Published on Astronomy 801: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801)

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Orientation

Overview

Before we begin our semester of study together, it is important that you review all the material on all these pages, as it will not only prepare you to be successful in this course, but will also help you prepare for the "Course Information" quiz at the end of the orientation. You must get a score of at least 90% on that quiz to gain access to the assignment dropboxes for this course...and the answers are all contained in this orientation!

Have you looked at our syllabus?

This course orientation will complement and expand on the information provided on our syllabus. Be sure to review that document, too...carefully! A link to the syllabus is located in the main menu.

What will we learn about in the Course Orientation?

  • the structure of ASTRO 801
  • what assignments are required in this course
  • an overview of Canvas, Penn State's course management system
  • technical requirements for ASTRO 801
  • how to succeed in this course
  • where to get course assistance if you need it

What is due for the Course Orientation?

You should complete the Course Orientation during the first week of class, August 21 - 27. (See the Calendar in Canvas for specific due dates.)

As you work your way through these online materials for the Course Orientation, you will encounter additional reading assignments and hands-on exercises and activities. The chart below provides an overview of the requirements for the Course Orientation. For assignment details, refer to the orientation page noted.

(You may want to print this page to serve as a checklist as you go along.)

Orientation Activities
Activity Location Submitted for Grading?
Find This Course Orientation   No
Forward your PSU email. page 4 No - students new to PSU might want to do this to be sure they do not miss any course communications
Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class! Canvas Yes - this activity will count toward your overall class discussion grade.
Complete the "Initial Course Survey" Canvas Yes - this survey contains questions about you and your expectations for this course. Participating in this survey will count toward your overall class discussion grade.
Take the Course Information Quiz Canvas Yes - the quiz is designed to test your knowledge of the course and the information covered in this lesson. You must get a score of 90% or better on this quiz to unlock the drop boxes for the course. You may retake the quiz as many times as you need

Questions?

Although I don't want to complicate things too much, in recent semesters, I have been using "Piazza" to manage course communications. Piazza has been integrated into Canvas, and it has some features I like (and I hope you will like, too!), so I will ask that everyone post questions (and general comments) there. You will receive an email invitation to join Piazza, and a link is posted in Canvas.

Keep reading!

On the following pages, you will find important information about the course structure, requirements, scheduling, and technical requirements and assistance...all of which you'll need to know in order to pass the course. Remember, you are also responsible for the information located on our course syllabus (see the Resources menu).

Course Structure

The learning environment

ASTRO 801 will be conducted entirely on the World Wide Web. There are no set class meeting times, but you will be required to complete weekly assignments. Registered students in this course will need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:

  • This site - The instructional materials in this site include 12 lessons, plus this course introduction and orientation. Each lesson contains interactive exercises, links, animations, movies, and novel explanations of the basic scientific principles related to the objects in the Universe and their environments.
  • Canvas - Canvas is Penn State's secure course management system. In Canvas, registered students consult course calendars, communicate with instructors and fellow students, submit assignments, receive feedback from the instructor, take online quizzes and surveys, and check assignment scores and course grades. 
  • Piazza [1] - is an external site that Penn State faculty have the option to use to manage course communication in an integrate way with Canvas. The preferred mode of use is like a wiki; when a question is posted, I encourage everyone to help construct only one answer, by editing previous answers, if necessary.

New to ASTRO 801?

Only students who are registered for this course will have access to the Canvas space for this course. Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback, and earn academic credit. Information about this course and the online Masters of Education in Earth Sciences is available at the M.Ed. in Earth Sciences website [2].

Penn State logo

Not registered? Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback and earn academic credit. Read more about Penn State's Online Geospatial Education programs. [3]

Topics of study

Observations by modern ground-based and space-based observatories have fueled significant changes in our understanding of the Universe. The Solar System contains only 8 planets but has many thousands of Kuiper Belt Objects, including Pluto. Large area sky surveys have taken inventory of the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and galaxies in the Universe and determined that only 4% of the mass of the universe is found in luminous objects. Besides the mysterious “dark matter,” we now know that the energy budget of the universe is dominated by “dark energy,” which is causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. ASTRO 801: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe will provide science educators with a strong foundation in astronomy, allowing them to critically evaluate the evidence for the most recent advances in our understanding of the Solar System, our Galaxy, and the Universe.

