EQ: What is the most important quality of a successful astronomy class?

(1) Define possible terms in your EQ

Important- something that is influential to other things

Quality- different "kinds", many different factors

Sucessful- useful, strong

(2) So far based on your research, what are possible answers to your EQ? 

Based on my research so far, I would say possible answers would be the following. First, the subject that deals with stars and galaxies. One of the essentials that astronomy focuses on. Another answer could be the solar system itself. This deals with the plantetary, satellites, and other object surrounding our universe. Last, I can see space travel being one of the major elements to my essential question.

(3) What has been your most important printed source and why?

The most important source has been the book that Professor Phil gave me when I interviewed him- Universe by Roger Freedman. It comes with a visual an audio cd as well. It is the most important source for now because its a recent book about astronomy. It tells you everything that you have to know and understand about the sunject before you go into teaching it. It has been very helpful.

Second Interview Questions

1. What inspired you to become an astronomy teacher?

2. From your point of view, what is the most difficult subject to teach in astronomy? 

3. What would you say your weakness and strenghts are in astronomy/teaching?

4. What is one of your favorite topics, when teaching astronomy? Why?

5. What is required in order to become an astronomy teacher?

Interview Reflection #1

What is the most important thing I learned from the interview and why? The most important thing I learned from my interview was how the subject is divided. My senior project is not that easy due to the fact that it's to broad and there's a lot to learn. I learned that astronmy has three branches it can be divided into : solar systems, galaxies, and the universe itself. This will help me narrow down the topics I want to teach for my final presentation, which is teaching astronomy. It clearly helped me figure out what specific thing I want to focuss on in astronomy. Now I know what I need to research to fully meet my goal and understand this subject overall. Clearly, this is the most important thing I learned from my first interview.

Five-Minute Presentation Reflection

1) What would you say stood out about your presentation performance and why?
I would say that I was very professional when presenting my topic, Astronomy. I knew my information and was very comfortable when I did my presentaion. I think it showed because I got some feedback from the students after my presentation and during as well. When I checked for understanding, most students wanted to participate and knew the aswer. That made me understand that I did a pretty good job in presenting and demonstrating my point.


2) What was most challenging to do and why?
The most challenging thing to do in my presentation was to put all my information between two and five minutes. I knew so much that I did not know how to divide the information  easy enough for students to understand. Not to mention my topic contains a lot of information that is hard to present in just a short amount of time. But I believe I did a pretty god job.