Astronomy lesson

If you were taking an introductory Astronomy class and you knew the topic of the next lesson was
"Stellar Death and Supernovae", what would you expect to learn? What would make the class exciting for you?

I'm giving a sample 10-minute lesson on this topic as part of an interview. I've actually only taught physics classes, so I'm a bit out of touch with what students in Intro astronomy expect. What would knock your socks off?

Well it's been awhile since i've sat in a lecture hall,and Astronomy isn't my field.I guess my interest would be tickled by the magnitude of something like that and what the far reaching effects might be,how often does it occur and is it predictable.Maybe some some insight into what it's relevance to earth might be would spur more interest.

I don't know if this is relevant to your title, but when I took astronomy (a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away) I got a kick out of learning about the different types of stars, stars' life cycles, that the star(s) we see in distant galaxies might already have blown up. . .

Thanks.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

If you were taking an introductory Astronomy class and you knew the topic of the next lesson was
"Stellar Death and Supernovae", what would you expect to learn? What would make the class exciting for you?

I'm giving a sample 10-minute lesson on this topic as part of an interview. I've actually only taught physics classes, so I'm a bit out of touch with what students in Intro astronomy expect. What would knock your socks off?

Don't know if it's too late for me to chime in, so I'll do it anyway. First, I've never taken Astronomy, so it'd all be new to me. At the risk of sounding totally stupid, I'm going to open my mouth and expose my complete ignorance - I may be what you'd be teaching to! LOL! I presume Stellar Death is the death of a star. As far as I can recall from my limited reading of astronomy, when a star dies it implodes (or something like that) and causes a "black hole." Given the topic of your lesson, I will GUESS that my "black hole" is actually called a supernovae. Since I have no idea what a supernovae is, I'd want to know what it is, what causes it, what impact it has (on me, the solar system, whatever), and pictures or videos (love pictures and videos, especially in intro classes). Moving backwards, I'd want to know what causes the death of a star as well, how often it happens, how do we know it's happened, and blah blah blah blah... and pictures. Did I mention pictures? And incorporate technology as much as possible - whatever you have available to you, find a way to use it.

I took astronomy in collge. I scanned the room 5 minutes into the class to find out who I could sleep with to pass the class.



Hope that helped.

That's too cute,but i know the feeling,that's how i got thru 2 semesters of English.

Thanks Julsie... I think. I was considering using y'all as guinea pigs, but now I'm afraid.

I went to JC for a couple of years before transferring. . . Might be insulting to the place you're interviewing with, but keep in mind you're not lecturing to rocket scientists. Think AP high school class. Try to keep things monosyllabic. . .

I agree with about everything already said. Try to make it interesting with pictures and stunning facts, but then use details to flesh it all out. I would want to know why it matters. Answer the endless question "So what?" as best you can. Why should I (the student) care?

A star died, okay, that's nice. So what?
So it created a supernova.
So?
So, it exploded and enveloped the surrounding planets/stars/comets.
...So?
So, an event like this is incredibly massive. Not only does it have a cataclysmic effect on the immediate vicinity - immediate meaning several million-bajillion miles - it is massive enough for us to view all the way from Earth.
Cool. I mean... So what? It's a firework, that's nice.
Mhm, it's a firework that can last several days. And because this phenomenon is visible from Earth, it's also possible for astronomers to study, which leads to greater insight on how the universe works, possibly how it was created, and the life cycle of our own Sun.

Also, I must stress the "as best you can". No one can intrigue the student determined to not care, but a good deal of people will run out of So whats and decide stars are quite interesting. (By the way I don't know how accurate any of the "facts" I just typed are. I'm trying my best to remember here )

Y'all are great, just wait and i will see
if I can draw you