Earth and Space Wrapping Up

To wrap up the semester, I decided to set up a bunch of guest speakers.

First up is a writer for space.com on the latest in astronomy apps, and astronomer -  Mr. Chris Vaughan (@astrogeoguy)  He arrived at the school at 8:15pm and 12+ students came trickling in afterwards.  It was a tough time for the majority of my class as there were many tests and assignments due that particular week.  A definite reason to not run this workshop towards the end of the semester.  Next time I'll change the time of year this occurs.    

@trudeauhs checking out Jupiter on trudeau hs pic.twitter.com/uo8166oa1m

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) June 10, 2016

Nevertheless, we saw the moon in spectacular detail, then Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and then a whole host of stars came out.  Antares, the "equal to-Mars" star, which twinkled, giving away its star status making it distinguishable from Mars.  We saw Vega, the brightest star in the summer sky.  Other salient and very interesting things in the sky was the ISS and the iridium flash by a satellite.

@trudeauhs We got a snap of Saturn thru @astrogeoguy 's telescope. Thx for teaching us about telescopes & night sky! pic.twitter.com/JapnU7u5o4

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) June 11, 2016

Second up was Ms. Julie Lum, parent council chair for the past 3 years as well as a geologist + engineer for the Suncor/Shell.  We managed to tag-team this presentation, as I helped convert her quiz into a kahoot.it.  The change from last year's presentation to this year's was impressive as she incorporated videos and presented Shell's vision of clean energy and latest in fracking in an engaging presentation.  It's pretty cool to see a parent council chair who is willing to try teaching.  As a parent of 3, parent council chair, and now a 'teacher', she has put on hats as a parent, administrator, and teacher.

he skillfully guided students through their misconceptions of the universe.  He would take students' inputs and ideas and weigh them by guiding them through logic  - pulling on some of their ideas, like a loose thread, until it came loose.  He followed them through on their misconceptions to point out its weakness from their own logic that he helped guide to eventually crumble their misconceptions.

He arrived early, and I gave him the option of speaking to grade 9s.  He held a Q&A session.  He taught with humility and incredible openness.  The questions that those grade 9s asked (most of which came from my ex-grade 9 math students who I have encouraged to ask questions) were great - how is the universe expanding, how big is the universe, why is it so much harder to breathe as you get higher, how do we measure how big things are, etc.  Again - he has never taught grade 9s, but his ability to take such difficult concepts and simplify it for them was like watching Michaelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel.  He used anecdotes, simple math analogies, and drew upon everyday experiences to satisfy their questions.

He apparently teaches astronomy to humanities students - UT forces humanities students to take a science.  I could see that he used the same tone with my high school students - where every word he used was measured and carefully selected so as to keep his audience engaged no matter how difficult the concept.  I could tell that he used this tone and linguistic style for both the grade 9s and grade 12s as there was one hint where this 'armor' broke - one of my grade 12 students asked how can the universe be simultaneously infinite in size and infinite in mass.  His tone and pacing changed ever so slightly as the question started to enter the realm of math.  He excitedly rattled off the density equation and explained how the beginning of the universe can be infinite (because the universe is anything and everything that will be), but also be small in volume, exploding the density to infinity.

A colleague pointed out that I can do this same process as the professor with my math students - where I can help guide a student to use their own logic to to help them see the error of their own math solution.  And it's true...I can do that because I know the subject matter.  I just don't know my astronomy well enough to get to that level.  So it was spectacular to watch and see this occur for an astronomy course.

His visit, among many things, showed me that I have a long way to go as a teacher.  It was really fun to watch the art of teaching.  Time to get to work!

Modelling the Expansion of the Universe

When teaching the space portion of this course, there isn't a lot of labs I can do when I compare with the chemistry, biology, or physics teachers.

However, when I do get the chance to do a lab - I'll jump on it.

Here we are, modelling the expansion of the universe with elastics trying to get something similar to Hubble's constant.  Each paperclip represents a galaxy and when you stretch the elastics in between each galaxy, you measure the change in distance from one chosen home galaxy and the others.

Fig 1: I hope they fixed the crooked rulers...

It's a lab that can be done with my grade 9s.  However, the analysis level and connection to the actual expansion of space might not be up to a level that I would like.

