Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
• (a) I,Simrit Sohal, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 32 1/2 hours of work.
• (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

Talcott, Richard, “The Sky this Week: December 25, 2015 - January 10, 2016.” Astronomy.com. Astronomy Magazine, 24 Dec. 2015. Web. 5 Jan, 2016.

“January Constellations”. seasky.org. Sea and Sky, n.d. Web. 5 Jan, 2016.

“February Constellations”. seasky.org. Sea and Sky, n.d. Web. 5 Jan, 2016.

• (d) Basically what I did throughout this project was observe the stars. My brother would take me up to the mountains for a few hours with a telescope and we would try to find planets and constellations. I read up articles beforehand to know when we should go to the mountains and where to look. Of course, the telescope might be difficult at times and it was a bit hard to find the constellations we were looking for because of all the stars in the sky. At the end, I was supposed to create a scrapbook with all the photos but my brother accidentally deleted all the photos we had and I lost all the work we had. So basically, I just explained in the scrapbook what we looked at and I gave small descriptions of each thing. It was not my proudest work, but I needed to do something.   

INTERPRETIVE

• Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

Like I said before, my brother deleted all the evidence we had in his camera. We took a lot of photos and now it’s all gone. The only evidence I have is my brother because he would be the one to drive me up to the mountains to look at the stars. Honestly, I am not proud; I lost all my work and I had to whip up something really quickly.

the scrapbook: http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/independent-component-1-13336062?vk=mK4wXkUjgU

• APPLIED
• How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this.
• This helped me understand how astronomy all got started. Astronomy wouldn’t have become a part of physics if people were not curious of what was outside of Earth, Because of all the observations we had done, it showed why people want to observe. It showed me to we, as a species, are curious, which is why astronomy has lived on my many years, That is the foundation of astronomy, and that is what is holding it up.

Lesson 2 Reflection

*water reflection

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
What I am the most proud of is my tug - of - war activity because my students got really excited in it.

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?
      P          

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
I think I deserve that grade because I met the standards needed for that grade. I don't really have much to say about that.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
What worked was all the information I had and my activity. 

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
I think what I would have done differently is go home and get the name tags I needed for my presentation. People were confused about where they should sit, ad I just so happened to forget the name tags at home.
5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?
I think my answer two may be about the universe calming down. I'm not so sure yet. 

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check-In

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?
I am doing my mentorship at Mt. Sac.
2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?
My contact is Michael hood. What makes him an expert is that he teaches an astronomy class and he has a Ph.d in physics.
3.   How many  hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).
I have done 27 hours during the school year but I haven't done any hours during the summer.
4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.
What I usually do is sit in during his lectures and observe what he does. I also take notes and I learn a lot from it. My mentor and I  work well together; he is very helpful and gives me advice of what I can look at to research. I plan to complete the remaining hours by doing what I usually do but also, there is an upcoming project he has that I can assist him with. I'll be getting my hours by that too. 

Blog 12: Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

i think that it is important that you use your break to relax and not think about school. That is the entire point of a break, or else it really feel like one now would it, I didn’t really do much with my senior project as I had a hard time contacting my mentor for hours.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

The most important thing I learned that it was okay to take that two - week break because that was the whole point. I didn’t necessarily learn this by myself but rather the adults around me told me.

3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

I might to plan to talk to my mentor wife as she is also an astronomy professor and researcher at Cal State San Bernardino.

Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?

The thing I am most proud of is the fact that I didn’t under or over time. I was so stress out and scared because of the fact that I might go under time and lose some points after all the hard work I did.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.

I think I’ll give myself a P because I did all the basic things required. Also my lesson didn’t have very much props to show to the class.

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

I think the thing that I’ll change about my lesson is the wording of it and the pace I was going at. I knew what I needed to talk about for the most basic things in astronomy, but I felt as though the way I described it made it hard for people to understand. This will help me in lesson 2 because I can do somethings to help me teach a bit better, like having a second opinion on my lesson.

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7vfamCjNJQ6Nk1BVV91bmdYVjQ/view?usp=sharing

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

The way I am spending mentorship time is by shadowing the classes he teaches at Mt. Sac. Usually I just sit in the classroom and observe what he is doing as well as take notes in his class. By doing so, it definitely helps me learn new things about astronomy as well as understand what I’m learning.

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  

I found my mentor by research what astronomy professors are close by, and emailing a letter asking to do so. It didn’t really take much to convince my mentor to say yes, all I did was ask.  

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person

Right now, I’m pretty comfortable around my mentor. I don’t get nervous at all when I ask him for help, or for questions, etc. It kind of relates to the time I spend with my mentor, but usually I just shadow his class and go on the class field trips.

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

What went well was the fact that my mentor was able to give clear and on - topic answers to my questions. He didn’t waste any time trying to comprehend what I was asking, which was a great time saver. I’m not sure about what i need to improve on; if it’s about the interview I think I just need to write more questions to get the most out of my interview.

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

I do currently have a mentor; his name is Michael Hood. I have not scheduled an interview yet.

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.

Light - The reason why I am gearing more towards light is because there is a lot of information on it, yet it still remains a huge mystery.

Gravity - The reason why I am looking into gravity is because not only does it affect Earth, but it affect the entire universe. Its an interesting topic with a ton of examples and information.  

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

I am thinking books and videos will help me get into more depth on these two topics. I am planning on asking my mentor for help to find good information on it.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

What are the possible fates of us humans and the universe?