Blog 24: Last Presentation Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?
The thing that I was most proud of in my senior presentation was my activity. I did Jeopardy, and I didn't realize when I was first creating it, how engaged the entire class would be. It felt amazing knowing that everyone was involved and wanted to win. 

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?  Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

P 

The reason why I think I deserve this grade is because I felt like I did what was required for this lesson.  

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project? Use the component contract to defend that assessment.
  P   

The reason why I think I deserve a P is because I just did the what was needed for this project. I didn't do anything extra nor did I slack off on important assignments. 

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

What worked well was the fact that I was able to gain so much knowledge from my mentor about the universe. I don't think I could have done it without him, and I am so very grateful. 

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project?

One thing that I wished I could have done was take an astronomy class at Cal Poly. I would have an easier time finding research on my topic. 

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

The senior project helped me realize that I don't want to make astronomy my career choice. Astronomy is very tedious. Usually you work alone in a lab for years just trying to figure out something in space. It can be long and frustrating which is something I definitely don't want to deal with.  

Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

EQ: How can the study of astronomy help infer what might happen at the collapse of the universe?

Answer 1: The universe will do a reverse Big Bang (The Big Crunch).

The Big Bang started from one point and soon expanded outwards creating everything, time and space itself. The universe expanded outwards for billions and billions of years, and is even continuing to do so today.Gravity, one of the main forces of the universe, will soon stop the expansion of the universe. The universe will slow down the expansion, have it come to a halt, and then have the direction of the expansion reverse. Because of this, the universe will shrink until it becomes a singularity. Everything, from matter to time, will cease to exist, leaving no trace of the universe ever existing.

Answer 2: The Big Rip will be the end of the universe.

There is another force that causes the universe to expand. We can’t see it, nor can we detect it, but we see the affects happening everyday. This force is called “Dark Energy”. Dark energy is not only making the universe expand, but it's making the universe expand at a faster rate each day. Soon enough, the rate of the expansion of the universe will be faster than the speed of light 299,792,458 m/s, and will continue to go faster. The rate of expansion will be too fast for galaxies to keep up, and will start to rip apart because of it. Everything, even atoms themselves, will start to rip apart because of the rate of the expansion. The universe will tear itself apart until matter is too small to ever bring itself apart. All matter in the universe will still be here, expanding, but it may never reach anything else again, making the universe lonely without ever really realizing it.

Answer 3: The universe will continue to expand, forever.

Gravity will continue to hold matter together. Galaxies won’t rip itself apart life in my last answer, unless it finds itself in a black hole. But, dark energy will continue to make the universe expand. Because of this, the cosmic horizon, the radius of the observable universe, will slowly come closer to us. That means that we are going to see less of the universe as time passes on because the light past the cosmic horizon will never reach us. The cosmic horizon will continue to come closer to us, until we can’t even see the thing right in front of us. Everything will be far apart of each other since the universe is stretching itself out. Everything may still be here, intact, but we will never see “thou art neighbor” ever again. The universe is together, yet divided.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

Basically, the processes was just a lot of research and talking to my mentor. Most of the information I received about my answers were from my mentor. When he told me about it, I would try to find evidence online to back it up. Books were a definite no-no, because I wouldn’t be sure if the information written in it is outdated. Even things talked about  in astronomy last year might be out-dated.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

The biggest problem that I really faced was writing my essential question. I didn’t know which direction I wanted to go to, and when I did, I had no idea how to word it. Thankfully Mr. Piggott and Robert Machuca helped me reach it.

 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

The two most significant sources that I have is my mentor and crash course astronomy. The reason why I choose crash course astronomy is because even though it is an online source, it made complicated ideas easy to understand, while having 12 minute videos packed with information. They also state where they get their information and their information is the most up-to-date. My mentor is also my most significant source because he was the one who helped me come up with my answers.