I've had some interesting error analysis questions as well as deep questions that strive for true understanding.  (ie:  improvement of measurement in the above picture - ie:  use of tiles? )  What this actually models and how it holds up to current theories about the universe and where it breaks down - all of these are important aspects of the lab that I hope we extract at some point.

Earth and Space Science - my second year teaching

Second semester has arrived, and that means it's earth and space science time!  This is the second year teaching it, and my goodness, my comfort level with this course has skyrocketed.

It certainly helps that my wife is teaching the same course, and we are learning it at the same time.  On our road trips, we wouldn't listen to music - we would download audiobooks and lectures from Neil Degrasse Tyson and Robert Hazen and get the education we needed in space and earth respectively.  I have read most of Carl Sagan's Cosmos book (thanks to last year's students who bought me that book)  and the textbook that my students use.  I know...my wife and I are both geeks.  But, we both love learning.  Here is the comparison of how I feel from last year compared to this year:

• I can now elaborate on my slides as opposed to just reading.  
• I can answer a good percentage of questions that they have.  (at least thus far)
• The engagement level is much higher, even with a much bigger class of 27. 

It's weird - but I'm changing the way I will teach this.  I understand that the students mostly take this course for space - so I will put all the cosmology stuff at the beginning.  However, with the next 4 strands - I will be spiralling through the curriculum.  I will weave my way starting with a little bit of minerals, to touch upon volcanoes, geologic time in the first spiral.  My second spiral will weave through rocks, more volcanoes, geologic time and and planet formation.  The rest of the spiral organization is laid out with my thought processes here, with each column representing one spiral.

Now that I have tried the spiral curriculum when I taught grade 9 applied math, I know what advantages and disadvantages it has.  I know what content lends itself to each of the linear and spiral curriculum.  

One of the coolest things that I have been emphasizing thus far is the contribution of females to this science. Astronomy and cosmology is a science that we're still learning much about and we certainly don't understand much of it even at this point.  We are still developing tools to study what's way out there.  (Hello gravity waves!)  Females now have more access to education than 200 years ago, and one can see their contributions from Leavitt's discovery between absolute brightness and periodicity between maximum and minimum brightness to today's Lisa Randall's "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs".  Now that women can touch telescopes and things are opening up for them a little, we will see more and more contributions like Lisa Randall's.  I certainly enjoyed her lecture at the Toronto Reference Library.  

I'll show the Cosmos reboot episode entitled "Sister's of the Sun" by Neil deGrasse Tyson later on this week to show other men and women's contribution to our understanding of space and stars.

My ultimate frisbee team is also asking for more practices and they're getting anxious because they're unfamiliar with the system.  Looks like more 5am wakeups for me!

Spaces with Space with Volcanoes on the Pacific Rim

As you are approaching your final exams (not all of you...I'm looking at you grade 11s) with less than enthused study sessions, may I present to you some beautiful finds in the past month.

GoPro and SpaceX
SpaceX attached a GoPro camera to their falling module.  Just to see the Earth in all of its beauty in the resolution and motion that a GoPro can capture makes me feel like I myself am floating on the edge of the atmosphere.  The waltz music almost makes me forget about the heat and friction that accompany the falling back towards Earth - I was kind of looking forward to seeing that portion of the fall, but SpaceX elected to cut that out.

Feast your eyes, and then please go back to studying.

Star Party
Around 20 parents and students came on out two nights ago to watch Chris Vaughan of the Dunlop Observatory setup three telescopes to watch the night sky for almost 3 hours.  He was such a wealth of knowledge taking us from a pair of binary stars to swans to even spotting the ISS.  He masterfully had us observe Venus, then Jupiter, and then followed the ecliptic to find a third planet - Saturn!  I look forward to working with Chris again, and hopefully we can book him for another season to observe a different night sky.

Volcanoes

Remember how the study of Earth is also a part of the course?  Did you hear that our guest Chris Vaughan (see above) couldn't get a summer job after first year when he didn't have any geology courses, but after second year in university where he elected to take geology courses, he and all of his friends got summer job offers?  Don't neglect the geology portion of the course ladies and gents.  Here is a reminder of the power of our very own Earth shown in this Mount Shindake volcano video in which Japan raised the volcano alert level to 5, which is the highest on the scale.