Photo from the Hubble telescope showing an edge-on galaxy
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has imaged an unusual edge-on galaxy, revealing remarkable details of its warped dusty disc and showing how colliding galaxies trigger the birth of new stars.
Image courtesy of JPL NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Image source: Earth Science World Image Bank [4]

Astronomers use observations of the light from distant sources to discover the nature of these objects and their environment. ASTRO 801 will lead you to an understanding of light and the instruments for its detection. You will see how careful analysis of these observational data and theoretical models are used to solve the mysteries of the Universe.

ASTRO 801 will combine digital video, audio, simulation models, and the wealth of astronomical imagery from NASA’s Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer Great Observatories. You will use highly detailed planetarium software and simulated observing experiences to directly explore the night sky to make the same observations that research astronomers perform in their work. You will be granted licenses to use the courseware developed for this course in your own secondary classroom.

TOPIC OUTLINE

Photo of Dr. Palma, left, discussing astronomy with some students
Dr. Christopher Palma, left, at work
Image courtesy of Campus Photography, Penn State.

Lesson 1: Motions in the Sky and the 3D Geometry of the Sun, Earth, Moon System

  • Introduction
  • Day and Night
  • The Path of the Sun in the Sky
  • The Height of the Sun in the Sky
  • The Phases of the Moon
  • Eclipses

Lesson 2: Orbits and the Laws of Kepler and Newton

  • Introduction
  • Naked Eye Observations of the Solar System
  • The Geocentric Model of the Solar System
  • The Heliocentric Model of the Solar System
  • Kepler’s Three Laws
  • Newtonian Gravitation

Lesson 3: Electromagnetic radiation and Astronomical Observations

  • Introduction
  • The Wave Properties of Light
  • Spectra
  • Radio Waves to Gamma-rays
  • Blackbody Radiation
  • Kirchoff’s Laws and Spectroscopy of Astronomical Objects
  • Telescopes
  • The Effect of the Earth’s Atmosphere on Astronomical Observations

Lesson 4: The Properties of Stars and Stellar Classification

  • Introduction
  • Colors, Temperatures, and Spectral Types of Stars
  • The Distances to Nearby Stars
  • The Luminosity and Apparent Brightness of Stars
  • The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
  • Stellar Velocities

Lesson 5: The Early Stages of Stellar Evolution

  • Introduction
  • Nebulae and the Interstellar Medium
  • The Process of Star Formation
  • Nuclear Fusion
  • Stellar Evolutionary Tracks in H-R Diagrams
  • Brown Dwarfs - Failed Stars
  • Binary Stars
  • Variable Stars

Lesson 6: The Late Stages of Stellar Evolution

  • Introduction
  • The Transition to the Red Giant Phase
  • The Final Stages of Life for Sun-Like Stars
  • White Dwarfs, the Chandrasekhar Limit, and Novae
  • The Final Stages of Life for Massive Stars
  • Supernova Nucleosynthesis and Supernova Remnants

Lesson 7: Star Clusters

  • Introduction
  • Examples of Star Clusters
  • Open Clusters vs. Globular Clusters
  • Estimating the Age of a Star Cluster 3
  • The Distances of Star Clusters
  • Using Star Clusters as Tracers of the Milky Way

Lesson 8: The Milky Way Galaxy

  • Introduction
  • The Appearance of the Milky Way in the Night Sky
  • The True 3D Shape of the Milky Way
  • The Multiwavelength Milky Way
  • Sgr A* – The Black Hole at the Core of the Galaxy
  • The Local Group

Lesson 9: Galaxies in the Universe

  • Introduction
  • The Spiral Nebulae and the Great Debate
  • Hubble’s Tuning Fork and Galaxy Classification
  • Galaxy Formation and Evolution
  • Exotic galaxies
  • The Large Scale Structure of the Universe

Lesson 10: Cosmology

  • Introduction
  • Olber’s Paradox
  • Hubble’s Law
  • The Expanding Universe
  • The Age of the Universe
  • Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Lesson 11: The Solar System

  • Introduction
  • The Terrestrial Planets
  • The Jovian Planets
  • Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors
  • The Kuiper Belt
  • Why Pluto was Demoted
  • Solar System Formation

Lesson 12: Life in the Universe

  • Introduction
  • The Search for Planets around other Stars
  • The Prospects for Life in the Solar System
  • The Prospects for Life in the Milky Way
  • The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Course assignments

ASTRO 801 will rely upon a variety of methods to assess and evaluate student learning, including

