So far this year we’ve learned about lab safety, DNA and genetics, chemical processes, and energy transformation and conservation. For our final science unit of the school year, we focused on astronomy. I hadn’t learned about astronomy since elementary school so throughout this short unit there was quite a bit I learned that I didn’t know about before. Throughout this unit, we learned about our own solar system as well as other solar systems. Our project for this unit was a group project having to do with a project in a category of our choice.
The first thing we did for this unit was download an app called star chart. This app is really good because it allows you to see the stars positions in the Sky during different dates. With this app we completed an assignment to determine the different moon phases and appearance from the earth and sun. At first I didn’t really understand how to do this but after some explanation and help from my peers I understood it and found it quite easy to complete the chart. We also listened to a CBC podcast discussing why Uranus smells like farts. Here is the article and podcast:
Uranus smells like farts, scientists confirm | CBC Radio
New research not only confirms the long-held scientific suspicion that Uranus stinks, but also provides insight into how the planets in our solar system were formed.
After learning a little bit about astronomy, we were introduced to our project. We were given the choice of choosing from a couple of different topics which we could deepen our learning and do further research. The possible topics included:
Radioactivity and radiation in space
Nuclear reactions (how stars work)
Possibility of colonization on other planets
Star life cycle
The Big Bang theory
Components and scale of our solar system
As this was a partner project in groups of two, Mimi was my partner, which I was really happy about because we work really well together. We ended up focusing on the components and scale of our Solar System. To start off the project we had to come up with a driving question. Our first idea for a question was something along the lines of how can we make a scale model of our solar system. However after getting some feedback from our peers and teacher we decided to change our driving question to make it more challenging as the first question was too easy.
For our project we decided to look into the units of measurement in our solar system. The units we researched included light years, parsecs and arc seconds. All of these units were very interesting especially because I didn’t really know anything about them before this project. For example parsecs is the unit used most by astronomers as it is the most accurate unit of measurement in space. With all the information we gathered we then created a keynote presentation to show our understanding of what we had learned from researching. This is the keynote we created if you want to take a look:
Also to teach the class about these astronomical units, we created a question for the class to answer. This is an example of communication which is one of the core competencies we use in our project. Another core competency we included was critical thinking in the research stages of our project. After we presented we decided which core competencies we wanted to be marked on. We decided to choose planning and conducting, processing and analyzing data, evaluating and communicating.Here is the evaluation we got on our project from our teacher:
Throughout other group’s presentations I learned a lot ranging from the life cycle of a star to whether it would be possible to colonize another planet. Everyone’s topics were super interesting to learn about and I could definitely connect the research we did to parts in other people’s projects. Our project especially connected to the Big Bang theory project as without the Big Bang nothing in our universe would exist. To connect everything I learned and bring all the information together I created a mind map to show what I learned throughout this project and unit.
In the end, I learned a lot in the short amount of time we had for this unit. Throughout this project I definitely think I used the core competencies in the research stages, as well as the presentation part. I definitely learned a lot that I didn’t know about before and although this is the last project of the year I think overall this year has taught me a lot that will help me in the years to come in science.