NASA Mission to Europa

Looks like there's a mission to Jupiter's moon and they've chosen 9 instruments to help determine if this moon is habitable.  Guess which instruments they are?  (we've studied a couple of them in class!)

Hey, you're still here?  You should be studying...or blogging.  

Quakes, a Creationist Geologist, and Table Turning Planets

It's been a while, hasn't it? Senioritis is hitting the grade 12s in our class pretty hard, and it seems to be taking a toll on my blogging frequency as well.  No matter how hard senioritis hits the students though, plate tectonics keep building stress, magma is rolling, and disasters strike.  One must always work hard and be prepared.

I learned a lot this week from your presentations on past earthquakes and volcanoes.  Great job everyone.  The MA and OH's Chilean volcano coverage and LL and JL's Tongshan earthquake presentation really had me engaged throughout the twenty minutes.

Nepal

Nepal had a second major earthquake with a Richter magnitude of 7.3.  It's been very difficult for help to reach the more remote areas of the mountains, and the transportation of emergency supplies has been slow as a result.  An article was brought to mind as BL was performing his presentation where he creatively prepped us as volunteers:  random volunteers of students, church congregations or anyone else who go to help out but who also lack skills or coordination can actually slow down the aid process.  Sending money is the best thing we can do according to this article at the Guardian.  Read this reflection on how volunteers who attempted to help out in Haiti may have slowed down the process.

Texas

1 earthquake in 58 years prior to 2008.  Once fracking began, there have been over 100 mini earthquakes reported since 2008.  An interesting correlation, is it not? Read more at CNN

A Refreshing Perspective

Finally, a creationist has stood up in our class to counter the views - albeit on paper, and not in class. One day, I hope to see a serious, respectful discussion regarding how a creationist views some of these scientific ideas we learn about.  Nevertheless, here's a very different perspective - a geologist, who understands and believes in the stories that rocks tell us in terms of age (4.5 billion year old earth) and is bent on trying to reconcile Noah's great flood story with the rocks he studies.  Read more here on his journey.

The Tables have Turned

Our current theory and understanding of planetary formation has been called into question by Australian National University as they have found found a larger exoplanet orbiting a smaller sun.  Check it out here, on discovery.com!

Post March Break

Advertisements for Other Exoplanets

As Mars One whittles down to its finals to sending humans on a one way mission to Mars, NASA has already started advertising for other exoplanets outside of our solar system but seem to have habitable environments.  Here is my favourite.  Which one is yours? 

Extent of Human Broadcasts

You know, sometimes I wonder if aliens will come and visit our Earth because of the recording on Voyager 1 that is "rolling out the red carpet" by giving the directions to our Earth blindly to any extra-terrestrial life out there.  Then, I remember, even though our radio broadcasts are moving at the speed of light, our first radio broadcast in the early 1900s has only reached this far in our milky way galaxy:

There are 100 billion galaxies out there, and our radio broadcasts haven't even reached the edge of our one galaxy yet.  

4/9 Boundaries Crossed...Until Planetary Destruction

So, apparently, we're almost halfway to human destruction.  The speed with which the diversity of living beings is decreasing (biodiversity loss) and the amount of nitrogen we are taking out of atmosphere have also been passed.  It's like we're slowly checking off things to our own extinction...check...check...

Well - I'm doing my best to reduce my carbon footprint after my wife and I purchased a hybrid.  

I like Earth.  "If you like it, put a ring on it".  The closest ring I can put on Earth is:

                                                        (from reddit...of course)

We are creating minerals and identifying minerals this week.  I can't wait to see who wins the crystal growing competition!  

Ginormous Black Hole 

A couple of weeks ago, the largest black hole with an ultraluminous quasar has been found.  You can see how many times bigger it is than anything else that we've found by looking at the graph below.  Props to the international team lead by Xue-Bing Wu of Peking University.  Check out more here!  

Creating a Different Kind of Life

A team of Cornell University researchers has successfully modeled a methane based, oxygen free life form that can metabolize and reproduce.  This points to the possibility of life on other places that are really cold with methane, like Saturn's moon Titan.   