  • automated online quizzes to keep track of student performance in individual lessons and to help instructors to ensure that students complete required assignments on schedule. Quizzes will include multiple-choice, matching, and short answer questions. For example, students might be presented with an HR Diagram plotting the colors and magnitudes for a population of stars. They would then be asked to identify the region of the diagram that includes all of the helium burning stars by clicking on the plot. Whether they answer correctly or incorrectly, students will immediately receive textual and sometimes graphic feedback.
  • required participation in online discussion groups to provide opportunities for instructors to gauge students’ progress. Instructors will pose weekly problems and ask students to debate likely solutions. Subsequent small group discussions will reveal students' abilities to effectively articulate key concepts.
  • laboratory exercises using software simulations: students will investigate several different concepts by taking data, analyzing the data, and reporting their results.
  • a capstone project that will be used to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills through the production of a learning module that they, in turn, will be able to use to teach course concepts to their own secondary school students.

About Canvas

Penn State uses an online course management system called Canvas to deliver most of its online courses to registered students. Even though the course content for Astro 801 is open and available without having to go through a secure system, registered students need a secure way to submit assignments, receive grades, and get access to additional course material that supplements the lessons here.

How our course space in Canvas is organized

I made the default home page in Canvas the "Modules" page on which you will find a list of this course's lessons in order. If you expand the list you will get a link that goes to the this website where the content lives, and you will also see links to the discussions and assignments that you need to turn in for each lesson. It is probably easiest to keep two tabs open when you are working on this course: one tab for the course content material, and one tab for Canvas.

If you have any problems with Canvas, you should tell me right away and also contact the IT Service Desk [5].

This page provides information about Canvas, Penn State's new online learning management system.

Quick Guide for Students

If you are new to Canvas, it is strongly recommended that you complete the PSU: Canvas Student Orientation [6]. 

You may also want to review the Canvas Student Getting Started Guide [7] to acclimate yourself further, and watch the following (6:47) video:

200 - Canvas Overview for Students [8] from Canvas LMS [9] on Vimeo [10].

Click for Transcript of Canvas Overview

In this video, you will get a brief overview of the Canvas user interface. The Canvas user interface has three main components: the Dashboard, Global Navigation, and Sidebar. The Dashboard is the first thing you see when you log into Canvas. It provides a high-­level overview across all your courses. The Dashboard has two different viewing options, ­ the course view or the recent activity stream. The Dashboard course view includes a course card for each of your favorite courses. Each card can include up to four tabs, which represent the four main Canvas features for student course activity: Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, and Files. These tabs mimic visibility and order in Course Navigation, so, for instance, if an instructor hides the Announcements link, the Announcements tab will not be displayed. The total number of activities are indicated on the appropriate tab with a number icon. You can directly access these recent activities by clicking the tab.

You can change a couple settings for your course cards by clicking the card Settings icon. First, you can create nicknames for your courses to help you organize your dashboard. In the Nickname text field, enter the nickname for your course. Click the Apply button. The new nickname will appear. Course nicknames appear in the Dashboard, Course Navigation Menu, course breadcrumbs, and notification e-mails and only changes the name of the course for the individual user who created the nickname. If users need to know the original name of the course, they can hover over the nickname and the original name will appear. To remove a nickname, open the card settings and remove the nickname. The Nickname field will display the original name of the course. Click the Apply button to save changes. You can also change the color for your course cards. In the card settings, select the color you would like to assign to the card. You can also enter a HEX code for any color. Then click Apply.

To view the recent activity stream, click the toggle to the right. The recent activity stream view contains a stream of recent notifications from all your courses, including announcements, discussions, assignments, and conversations. New or unread activities are shown by the blue indicator dot. You can view the details of each activity by hovering in the notification area and clicking the Show More link. To collapse recent activity, click the Show Less link. You can directly access your recent activities by clicking the link. To remove a notification, click the remove icon.

Another interface component is the Global Navigation, which is a static menu on the left side of the page that gives you direct access to your courses and other information in Canvas. This menu is accessible from any page within Canvas. To modify your user settings or profile, click the Account link. You can also specify your notification preferences, upload personal files, or manage ePortfolios here. Click the Logout link to Logout of Canvas. To hide the slide­out menu, just click the menu link again or click the close icon. Click the Dashboard link to return to the Canvas Dashboard at anytime.

