seminar taught us a lot about stars and their life. We learned how stars start off as nebulas before actually becoming a star. A star needs mass to be made, and the amount of mass needed and left over tells us many different things. We also learned that a star’s light spectrum can tell us many different things, such as what it is made of and how hot it is. This may seem like a weird thing, but really it isn’t. Different elements emit different colors and the colors that show up or are obsorbed can tell us many things. Astronomy is a huge topic, but one that is very interesting to learn and know.
On September 25th Dr. Ezrailson held an online seminar, I was unable to obtain the seminar but I was able to view it later, it was just not interactive for me. This was the first online seminar I have ever seen, it was very interesting. I hope if we do this again I can participate. It is really cool that people can participate with this from all around the world. The seminar was titled: “Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story”.
The content that was in the seminar was very informative they covered; how stars are formed, information about the star life cycle, how to classify stars, what happens when a star dies, and information for resources that I could use in my classroom later. They also had little video clips to helped explain items they were talking about. Having video clips is a good way to help people understand. Some people need that extra visual in order to really get something. I do not have a background in astronomy so sometime this was a little hard to follow; I think it may have been better if we all had a back ground in astronomy. I think we where at a good age level to see this seminar. The lowest grade level you might want to show this seminar to is high school students because some things were advanced. I think this was a very good experience and hope to participate in something like this again.
Thought I had already posted this but, I guess its not showing up in the files so I guess I will blog it again, it never hurts!. After watching the web seminar, I was overwhelmed with questions and higher thinking of the concepts presented. There were many facts that I had absolutly no clue about I was really surprised by the fact that stars, contain approxminately, 1-2% metal which makes sense to me now that I look at the difference between how high mass stars are composed and how low mass stars are composed. There was a ton of information that also surprised me about the birth and expolsions of stars. When looking at the power point upon how a star dies through an energetic expolsion of a suprtnove which produces blackholes. The author also states that the formation and explosions are far more violent and complex than anyone had ever imagined. I thought Dr. E made a great comment whaen she stated the differences between the different terms of Astronmy. When speaking upon a topic that not many people are familuar with it is easy to become confused with different terms, ( thos ethat are close in spelling) epecially when teaching kids these misconceptions and confusions are easily made. Very intriguing presentation I was left with thinking more deeply about the topic, so for me it was a great learning experience.
After viewing the Web Seminar, I realized how beneficial something like this is in the classroom. The information was presented in a way that made me interested and kept my attention. One thing I really enjoyed about the presentation was the use of charts and diagrams. They did a great job of depicting the information and showing how it connects. One of my favorite diagrams was the comparing and contrasting of the high and low mass stars. I also learned about the make-up of stars and that hydrogen makes up the majority of a star.
In a classroom, when I am the teacher, I think I could truly use Web Seminars to teach different subjects. I think students would enjoy this, not only because of the viewing appeal, but because it is interactive. I also think viewing the presentation is beneficial, because students can go back and look at the slides in order to refresh their memory. Another advantage of using a Web Seminar is for comprehension. By having students interact, you as the teacher can see who understands the material. This experience overall, was a good one for me. It was beneficial to see the use of technology in the classroom and I learned more than I probably would just from a lecture because I could move at my own pace.
I was unable to be an active member in the webseminar, therefore I watched it at a later date. The seminare was about the International Year of Astronomy. The seminar discussed star birth and formation, stellar classification, star spectra, planet information, when stars die, and some more resources. The seminar then went on to discuss how stars are formed and what the most important factor in how a star evolves and eventually dies– initial mass. It went on to explain that a star is born from collapsing cold clouds of interstellar gas and dust, clouds rotate as they collapse which conserves angular momentum, and then forming the smaller clumps that will become starts. The seminar then went on to discuss how to classify stars. We classify stars based on their spectra which provides us with information on temperature, composition, brightness, and distance. The seminar then went on to discuss aboutl ight and energy. The also discussed how planets form around stars, which happens from accretion of smaller bits after the central forms or from a clump orbiting the main star. They then went on to discuss about when stars die.
ELED 320- Dr. Ezrailson NSDL Web Seminar
Since I was unable to attend the web seminar on the announced day, I am doing a post seminar assignment for Dr. Cathy Ezrailson. Through this presentation, I learned that stars are made up of about 80 percent of Hydrogen, about 30 percent of Helium, and about 2 percent of a variety of different types of metals. By looking at the models presented through out the presentation, we can see that stars are a hot and glowing balls of gas. We are also trying to find an equilibrium between gravity and energy. As the pressure if trying to force its way out, the gravity is trying to force its way in hence we are trying to discover a balance or a state of equilibrium. As Dr. Ezrailson said during the presentation, when we are thinking about how stars are formed, we should consider the mass of the initial gas, the temperature, and the speed. I learned that the life and death of a star is dependent on whether how much gas life they have and how quickly they use their gas through out their life span. There are also different ways to classify stars. We can classify stars by their temperature, composition, and brightness (low or high). If we were wondering how to figure out the energy we can receive from light, we could use a formula to find out a photons energy and frequency. The formula is E=hv, which is very confusing to me. I do not understand the scientific terms that allow me to go further into that formula. It would be interesting to see how the formula plays out and how I could incorporate it into my classroom, and teach my students about light energy and how we can get it from the stars. I also found it very interesting how planets form around the stars, this would also be an interesting topic of discussion for an elementary classroom. We could eventually have the students make their own solar system, and as we slowly build we can talk about the f ormations and other aspects of planets and stars.