Emotional about Space

I hope you guys get professors like this who absolutely love their job in the next few years.  This professor Tom Burns really gets emotional talking about space.  Couple that with an Inception soundtrack, and then maybe some goosebumps may rise.    

Mars and Water

Using the riverbeds of Mars mapped out by the rovers, artists have created an image of Mars when it was covered in water.  

Gravitational Lensing

Whoa, those presentations were quite impressive last week. We had tremendous discussions involving gravitational lensing; its effect has also given us a rerun of a supernova.  Check it out!

Exciting Stuff on Earth and in Space

Large holes of ground continue to disappear into the depths of Earth somewhere in Siberia.  There were many hypothesis behind the sudden collapse of ground - ranging from nuclear testing to the end of the world.  Check out more on iflscience!

The Mars' Rover, Curiosity, recorded a long burst of methane that lasted about 2 months.  Methane is a molecule that points to either 1)  the existence of hydrothermal systems or 2) some bacteria or alien cows farting.  It's an exciting development that may point to life on Mars.  Current life.

Curiosity, the rover, takes a selfie

Nacho Average Cheese.  The oldest piece of cheese has been found.  Using dating techniques that we will study in 2 months from now, the cheese, from 1615 BC, was discovered in clumps on mummies of Bronze Age people buried under wooden boats wrapped in cowhide.  This burial ritual created a vacuum packing effect that's better than our ziplock bag in our kitchens!  Read some more here on popscience.

I shall end off this post with a tremendous video from NASA.  NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory released time lapse videos of extreme violet, ultraviolet, and visible light.  We get to see solar flares and prominences up close and personal:

Welcome, Class of 2015

Whoa, another Earth-like planet was discovered, and some NASA scientists say it has probable life!  It is 'only' about 500 ly away from us, and its orbit is in the 'habitable' zone, a similar distance as we are away from the sun!    Check out the video below for further details.

A question was asked to me the other day - how do super massive black holes come into existence? Well, one way for a black hole to be a billion times bigger than our sun, is to merge black holes, of course!  Behold, a simulation of two merging black holes.

Oh my - some research into Einstein's equation has some scientists claiming that there was no big bang and that this universe has always existed.  Their math has the universe at a finite size, and thus an infinite age.  We will see how much traction this gets, if other scientists jump on board or find some error in their assumptions, or even their math!  Read more here at phys.org.  

The big four of Jupiter's moons were on display last month.  Take a look at this spectacular footage. Make sure you don't mistake the shadows on Jupiter for moons!  Read more at one of the more popular space blogs, Bad Astronomy. 

With so many questions in class regarding dark matter, I just wanted to post this oldie from popular science that really showcases how hard our scientists are at work trying to find dark matter.

An amazing animated GIF showcasing the powers of our current telescopes shows the pillars in monkey head nebula.  It starts with the constellations we see in the night sky, and demonstrates how far back in space/time we're able to see.  It's beautiful and really a sight to take in.  

Ok - now it's your turn to blog!  Find ONE topic and start going in depth.  Good luck!

Closing the door on 2014 and Diving into 2015

Curiosity, the Mars Probe, Confirms Organics on Mars
We briefly went over the biobits that were necessary for life to begin on Earth.  Similar biobits, the building blocks of life, were found by the Mars rover Curiosity.  Combine this fact with the finding that Martian soil is 2% water, methane gas has been found in the atmosphere, a huge ancient lake was found, and these organics did not come from Earth - we have more scientists scrambling to find out what is or was on Mars!  Check it out!

                                  A photo, courtesy of CBC, of Curiosity - the Rover


ET is (probably) out there - Get Ready
If you're into videos - here's a TED talk from a SETI researcher who bets that we will find life out there in the next 24 years by discussing the new tech and laws of probability.

Don't Discount Planets with Horizontal Spinning Axis
In the search for extra terrestrial life, astronomers have always been looking at planets with similar characteristics as Earth.  No tilt to small tilt was one aspect that seemed to always be a characteristic until scientists at MIT have explained that planets that is spinning on a horizontal axis similar to Uranus could support life as long as the planet was completely covered in deep ocean.   Check it out here, at phys.org!

