Methods II: Week 8

What did we do in lab this week?

This week in lab, we focused on presenting our group slides covering several different ideas. We were able to practice teaching about these topics rather than just sitting and listening and learning ourselves. Being able to teach our classmates helped us to practice some of the tactics we have been seeing and learning about, as well as address misconceptions about each topic which we have learned how prevalent they are even in higher education. 

What was the big question?

The main themes we covered in our presentations were, the origin of the universe, lifecycles of stars, galaxies, black holes, origin of the earth, and space exploration in the past/present/future. 

What did we learn in Thursday's discussion?

We started by doing a short review about the moon phases and space. Then we discussed the Big Bang Theory as well as alternative theories. Then we went through the life cycles of stars and how/why stars are different and change. Next we talked about the origin of the earth and emphasized that Earth did not come from the Big Bang, but instead collected dust and debris from an exploded star which formed planets. We live in the Milky Way galaxy which is a spiral galaxy, and it contains about 200 billion stars. Black holes were mentioned briefly about their huge density that sucks things in where nothing can escape. Finally, we talked about travel to space about how Russians beat us there but we made it to the moon first. 

This week's reading:

- I learned: that we have a massive black hole in the center of our galaxy called Sagittarius A. 

- I found helpful: The descriptions on the lifecycles of stars helped me to think about how all stars are different because they can have different particles that were pulled in, they are in different stages, can be of different sizes, etc. and helps me comprehend what stage our sun is in and how stars end up where they are. 

- I need more info on: What caused the tiny subatomic particle in the Big Bang Theory to all of the sudden just expand? And how did something so small hold everything in our universe?

My questions/comments/concerns:

N/A

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