Ashley Sik
ELED 320-Dr. E’s Web Seminar
Since I was unable to attend the web seminar, I visted the link. In the web seminar powerpoint, it began with the investigations of the birth of the star and how it formed, stellar classification, star spectra, planet information, and when stars die. We began to start with a pre-test to test our knowledge and see what stars are made of. Stars are actually made of mostly hydrogen, a little of helium, and some metals. It went on to explain the definitions of stars and talked about the equilibriumm, gravity and pressure that produces the energy of its nuclear fusion in their cores. The powerpoint went on to again ask the question, what physical factors do I think most influence how stars are formed. I was asked to consider the mass of the intitial gas cloud, the temperature of the gas, and the speed of cloud roatation. But come to find out, the most important factor in how a star evolves and eventually dies is its initail mass. The next slide went on to talk about how a star is born and how its initial mass determines its life. The next couple of slides explained how to classify stars. It classified stars based on their spectra, which provides scientists with information on: temperature, composistion, brightness, and in some cases distance. More of the slides went on the talk about light and energy in a star. It gave a graph about light and energy and stars and a absorbsion and emission spectrum. The next of many slides, gave more graphs, color spectrumed graphs, and questions about stars. It also explained about how planets form around stars. In ll, the powerpoint gave many resources in the information of stars and gave much insight to how stars are born, die and what is contained inside of each star.
Instead of having class today, we participated in a web seminar put on by our professor. The seminar was all about stars. I learned so much from viewing this seminar! Stars are massive, hot glowing balls of gas. I learned that the mass of stars are made up mostly of hydrogen. I had oringally guessed that they were made up of carbon. Stars with higher mass are brighter, burn more fuel, and have shorter lives than low mass stars. I thought this web seminar was so helpful and fun! I think students would love to particpate in something like this. It’s different than just sitting in a classroom and listening to a teacher talk. It gets students engaged and active in their learning. I thought this was a great way to learn about stars!
I did not attend the seminar, but I did go through the Powerpoint and a few sites. Our universe amazes me more every day. The seminar discussed stars. I understood most of the information given. I knew that stars were mostly made of Hydrogen and Helium. I did not remember that the most important factor in how a star evolves and dies is based on its’ initial mass. To think that clouds can condense enough to form a star is a hard point to wrap you mind around. The seminar discussed high mass stars and how they are brighter and have shorter lives then low mass stars.(High=Rigel; Low=Sun) The star classification was also something new to me since I really only found out about it about a month ago. I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery star, which I think was composed of Iron and Magnesium. I was wondering about a neutron star and how it was formed since I cannot, for the life of me, remember. I thought that the seminar must have been very enlightening and very useful in information for teaching students about stars.
I wish I could have experienced the actual web seminar but I wasn’t able to due to work. But I certainly still did learn a great deal from seeing the presentation and looking through the PowerPoint. Some things I learned are that stars are primarily made up of mostly Hydrogen which makes them glowing balls of gas. Mass is the main factor that plays a part in how a star is formed and eventually dies. I guess I have never thought about a star “dying” before. Really it means that the star died in an energetic explosion, if it is high mass, engulf planets losing outer layers and becoming a white dwarf if it is medium mass, or just puffing out and becoming a white dwarfs if it is small mass. Some more information I learned is that high mass stars are bright and have short lives where as low mass stars are less bright and have much longer lives. I find this really interesting because though a high mass star’s life is considered short, it is still hundreds of millions of years long! I know I don’t know a great deal about astronomy, but this seminar taught me some fun facts about stars. They are great big balls of gas that live millions-billions of years fully of hydrogen and helium.
I was unable to attend the webseminar, but I just viewed the presentation and I was amazed at all the things I learned about stars. I had always thought that stars were made up of mostly carbon, but I found out that they are in fact made mostly of hydrogen. I also learned that stars are hot glowing balls of gas. I never knew there were so many different types of stars until I viewed this webseminar. I learned a lot about high and low mass stars that I had never known before now. I thought this webseminar was quite interesting and am disappointed that I missed the actual presentation. I did think that there was a lot of information, which is important for people to know, but it was slightly overwhelming for someone who doesn’t have that much background knowledge of stars and how they are formed. Overall, I was very impressed with the presentation and learned a great deal of information from it. Thanks!
Today I reviewed a web seminar on stars. This was the first web seminar that I have even seen. I was really surprised because I learned a lot and wish that instead of reviewing it I could have actually participated in it. I really liked it because it was interesting and it was like you were in the classroom but in the comfort of your own home. The discussion between the four people talking and the talking between everyone else was neat to see. I liked how you could actually respond to the questions and see other answers. It was fun to see the presenters could actively point out important things or where you should be looking at. I would really like to see more of these and to someday when I am teaching try this out in some way. Plus it was interesting to see the movies and to hear professionals talk about a topic that they are very well in knowledgeable about. This is a really great way to maybe introduce a lesson or to end one. This is a great use for technology and I think that more classes should integrate this in to their classroom.