Since we Keep Talking about Life...
You guys enjoyed the last circular evolution animated GIF - look at how embroyos develop into babies.  Feast your eyes on this one.

New Photos from Rosetta Comet Landing
At the American Geophysical Union they spent the time to discuss the newest pictures released from Philae, the probe that's currently sitting on the comet.  They will wait until the comet approaches the sun at a different angle - sometime in March or April - Philae will then be able to use the sun's energy to power up and gather/send more data.  See here for more photos.

NASA to be Overfunded in 2015
Looks like excitement is building up in the space field.  So much so that NASA got MORE money than they asked for - $364 million more for a total of $18 billion.

Working for NASA would be pretty cool. Maybe Interstellar got me.  Or maybe these NASA employees doing this lip dub got me excited...

Working towards the Xmas Deadline

I understand that many of you are working on some scholarships, other courses (yikes - multiple tests for all courses this week), and layer B; but I assure you, scientists, researchers, and rovers are all trying to hit deadlines and non-stop working.

A New Theory on the Origin of Life
We spent a few days dissecting the origin of life; how did Earth go from rocks, to life?

Jeremy England, an assistant professor at MIT, has a new theory published.  Here's an excerpt from Quanta Magazine:

"... indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy...you start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get plant..."

For further info, listen to one of his multiple talks or you can look at his published paper "Statistical Physics of Self Replication".


Rosetta Findings Add to Debate of How Water Arrived on Earth
The more comprehensive findings of the comet that Philae has landed on is yet to be released; it takes about a year for the best quality pieces to be observed, analyzed, tested and written about.  However, an interesting one has already come out and it's caused enough of a stir that it's been reported by the weathernetwork.com. One of the more popular hypothesis of the origin of our water is that it came from comets and asteroids - but this more scientific description from NASA has been written here and they've concluded that water from comets such as the one they're studying now couldn't have been the source of our water.  The water at this comet has 3 times the amount of deuterium than our Earth water.

The Importance of Writing in Science
As we are closing to the end of the course, Mr. McCumber and I will be asking for some of your feedback on the organization of the course.  I understand that it may have been writing heavy for some of you, but even post-secondary education is slowly putting some emphasis on the writing as can be seen in this article from the Atlantic.

"Scientists need to know how to write to get their work published and get grants—it's an important skill that people assume they already have [once they reach a certain level], so no one ever teaches them how to write well in these specific formats...research is king, and it's important," she said, but over the past decade universities have started to pay more attention to the "soft skills" that scientists also need."

The Difference between Skeptics and Deniers
It's important to respect everyone's opinion.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion and so here is a bit of mine:  while some of those pro creationist essays I read over the past week had well-formed arguments and fall into the 'skeptics' of Darwin's evolution, others' essays fall into the "denier" category as further defined by a blog post over at Quarks and Quasars.

"Skeptics want evidence; they seek it; they find it; then they accept it. Deniers do not want real evidence and they won’t accept any if it is brought before them.  A person who rejects an idea that is backed by scientific evidence is a denier, and they are anti-science."

Alright, so that wraps up this week's post.  Let me know what you guys think.  Let's finish the last week strong!

Trying to Improve my Curating Skills

Last post regarding evolution was the first one that really attracted much of your attention.  I have to work on what content makes it up here.  I hope this week doesn't let you down!

First up is regarding a spectacular find on unearthing neanderthals.  In class, we're currently learning about fossilization and how it has helped paint the picture of evolution and how the world used to be. Although they found this cave of 12 neanderthals last year, they're still reporting and finding new things as they continue their analysis of the quartz and chert tools.  All three types of absolute age dating has placed these neanderthals at an age of 40,000+ years.  Incredible.

Up next is a fantastic imaginary video of what human exploration will be like in the near future.  All footage is based on real photos of the planets.  This could be a reality in your lifetime!  

Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.

A Medley of Items

Europa's Icy Plate Tectonics Supporting Life
This is an oldie but a goodie.  It relates to our upcoming chapter on geologic time and life.  New Scientist is reporting that Jupiter's moon, Europa, is currently undergoing plate tectonics.  The difference?  Europa's plates are made entirely of ice due to its distance from the sun.  No other planet is currently undergoing plate tectonics in our solar system, and with Europa's abundance of water, any similarities to Earth elicits excitement to those of us in search of extracurricular life.

