End of Astronomy Unit Reflections

by Despina Katsirouba
4/24/12

End of Astronomy Unit Reflection:

Using the knowledge about astronomy that you gained during this unit, reflect on each big idea and what they mean to you.

                                               

1.      Students will understand that scientists are using the knowledge they have of Earth’s surface and atmosphere in search o extraterrestrial life. Explain what you have learned. All these years scientists are examining Earth and its atmosphere and have learned a lot of information that taught us what our body needs to survive. Scientists have studied the Earth’s surface and have learned that the plants that grow on it give us oxygen, the water is one of the most precious and important substance for our planet, our health, our daily life and the animals that grow on our planet. Also because of water full of minerals, we have fertile land so we are able to plant crops and survive. The basic thing that Earth has but other planets don’t is stable and solid ground that helps us grow plants, crops, build houses and walk on. Another thing to consider about is climate; it is in the perfect position between the sun so it is not too gold or too hot. Scientists have spend a lot of years studying our atmosphere and have learned that it composites of different gasses such as carbon dioxide, water vapor and other. All these precious information is used to find other planets that have the same or similar features so once we destroy our planet, we know it is going to happen if we don’t take actions but we don’t know yet how soon, we will have another one. Earth also has gravity that keeps us on the ground, stable and not floating around but it is one of the things that we don’t consider when looking for another planet.

      Students will understand that the International Space Station and space probes as well as satellites are excellent tools for further space exploration. Explain what you have learned.  Some many years scientists from all over the world have put together their powers to create the International Space Station (ISS) and I have to tell they have done a really good job as much as I know. Telescopes and satellites but also space shuttles are made are made every day so they can help improve our lives. Using telescopes scientists but also us can observe the sky but there is a small difference. Scientists use much more powerful telescope that help them see and analyze the galaxies, stars, planets and our moon. Some stars or planets are very far away so we can’t really see the through a telescope. That’s why we have invented satellites that can take pictures of the planets and send them to NASA for observations. The last thing that was a huge step for us humans was when we stepped the first time one the moon’s surface. But in order to go there, astronauts spent hours in a space craft. The space crafts were a really important invention because we can observe planets much better than the satellites  and space probes can  because astronauts can actually feel how it is up there and can tell more precise if we can survive or not there. As we improve our technology we can improve shuttles, satellites and space probes so we can go and explore the universe even further than we can now.

3.      What effects are caused by the motions of Earth and the Moon? As we all know, Earth does two movements while it is completing its orbit around the universe; it rotates and revolves. These two movements have a lot of effects on Earth’s surface. First, tides are caused when the moon and earth are rotating and revolving. Every 6 hours the tide changes (low, high/ high, low). Depended on the moon’s position, days and nights are caused. Also while Earth’s rotation, seasons, equinoxes and solstices are caused because of its tilt. At last weather and climate is caused. At last at Earth we can see the moon phases that are different every night of the month.

4.      How has the development of technology and space flight helped astronomers learn more about the other parts of the solar system and the structure of the universe? Throughout years, astronomers and scientists have made improvements in the way technology is. They have worked hard on creating much more powerful telescopes so we can observe even further but that is not always enough. Because the universe is a really big place, we don’t always have the right tools, methods or abilities to explore the whole place at one time or even at all. For this reason scientists have improved space probes and satellites so they can take pictures of the solar system and the structure of the universe and look into it much closer. An advantage of flying to space is that we get to feel how it is up there, what it looks like and make experiments that help us knowing whether we can survive on another planet or not.

5.      How are the conditions in space different from those on Earth? How has space technology benefited modern society?  The conditions in space are much different from those in Earth. First there is water and oxygen which are one of the most important things that we need to have in order to survive. Then, there is not weather and the temperature can be extremely high or low, depending on the position you are and the shadow. At last there is not gravity. In order astronauts to make it all the way back to Earth, they have these special suits that help them have oxygen and not freeze or ‘burn’ from the extraordinary temperatures. Space technology is really important to modern society because that’s how lasers, frozen and dry food, fire resistant clothing, smoke detectors and other useful things for our daily life.

6.      Did you enjoy this unit? Did you feel like this was something of importance to your life to learn about? Did you make any connections in your life while you were studying this unit? What are some things you liked and didn’t like? What are some ways for me to improve this unit, other than making it shorter? In my opinion this was the most interesting unit we have done throughout the year. We learned useful things about us humans, our abilities, our inventions, goals we have achieved, goals we want to reach, risks we took and the best thing how fun space can be. This was a really important thing to know about our society and our lives because up to this point, I always thought that space exploration was something easy; you just have to send the shuttle or the satellite but in fact it is not like that at all. There is complicated work going on and it needs a lot of effort to create and actually make all these things work. While we were studying about all this interesting things, I thought about the movies and documentaries I have watched on T.V. and the truth is that it actually looks simpler than it is and it impresses how things are in reality than in movies. I will repeat myself by saying that this unit was really fun but the only thing that I didn’t like was that we had to do a few labs but the good thing was that we didn’t have to do not even one at the end of this unit. Also the best part was that we only had one test and it was really easy because we wanted and were interested in studying it. A thing that I would change from this unit is the project at the end to be with fewer details and have more time.