I too wish I had not had to work so that I could have participated in the event; however this is the next best thing. I learned some interesting information as to how astronomers classify stars, and that the classification is somewhat correlated to the age of the star. I also really enjoyed the examples that allowed us to determine using the spectrographs what elements made up the mystery star. And of course, as a future educator, I found the links provided to be invaluable, if nothing else mattered, those links did.
Since I could not make to to the live seminar I listened to the make-up seminar. I was really impressed with it. I learned many new facts about the life cycle of stars; including star birth and formation, classification, planet formation, and when stars die. I did not know that stars’ life and death depend on how much mass is available and how fast they use it up. The higher the mass of stars, the brighter the stars are, and the shorter their lives will be. The lower the mass of the stars, the more dull they are, and they will live longer lives. One fact that really surprised me is that the sun is actually just an average mass star. I really enjoyed the seminar and thought the presenters did a nice job of explaining everything. It was great how they stopped in the middle a couple times to answer any questions!
I thought the seminar was very informational, mostly because I knew nothing about stars at all. It was a fun experience to have. Some of the most intriguing information i found was:
Composition: 70-80 % hydrogen
20-30% helium
1-2 % metals
*Stars are actually hot massive glowing balls of gas. Im embarassed to say i thought they were some type of solid, just like a planet might be.
Also, then information about their life span was very thought provoking considering it all boils down to thier mass.
High Mass:
-bright
-very short lives
-burn “fuel” rapidly
Low Mass:
-less bright
-”burn” for billiions of years
- have long lives
I would have thought the opposite for each amount of mass.
I reviewed the make-up for the web seminar called, “Celebrating Astronomy: A Star’s Story”. I found this to be very interesting. I had never seen a web seminar before and I thought that it was a really neat way to learn new things from the comfort of your own home! I learned a lot of new information from this video, such as: stars are made from mostly hydrogen, stars are massive, hot, glowing balls of gas, and stars can be high or low mass. There is a difference between high and low mass stars because high mass stars are brighter and they don’t live as long. Astrology has never been a huge interest of mine, but I did find it helpful to learn some key facts about the subject. I really like the bits of information that were given out about the life of stars, and how they are accounted for and studied about. It is always interesting to learn about something that you are not familiar with and a web seminar was a great way to do that. I feel that a web seminar could be a really helpful way to get students to learn in a different way. It is interesting to take on different learning challenges and try to learn by technology. Overall, this was a good experience for me, as well as an educational one.
This was the first time I had ever veiwed a webseminar, I was not able to view it during the first time but was able to view the presentation after it was posted on the website. It was an interesting way to learn new content and I think that students would find it to be a good change of pace. I liked how everyone could participate. I think a webseminar could be difficult and not appropriate for elementary school students. The content and the presentation of the content would not reach them. The content would be advanced for students who have no background knowledge in stars. I found some of the information above my head and therefore found the presentation hard to get into, and I think students would have a hard time as well. I really liked the “movies” I think those were a great way assist in understanding, I believe young students would enjoy those. So you could even modify the seminar to show just clips to make it more at younger students levels.
-The National Science Digital Library presented Dr. Cathy Ezrailson and Dr. Susana Deustua in a very interesting web seminar covering astronomy and star formation. The two presenters were very excited to get started and to share their hard work and dedication to the seminar. It was evident that Dr. Ezrailson has conducted a web seminar before. As for Dr. Denustua, it took her a little bit to get warmed up to the presentation, but both did such a great job! The content of this seminar has helped me establish more background knowledge about star formations. I feel by watching and listening to this seminar, I have added to my prior knowledge and built upon what I already knew about stars, astronomy, and star formations. The two professors researched and conducted this web seminar were fantastic. They created such a relaxed and causal atmosphere for the participants. Even though this was an informal presentation, I thought it was such a neat set up. I thought it was really neat that students, colleagues, and other guests could log on and interact with each other and the presenters. Not only were there students and participants from South Dakota, but from nearly ten other states. My favorite part about the presentation was the interaction. As a participant in the web seminar you were asked to answer questions and voice opinions. I thought the live interaction between presenters and participants was so cool! The way technology can connect people is so incredible! I thought overall this was a great learning experience.
Tonight I watched the archived webcast of Celebratin
Astonomy: A Star Story. This was a fascinating way of learning that I have not participated in before. I wished I would have been available to participate in the chat portion of this experience. I learned a great deal, I have always been interested in the stars but did not know very much about them. A few of the things that I learned are as follows:
* Stars are mostly Hydrogen, a little helium and a very small amount of metals
*A stars life and death is dependent upon hor much mass they have available and how quickly the use up their energy
*A star is born from collapsing cold clouds of interstellar gas and dust, they rotate as they are collapsing, conserving angular momentum as they form smaller clumps that become stars.
*Stars are classified based on their specta which gives information on the stars is made of, the temperature, and the brightness.
*Stars die differently based on their mass
Whats this??