Turning Peanut Butter into Diamond
Another reason why not to buy your significant other a diamond - it now can be created from peanut butter.  By trying to simulate Earth's scorching and pressure cooked conditions, scientist Dan Frost somehow stumbled upon creating a diamond from peanut butter.  Aren't you wondering why peanut butter was inside his experiment in the first place?  Read here for more!

Update in Hawaii - House Toppling Lava
The volcano that erupted in June 27 has slowly made its way 13.5 miles to this house.  Even after four months, this leading edge lava has still reached 1149 degrees Celsius, enough to melt this house in its path.  The family watched from far away as their house toppled over. This is somewhat upsetting. 

Rosetta - Finally Landing its Comet Rover
History will be made as humanity will now be landing rover Philae on a comet.  Here is a tremendous infographic depicting space satellite Rosetta and rover Philae's journey so far.

Relative Size of Planets and Breaking News on Plate Tectonics

Here's a cool picture depicting the relative size of the planets.  I've probably shown this a couple times already, but it's just one of those things that is interesting for me to see again and again.  

Breaking news: our geology plate tectonics textbook has to be updated again if other geologists confirm this finding.  Turns out the tectonic plates aren't rigid and there is shrinking and deformation of plates due to the plates cooling.  Check it out here if you want more info.  

Impressive Infographic

A reddit user has posted a spectacular infographic visually explaining how every planet in the solar system would be able to fit between Earth and our own moon.  I didn't believe it myself, and was about to go and dig up all diameters of each planet - but, it's already done.  Also, Wolfram-Alpha, the google for calculations, can give the total diameter in one query.  

Physics Demos from Space - What Happens in a Weightless Environment?

This is a long exposure shot of the Earth from the ISS.  What do you think are those blue spots on the Earth as well as those blue streaks in space?  Leave the possibilities in the comment section below.  

If you want more from this particular astronaut, he's completed many physics experiments in space, taking advantage of the weightless environment.

Potential Martians, Moving Rocks, Canadian Space Work Opportunity, and more Space Selfies

1)  Trending on reddit:  "Cell-like structure found within 1.3 billion-year-old martian meteorite.  Exciting news, except for the fact that it was a misleading title.  If you read further into the article, the professor leading the team's investigation of the meteorite says: "... our research found that it probably wasn’t a cell but that it did once hold water – water that had been heated, probably as a result of an asteroid impact.”  Well, there was water.  That's somewhat significant in itself to warrant a link and a picture.  

2)  Perfect timing for our 'earth processes' unit.  Rocks are moving in Death Valley.  See more pics here.

3)  An innovative new Canadian space company has just started their company.  You want a job in space?  You need to start preparing for your job as soon as yo ucan.  So start following this company.

4)  More astronaut selfies while they do work maintaining the ISS.  See more on Discovery.

Lunar Eclipse Timelapse

Title of imgur post:  Tried my hand at a timelapse-type shot last night, very happy with the results.

Most upvoted comment:  Sometimes I wonder what life might be like if I had motivation and talent...

"No matter how many mistakse you make, or how slow you progress - you're still ahead of everyone who isn't trying."  - Tony Robbins

Remix Humanity's Mixtape

So, Voyager 1 is now 11 billion miles from Earth. It is continually playing a mix of audio that contains directions on how to find Earth as well as many of humanity's most important cultural music. You guessed right, there's no Justin Bieber on it.

If you could send out audio clips, what would you put on it?

Anyway, here are all the audio sounds which contain "the music of Igor Stravinksy and Chuck Berry, human greetings in dozens of languages, the staccato of an infant's cry, an urgent train whistle, choruses of crickets, and a whale's ethereal song."   I'm not sure if really any aliens would understand this, but this is really about sharing to the aliens what we really are and we all sound like on earth.

Keep in mind, this is what was sent out 37 years ago when Voyager was first launched. WARNING: It's 5 hours long.

Cute Comic

I shall only post the first few panels of the following comic by Treelobsters.  Click on here to get the rest - it's cute and will bring a smile to your face.