Friends, peers, and Rani:
Thank you for taking the time to come to my blog post. It was another very exciting week in Astronomy 2110, making my job today easy. First and foremost, we must comment on Dr. G’s style choice on Thursday. My dad, who sat in on the class, cannot stop telling family and friends how proud he is to send his son to “a school where an Astronomy Professor can wear Rhinestones to class and fit right in.” It was awesome, Dr. G.
There were a few activities that we did in class this week that stood out, but first I’d like to discuss our abnormal class on Thursday. In somewhat lucky fashion, the breaking news of the first ever detection of gravitational waves was released. Walking into class, I figured we would spend a minute or two discussing the news before moving on to the planned agenda. Clearly, Dr. G had other plans. We spent over half of the class discussing the recent findings and went into great depth on the groundbreaking subject. Do you guys think that was a good decision by Dr. G considering the fact we have a test next week? Contrasting our discussion last week about the importance of science history, what do you all think about the importance of current events in science? Do they help us understand what we are learning or distract us from the actual content of our course?
Furthermore, like we discussed two weeks ago, I must mention the use of visuals and activities in our astronomy class. On Tuesday, we did the spacetime simulation using a latex glove and metal balls, and on Thursday we watched YouTube videos on the gravitational wave discovery and the impact that our universe has on tides on Earth. We also did a light refraction grading experiment. Is Dr. G’s use of visuals and experiments worth the amount of time that they take to do? I think they are, but I also have a tough time understanding astronomy conceptually. Would you change anything about the way these concepts were presented to us?
I hope these questions get everyone thinking in a direction you wouldn’t normally think in! I know this stuff is all new to me. Hope you all are having a fun weekend. Look forward to reading your responses and discussing further on Tuesday.
Best regards,
Jonathan
