Projects

1
Projects

• Astro 18
• Planets and Planetary Systems, UCSC
• April 19th, 2007

2
Why projects?

• Reading, homework, lectures content
• What we know about our Solar System and others,
  and the scientific tools used to discover this
  knowledge
• Class Projects enterprise of science
• The way we really do science starting with
  hunches, making guesses, making many mistakes,
  going off on blind roads before hitting on one
  that seems to be going in the right direction
• You will choose a general topic. Then you will
  formulate your own specific questions about the
  topic, and figure out a strategy for answering
  them
• We will provide structure via milestones along
  the way, so you wont get lost

3
Projects Getting started

• Today Brainstorming about potential topics
• Today Topic selection and group formation
• Today First meeting of your group (it will meet
  weekly thereafter)
• Weekly e-mails to us from each of you how are
  things going?
• Final project outcomes last week of class
• Presentation in class
• Written report

4
Topics chosen in the past (just a sample of
whats possible!)

• Life elsewhere in the universe?
• Habitable zones in other Solar Systems
• Whats known about life in extreme environments?
• Possible life on icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn
• Solar System formation
• Whats known from observations of other stars and
  solar systems?
• Formation scenarios for terrestrial planets vs.
  giant planets
• Early history of solar systems migration of
  giant planets
• Climate
• Global warming on Earth whats the evidence, how
  are predictions made?
• Why do Venus and Mars have such different
  climates?

5
Past topics, continued

• Future space technology for solar system
  exploration
• Nuclear Powered Spacecraft and/or Solar Sails
• Solar System exploration
• Voyaging to Mars what are the benefits? how
  would you get people there? how dangerous is it?
• Back to the Moon what are the key things that
  could be learned from people going to the moon
  (in contrast to robotic spacecraft)?
• Moons of outer planets
• Icy moons comparative geology and internal
  structure
• Titan or Io
• Cosmic collisions
• Origin of the Moon was it due to a collision
  with early Earth?

6
First task today

• Brainstorm about potential project topics
• How to brainstorm
• One person serves as scribe
• Everyone suggests ideas
• Scribe writes each one down
• No criticisms allowed! Just put all the ideas
  down
• Later youll decide which questions are most
  important, most interesting, etc. DONT do that
  now.
• Split into groups of 2 or 3 (your nearest
  neighbors)
• Spend 15 minutes brainstorming about project
  topics
• Toss around as many questions as you can, write
  them down
• What are you curious about?

7
Brainstorming, continued

• Main point of brainstorming is to build on each
  others ideas
• Keeping the discussion positive (no criticisms
  allowed) encourages creativity.
• Nobody should feel turned off or discouraged
• A generally useful method in brainstorming, the
  group can actually be more creative than its
  component individuals
• Method used in businesses, arts, as well as
  science

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When 15 minutes have passed, well try to
categorize the topics

• Make groupings of related topics
• Write them on board or on sign-up sheets
• Ask you each to sign up for your first choice
• Include your name and email address
• Form groups for each topic, get together in class

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Next task in your groups

• What questions can you ask (and later answer)
  about your topic?
• Get together in your groups
• Brainstorm a list of all the possible questions
  you can ask about your chosen topic

10
Example of brainstorming list for Pluto - an
imaginary project

• Why is Pluto so small?
• What is Pluto made of? How do we know?
• How come Plutos orbit is so elliptical?
• Did Pluto used to be an asteroid? How do we
  know?
• Are there other Plutos?
• Does Pluto look like the Moon, with lots of
  craters?
• Does Pluto have an atmosphere?
• How cold is it on Pluto and Charon? Was it
  always that cold?
• What could we learn from sending a spacecraft to
  Pluto and Charon?
• How long would it take to get there? Could it go
  into orbit there?
• Does Pluto have seasons? What are they like?
• Could we change Plutos orbit into a circle if we
  wanted to?

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Next task narrow down your questions

• Think about which of your questions are most
  interesting or important
• Think about how you would address each one
• Using these criteria, narrow down your list of
  questions to 4 - 6
• Take 15 minutes

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By Thursday April 26th

• Each group look into their 4-6 questions enough
  to get an idea
• Does each question still make sense? (flesh it
  out a bit more)
• Why is each question important?
• How are they related to each other?
• What resources are available to address each
  question
• Books? Articles in magazines such as Science or
  Scientific American? Websites? Journal articles?
• Which of the group members is most interested in
  which questions, once you know a bit more about
  them?
• Each group member sign up to address 1 or 2 of
  your list of questions
• (Group) Together write a one page summary of
  what your project is
• E-mail to Claire Max (max_at_ucolick.org) this list
  (one per group), plus a short individual email
  from each person giving me feedback on how your
  group is going
• Is someone dominating the group too much? Are
  you finding the work interesting? Heres a place
  to ask advice about sources, etc.

13
By Tuesday May 8th Preliminary exploration of
topics

• First find at least 2 meaty websites and 2
  informative books about your chosen questions
• Skim them to see if they are going to be useful
  (some wont be) take notes where interesting
• Use them to put together list of other
  potentially useful books and web sites (its like
  following a trail ....), see if these are useful
• Get together and compare notes, tell each other
  what youve found
• Discuss what new questions have arisen, and ask
  whether any seem interesting enough to pursue

14
By Tuesday May 8th, continued

• Group E-mail to Claire Max (max_at_ucolick.org) and
  Stefano Meschiari (stefano_at_astro.ucsc.edu) one
  page list of at least 4 books and 4 websites
  that you plan to use, who will read which, what
  clues you have followed up, list new questions
  that have arisen, describe if and how you plan to
  pursue these new questions
• Each individual Also send Claire and Stefano a
  short email giving feedback on how your group is
  going
• Is someone dominating the group too much? Are
  you finding the work interesting? Heres a place
  to ask advice about sources, etc.