Professor Skies
August 29, 2015 12:21 AM
An experimental Intermediate class by Professor Skies
“Good morning,” Selina greeted the Intermediate class. “Today, we'll be looking at something a little different. Spells are often viewed as ancient knowledge, and it is true that many of the spells we use today have been known for centuries. However, spellcraft is a living art. Witches and wizards are still inventing new spells and potions today, or refining and adapting spells and potions that we already know. This subject matter will become more relevant as you specialise in a particular field but it's good to have the basics down, and that's what we'll be looking at today.”She snapped her fingers and the chalk jumped up, writing across the top of the board 'How to conduct a magical experiment.' It continued to scribble down the subheadings and brief descriptions of them as she spoke.
“Today, we're going to look at a new spell, one for turning pebbles into pencils,” as everyone was working with the same material, the rocks were already sitting out on the desks, “The spell will be scrivus, and I am going to tell you three possible wand movements,” as an inanimate transfiguration, it should have been well within the capabilities of all of the class, although as quite a complex one it gave room for the differences between different wand movements to show.
“Before beginning, I want you to lay out a page in your journal in the following way. Introduction, - what is this experiment for? Equipment - what things do you need to complete it? Method - how are you going to do this experiment? Hypothesis - what do you think will happen? This is a slightly trickier one in this sort of situation. In real research, you'd have come up with something you want to investigate based on lots of other literature and research by others. You'd know what you were expecting to happen. I feel you can make an educated guess though, if you think about other spells you've used in the past. It doesn't matter if your prediction turns out to be wrong.
“Please make some brief, descriptive notes about the transfiguration you achieve with each wand-movement, and decide which you feel has worked most effectively. We'll stop halfway through the class to collect data from the whole group before we write up results and conclusions.
“The three wand movements you're to try out are a circular movement, a long thin flick and a wavy motion, like so,” she explained, careful not to bias them by describing the final movement as 'like writing.' In fact, the long thin flick was the original movement for the spell, and did work the most effectively for a lot of people. However, a number of students were likely to find the writing motion more effective. The secondary movement had been discovered some centuries later. Which was most effective for each person depended on whether the caster found it easier to focus on form or function.
“There is a different experiment written up on page 278 of your textbooks, if you're having trouble with what should go in any of the sections. You may talk quietly amongst yourselves, or raise your hands if you have any questions. Please begin.”
OOC – posts must be 200 words minimum and points will be awarded based on length, realism, creativity and relevance.
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Professor Skies
An experimental Intermediate class
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John Umland, Aladren
September 16, 2015 5:23 PM
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. by John Umland, Aladren
John had been surprised and confused when he realized that people at Sonora did not have ‘usual’ seats where they always sat regardless of whether there was a formal seating chart, but he had finally decided that he wasn’t entirely opposed to the system. On one hand, getting a seat he liked one day was no guarantee of getting it the next day, but on the other, it meant there was very little chance of getting in trouble if he then stole it back the day after that. Since he did not think he was ever going to rise higher than the middle of the social pecking order, thought he might currently reside somewhere quite low on it, and was picky about seats, that flexibility was a very good thing for him.Today his seat was neither fantastic nor awful by his standards: he was on the end of a row which opened into the aisle. Having an aisle seat instead of one that put his open side to the wall was distracting, but having people on all four sides was the worst, so much so that it usually brought his mostly-conquered aversion to people sitting behind him back up again, too, and made classes where it occasionally happened a lot less fun and sometimes a minor misery. Compared to a seat dead in the center of a row, the one he was in really wasn’t that bad, especially since it was toward the front. He was, completely contrary to what he thought should be his very nature, not very comfortable in the front row, either, unless he got the end of that row which opened to the wall, but the aisles of the first three were compromises he could deal with because of Professor Skies’ proximity even if he did keep wanting to look over his shoulder to see if people were looking at him.
Not for the first time, he envied owls. Not half as impressive in fact as they were in legend, certainly, and no more possessed of true eyes in the backs of their heads than anything else he could think of, but their head-turning trick would have been a distinct improvement over having to turn all the way around to see what was going on behind him sometimes. Plus, they could move nearly silently naturally, not requiring magic – maybe. He’d read a translation (or part of one, anyway; the full text had been censored for even longer than the full list of Quidditch fouls, and he figured he would have to learn modern and ancient Greek, move to Greece, and do a number of morally questionable things to get his hands on an unexpurgated copy - and that would be Wrong) of a text which discussed the relative magicality of various animals, and owls were said to be highly receptive subjects, so it was possible the ability was actually related to that. Either way, though, it would be nice to just be able to do it instead of practicing moving quietly and then needing to cast a spell on his shoes to be truly stealthy….
His thoughts were distracted from his first year ambitions involving owl research when Professor Skies said they were going to do something a little different today, and when she said "spellcraft is a living art,” he clasped his hands on the moderately desirable desk in front of him in an attempt to control his excitement. Mom had made him promise not to fool around with spells except within strictly defined limits, but he had been analyzing nearly every spell they learned for years and had finally managed to discreetly purchase an English-Portuguese dictionary in the bookstore while Mom’s back was turned over the summer, and if the teacher told him to….
“The spell will be scrivus, and I am going to tell you three possible wand movements,” continued Professor Skies, and he was a little disappointed. Not too much, though, as it was still cool. He smiled briefly at Professor Skies when she admitted they were not doing research properly, glad she had at least acknowledged the proper process, and quickly sketched the three wand movements they would look at. He could see the long flick working, but since the way he’d hold his wand would make the circular movement evocative of a hollow tube – which a pencil without graphite in it was – he thought that one might work, too. The writing motion didn’t fit as well to him because he wanted the pebble to become a thing he could write with, not for the pebble to start writing, but he’d have to try it, too.
He wished he could get a bunch of people, or at least the other Aladrens minus Oliver, in a circle to do the experiments and talk them out, but his one neighbor would have to suffice. “Which one’s your money on?” he asked, opening his Transfiguration journal and running his hand over the first blank page before he picked up his pen, then had to put it down again to open his inkwell. He fumbled with the top for a moment, still not completely used to it since he had only had it since Julian gave it to him in the last round of small present exchanges at home over the holidays and it didn’t open the same way his old one did. When he succeeded, he reclaimed his pen, dipped the nib, and began setting up the page and filling it in.
Introduction Purpose of experiment: Determine which wand movement is most successful in transforming a pebble into a pencil
He stopped writing, biting his lip as a thought occurred to him. He had long since concluded that there was little significance to the use of words like ‘pebble’ for these purposes, that calling it that rather than a rock was just a sort of mnemonic meant to guide concentration. He was less sure, though, about the significance of wand movements….Some really did seem like further aids to concentration – from what he remembered doing and seeing Julian and Joe do, truly uncontrolled bursts of magic, fueled by some strong emotion, really didn’t seem to manifest from the hands that often, and wands probably aided in directing magic as much as in amplifying it – but he’d read just enough to think that it had more significance in advanced magic, and that a lot of thought and calculations had gone into even simple spells. If multiple movements could be used with the same spell, though….
Oh, this was going to be even better than he’d thought. More interesting, anyway. He resumed writing. First for me, then for the majority, he added, since he assumed that was what Skies had meant about collecting data as a class. Would there be a single best way for everyone but a few outliers, or would the pie chart break down into more interesting numbers? He was not going to get bored in class today, not least because he’d need to try at least two of the gestures three different ways to see if the general proportions of the gestures affected anything. The more data, the better.
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John Umland, Aladren
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
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John Umland, Aladren
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