Kaidan Alenko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
not_a_whiner) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2012-09-07 06:26 am
not_a_whiner) wrote in fandomhigh2012-09-07 06:26 am
Entry tags:
Astro Sciences, Friday
The classroom was the same as it had been last week: normal, with the only tweak being the holographic blackboard at the front of the class. It was showing a three-dimensional image of the Sol system right now; Kaidan had stepped to the side to make it more visible.
"Hey," he started. "I thought we'd pick up our astronomy classes a little close to home - or maybe a little close to temporary home for some of you." He still wasn't sure how many of his students came from Earth, exactly-- so he was trying to compensate. "We're gonna be talking a lot about 21st century ideas about space exploration, the current classification system... anyway."
"The Sol system is the solar system that has the star Sol as its centerpoint," he said. "Eight planets orbit Sol: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune." He pointed at each planet as he named it. "Outside of that, we've got a couple of dwarf planets, most of which are in orbit somewhere past Neptune. At least, that's the classification system we're using in this time period. Ideas about the various planets and their standings are constantly evolving. Take Pluto, which was considered an actual planet instead of a dwarf just a couple of years ago."
"Seperating the inner planets--" he tapped Mercury, "and the outer planets--" he tapped Jupiter, "is the asteroid belt. For those of you who might not have heard of it - it's basically a large mass of rocky objects drifting in roughly the same orbit. There's another asteroid belt called the Kuiper belt right outside Neptune."
"We're going to be talking about asteroids, planets and stars in more depth later," he continued. "The fact of the matter is that science is always evolving. In my time, we know things about all of these objects that no one could have even dreamed of in this time. And we owe a lot of that to exploration. To the people who were willing to figure out how things worked, by going out there or by sending things out there. I think it's only fitting we devote our first class to them, especially considering I hear Neil Armstrong - the first human man ever to visit Earth's moon - died recently."
"I mean, think about it. Going out there all alone, not knowing what you'll find? Just because it's important for us to know more about our galaxy? Because we're not satisfied with having this big black spot all around us? Because we can't help but look up at the sky and think, 'we haven't been there yet, we should go'-- even though it's terrifying and alien-- that's remarkable, isn't it?"
He leaned back. "I want you to do a couple of things this class," he said. "First, I want you to tell me what space exploration programs you might have heard of, what they accomplished. It doesn't matter where or when you're from - just tell me. What did they learn? Was it important?"
Kaidan rolled his sleeves back up. "Second of all," he said, "I want you to pick a partner. Go out, do some research. What do people in your galaxy already know about? What don't they? What would be worth that effort for-- what's unexplored that shouldn't be? I'd like you to think about that and then work out a presentation between the two of you for next week."
That sounded scholarly, didn't it?
"Hey," he started. "I thought we'd pick up our astronomy classes a little close to home - or maybe a little close to temporary home for some of you." He still wasn't sure how many of his students came from Earth, exactly-- so he was trying to compensate. "We're gonna be talking a lot about 21st century ideas about space exploration, the current classification system... anyway."
"The Sol system is the solar system that has the star Sol as its centerpoint," he said. "Eight planets orbit Sol: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune." He pointed at each planet as he named it. "Outside of that, we've got a couple of dwarf planets, most of which are in orbit somewhere past Neptune. At least, that's the classification system we're using in this time period. Ideas about the various planets and their standings are constantly evolving. Take Pluto, which was considered an actual planet instead of a dwarf just a couple of years ago."
"Seperating the inner planets--" he tapped Mercury, "and the outer planets--" he tapped Jupiter, "is the asteroid belt. For those of you who might not have heard of it - it's basically a large mass of rocky objects drifting in roughly the same orbit. There's another asteroid belt called the Kuiper belt right outside Neptune."
"We're going to be talking about asteroids, planets and stars in more depth later," he continued. "The fact of the matter is that science is always evolving. In my time, we know things about all of these objects that no one could have even dreamed of in this time. And we owe a lot of that to exploration. To the people who were willing to figure out how things worked, by going out there or by sending things out there. I think it's only fitting we devote our first class to them, especially considering I hear Neil Armstrong - the first human man ever to visit Earth's moon - died recently."
"I mean, think about it. Going out there all alone, not knowing what you'll find? Just because it's important for us to know more about our galaxy? Because we're not satisfied with having this big black spot all around us? Because we can't help but look up at the sky and think, 'we haven't been there yet, we should go'-- even though it's terrifying and alien-- that's remarkable, isn't it?"
He leaned back. "I want you to do a couple of things this class," he said. "First, I want you to tell me what space exploration programs you might have heard of, what they accomplished. It doesn't matter where or when you're from - just tell me. What did they learn? Was it important?"
Kaidan rolled his sleeves back up. "Second of all," he said, "I want you to pick a partner. Go out, do some research. What do people in your galaxy already know about? What don't they? What would be worth that effort for-- what's unexplored that shouldn't be? I'd like you to think about that and then work out a presentation between the two of you for next week."
That sounded scholarly, didn't it?
Sign In
Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
who somehow managed to totally miss signing in last week, wtfRe: Sign In
Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
Space Programs - What Do You Know
Re: Space Programs - What Do You Know
With visual representations by way of the NASA badges on her jacket.
"And this one's Challenger," she finally wound down on, because picking up her former exuberant tone and gassing on about the shuttle program in general seemed disrespectful somehow. "The first teacher in space was supposed to be on it, but they never got that far; it broke apart in the atmosphere."
Re: Space Programs - What Do You Know
This was not Percy's strong point at all. He could do ancient Greek but space programs? Not good at all.
"Apollo 13?"
The only reason he'd thought of that was due to the movie.
Find a Partner
Re: Find a Partner
Talk to the TA
Re: Talk to the TA
Talk to the Teacher
OOC
I'll be on heavy SP today both due to work and due to the fact that me and my dad are going campaigning for the Dutch Pirate Party later today (sdflskjdfskj elections next week) so if you need me, I'll be slow.