By clicking Courses, you can access your individual courses or view a list of all courses in which you are enrolled. Here, you can customize the courses that display on your Dashboard and in your Courses list by clicking the stars next to the course names. Click Groups to access any groups in which you are enrolled or to view a list of all your groups. Click the Calendar link to view the global calendar, which shows an aggregated view of all assignments and events from each of your courses. The Inbox link will take you to your Conversations. You can compose and send new messages to other students and teachers here, or view any existing conversations. And click the Help link to access help resources, including the Canvas Guides, the Canvas Community, or Canvas Support. If you ever have a problem with Canvas, be sure to click the “Report a Problem” link to get help from a support agent. This link may not be available to all Canvas users.

The last interface component is the Sidebar. On your dashboard, the sidebar includes a To Do list, Coming Up feed, Recent Feedback, and a View Grades button. The To Do list helps you keep track of assignments that you need to complete. Click any assignment link and Canvas will direct you to the appropriate page. You can also click the close icon next to any item to ignore the assignment. The Coming Up feed lists upcoming assignments and events within your courses. Under Recent Feedback, you will see the latest comments from instructors or peers on previously submitted assignments. Click the View Grades button to quickly access the grades for any of your courses. Note that when viewing Canvas with a small screen resolution, any sidebar content aligns with the bottom of the page.

Now, let’s visit a course and take a look at the course interface. The course interface consists of 4 main components: the Course Navigation, the Content Area, the Breadcrumb Navigation, and the Sidebar. The course navigation menu provides links to the different areas of your course. Your instructors have the ability to customize this menu, so it may vary slightly from course to course. This menu can be collapsed by clicking the menu icon. The content of the course will be displayed in this Content Area. The Breadcrumb Navigation shows your current location within a course and allows you to easily move to a previous screen. The Course Sidebar is similar to the Canvas Sidebar. It includes a View Course Stream link to see recent course activity, as well as your To Do list, Coming Up feed, and Recent Feedback comments.

You've now completed this Canvas Overview for Students. For additional information on this or any other topic about Canvas, just visit guides.canvaslms.com. You can also ask questions and engage with other Canvas users by visiting community.canvaslms.com.

 

Supported Browsers and Computer Configuration

The Canvas Help Center provides extensive, up-to-date documentation [11] on making sure your computer is configured properly for Canvas. Failure to follow these recommendations may result in significant issues while viewing materials, taking assessments, and using dropboxes. Use of unsupported browsers is at your own risk.

Technical Requirements

Equations

This course must be viewed using one of the following browsers: Firefox (any version), Safari (versions 5.1 or 6.0), Chrome (0.3 or later), or Internet Explorer with the MathPlayer PlugIn [12]. If you use any other browser, there will be pages containing equations that do not render properly. If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the Outreach Helpdesk [13] (for World Campus students) or the IT Service Desk [14] (for students at all other campus locations).

Using the Penn State Library

To be sure you are able to access reserve readings and other library resources in this course, visit the library’s Online Students Use of the Library [15] site. This guide outlines all that Penn State libraries offer you as an online student. It is strongly recommended that you watch the Library Orientation Videos [16] and visit the Services for Students [17] page.

If you have questions, just ASK! [18] a librarian! The ASK! page will connect you to librarians in a manner that meets your needs; e-mail, phone, or chat for a quick response.

How to Succeed in ASTRO 801

Course Communications

Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of any successful online class. The two learning environments used in the Penn State courses that use this text—Canvas and Drupal—support several kinds of communication, as described below.

Communications in Canvas

  • We will hold a number of discussions about astronomy content and teaching practice in many of the lessons.  The discussions are asynchronous, but are "threaded" and allow you to both create new discussion topics or respond to one created by a classmate.  These are hosted in Canvas and will be graded.  
    • In general, questions and comments about project assignments, and about topics in the course text that pertain to more than a single page, should be shared with the entire class via the Piazza discussion forums.  This could be done in Canvas but you will hopefully find that Piazza facilitates this type of discussion more easily. It is best to use a discussion forum instead of email, though, so everyone can benefit from the discussion.
  • Penn State email
    • The World Campus, Penn State, and I will all contact you using your PSU email (e.g., abc123@psu.edu [19]) for official communications.  If you want to have your PSU email forwarded to another email account, please visit work.psu.edu [20].  Note that this is not the same as specifying your email address in your Canvas system settings!  If you set your PSU email to forward to another email address, then of course any email that is sent to your PSU address will go to the address you specify, but if you just set an address to forward to from Canvas then only emails originating inside Canvas will go to that other address.  If you have questions about this, please post them in Piazza!
  • Instructor email
    • ​​​​​​​I will respond to email to my Penn State address (cxp137@psu.edu [21]) sent outside of Canvas, but it is best to use the Canvas inbox as that gets flagged as coming from our course and is harder for me to miss.  I will mostly use Piazza for general announcements and question responses that benefit everyone, so personal email is best for questions that only pertain to your situation.

Communications via this website

Many of the pages in this website include the option of allowing registered students to post comments, questions, and responses directly on the page. You can also request to be notified of subsequent posts by "subscribing" to these pages. Comments to pages of the course text are preferred for observations, anecdotes, questions, and responses to other comments and questions that pertain to one or a few pages of the course text.

Activity

Take a moment right now to post or reply to a comment to this page.

To post a comment, scroll down to the text box under "Post new comment" and begin typing in the text box, or you can choose to reply to an existing thread. When you are finished typing, click on either the "preview" or "post" button (post will actually submit your comment). Once your comment is posted, you will be able to edit or delete it as needed. In addition, you will be able to reply to other posts at any time. The first few words of each comment become its "title" in the thread. So, make those first three words count!

Don't see the "Post New Comment" area below? You need to be logged in to this site first! Do so by using the link at the top of the left-hand menu bar. Once you have logged in, you may need to refresh the page in order to see the comment area below.

 

Have questions? Need help?

There are many ways to get the help you need. See the "Help!" link in the Resources menu (left) to learn more about the people and resources available to you.

Getting to Know You

Now that you've had a chance to learn about the course and the online learning environment, I'd like to get to know you...and help you get to know each other! Complete the activities below, then continue with the remainder of the Course Orientation.

Activity

What you need to do...

  1. Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class!
    We will use a discussion forum in Canvas to post, and read, self-introductions. To access the discussion forum:
    • go to Canvas
    • Click on the "Modules" item in the menu on the left if you are not already there
    • click on the link to the "Course Orientation - Personal Introductions" discussion forum;
    • post a new message containing your personal introduction:
      • Who are you?
      • What do you do when you are not taking this class?
      • What is your interest in this course?
    • view other students' postings to learn more about them.
  2. Complete the "Initial Course Survey" 
    This survey contains questions about you and your expectations for this course. You will not be graded on your answers.  However, participating in this survey is does count towards your discussion forum grade. To access the Initial Course Survey:
    • go to Canvas
    • Click on the "Modules" item in the menu on the left if you are not already there
    • click on the link to the "Course Orientation - Initial Course Survey" and complete the survey.

 

Summary and Final Tasks

Activity

Time to take the Course Information Quiz!

By now, you hopefully have a much better idea of what this course, and the online course environment, will be like. Time to test your skills! Once you have reviewed all of the materials for the Course Orientation, you will need to take the "Course Information Quiz" and pass it with a score of 90% or better in order to unlock the assignment dropboxes for this course. You can take the quiz as many times as you need until you obtain at least a 90%.

  • Go to Canvas
  • Click on "Modules" on the left hand menu if you are not there already.
  • Click on the link to the "Course Orientation - Course Information Quiz" and complete the quiz.

Good luck!

Reminder - Complete all of the Course Orientation tasks!

You have reached the end of the Course Orientation! Double-check the to-do list on the Course Orientation Overview page to make sure you have completed all of the activities listed there before you begin Lesson 1. (To access Lesson 1, use the link in the "Course Outline" menu at left.)

Tell us about it!

If you have anything you'd like to comment on, or add to, the course orientation materials, feel free to post your thoughts below.


Source URL: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/l1.html

Links
[1] https://piazza.com
[2] http://Earth.e-education.psu.edu
[3] http://gis.e-education.psu.edu/
[4] http://www.Earthscienceworld.org/images
[5] http://itservicedesk.psu.edu/canvassupport
[6] https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1780857
[7] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4121
[8] https://vimeo.com/74677642
[9] https://vimeo.com/canvaslms
[10] https://vimeo.com
[11] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1284
[12] http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathplayer/download.htm
[13] http://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/student-services/helpdesk
[14] http://helpdesk.psu.edu/
[15] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/onlinestudentlibraryguide
[16] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/c.php?g=516093&p=3540088
[17] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/c.php?g=516093&p=3540332
[18] http://ask.libraries.psu.edu/?stream=8
[19] mailto:abc123@psu.edu
[20] http://work.psu.edu
[21] mailto:cxp137@psu.edu