Professor McFarlan
September 23, 2007 5:50 PM
Third Year Class by Professor McFarlan
The third year students were greeted by the now familiar stars and planets. The recliners were replaced by desks. There would be some writing to do. Professor McFarlan stood, leaning on the edge of her desk. Dressed in emerald green robes and comfortable ballet flat shoes, she greeted each returning student with a smile and exchanged pleasantries with a couple that seemed to be glad to be back at school.When the class came to order, Professor McFarlan touch the crystal with her wand and the great yellow star grew in prominence. Brightening the room (but not painfully so), it dimmed all the other glowing objects in the universe. Flares, like tongues of fire leapt from its rolling, boiling surface.
“Hello, welcome back to Astronomy.” Professor McFarlan said, genuinely glad to see the students again. She’d found that she had actually missed them over the summer. “As you remember, last term we studied our closest neighbor, the moon. This class will be devoted to the sun.
“If you remember, we discussed last class that magic is gender specific. The moon’s magical energy is female. The sun’s energy is male. Great Helios rules the day. We mark time by its path across our sky. We depend on its light and warmth for our very lives. It is our only true source of light. The strength and duration of its rays on the atmosphere determine our seasons.
“While not as changeable as the moon, the sun’s strength is changeable and different spells and potions react to its seasonal phases. In the winter when the sun’s light is at its weakest ancients lit bonfires with special woods to beg the sun to return and bring spring. Today, many holidays mark their heritage from those ancient times. Christmas, Chanukah, and Yule are a few examples.
“In spring the sun’s magical energy strengthens and, as we talked about in Charms last year, the Vernal Equinox is a perfect time for fertility, love, and artistic spells. Summer solstice, the sun’s most powerful time, increases the strength of combat spells and wizards enjoy several weeks between Beltaine and Lughnasadh where their powers increase in strength, peaking midsummer. This time period is also and excellent time for construction, magical and muggle. Autumn marks the fading of the sun’s magical energies. The veil between this world and the next thins and is the time for harvesting, preserving and remembering, hence spells and potions in these areas work the best.
“Now I would like you to refer to the third chapter of your textbooks and compose an essay about the sun. The more details the better. You might wish to put write about the sun’s circumference, distance from Earth or you may include solar flares and sunspots. Again, any myth, legend or magical facts you may want to add are also welcome. You may work in groups or alone, but I want a parchment from each of you.”
OOC: At least two paragraphs, the more imagination and detail, the better. Have fun.
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Subthreads: Sunny days sending the clouds away by Eavan Valentine with Danae Dupree, Eavan
Walking on sunshines, whoaa... by Red Aarden with Nikki Ramirez
The sun is shiney by Echo Elms with Professor McFarlan
Slipping in last minute by Elly Eriksson
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Professor McFarlan
Third Year Class
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Echo Elms
October 25, 2007 8:49 PM
The sun is shiney by Echo Elms
"Hi, Professor!" Echo chirped on his way in, glad to be back in the room that was even cooler than a planetarium and studying the best subject ever with his favorite teacher. Professor McFarlan was already talking to someone, so he just waved and found a seat at a nice out of the way desk.When Professor McFarlan finished explaining about the essay, Echo flipped open his text and ran his finger down the index until he found the entry for the sun. There was quite a lot about it. He read it all, jotted down some notes and kept to himself. He preferred working alone and it was awesome that his favorite teacher had anticipated that preference.
The sun is swirling ball of a burning gas, he wrote. It sounded sort of familiar, like that Animaniacs song about the solar system. He was pretty sure it wasn't a pilfered lyric, but he spent a couple minutes trying unsuccessfully to remember the song so he could double check. He made a mental note to ask around about it.
Then he continued, It is so big that if you put all the matter in our solar system together, 99.7% of it would belong to the sun. That means that 99.7% of our solar system is a sphere which the other .3% (like Earth and Mars) revolve around.
The Sun is like the Earth because they both have different layers. The Earth has a core and the core is hot enough that metals and rocks are liquids in it. The sun is already hot, so the sun's core is extra hot. It is 14,500,000 Kelvins of hot. The outside of the sun is 5,785 Kelvins, which is much cooler. So both the Earth and the Sun have cores. The cores are what causes gravity. And gravity is what causes rotation.
Echo scratched his head with his eraser and wondered how long this essay was supposed to be. Someone could write a book all about the sun and still leave stuff out. Did he have to explain rotation? Or was it revolution? Which words was he looking for there? And didn't Professor McFarlane say they should talk about myths and photosynthesis, too?
He raised his hand and waited for her to come to him, "How long should it be? Am I doing this right?"
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The sun is shiney
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Professor McFarlan
October 26, 2007 12:45 AM
Shiny is Always Good by Professor McFarlan
OOC: Hope this is alright with you, but fuzzy time being what it is I am assuming some things and I hope this plays into what you want to do with your charrie. If not, forgive me. I am playing this as if the class occurred before the letter to staff arrived and doing what Kathleen would do naturally.BIC Professor McFarlan grinned as she saw Echo raise his hand. Staff were not allowed to have favorites, but his enthusiasm for the subject was endearing. With more wizards like him, there may be a day when muggle science and magic science could meld. What that could do for humankind, McFarlan could only dream about. Brett had chosen to work alone, but he already had more written than any of the students who chose partners.
“Let’s see what you have so far, Mr. Elms.” she relied.
She looked over his work. Facts and figures were all accurate. The paper was written in his own unique style which she very much appreciated. Too many times, students his age were in the habit of copying from the textbook rather than actually thinking things through.
“Well, the assignment was rather open ended. There are so many things one could write about. For instance, why did the ancient peoples in the northern hemisphere celebrate planting and fertility rites during Beltane rather than during the Vernal Equinox? Or how do sun spots affect Earth’s weather and muggle satellite transmissions? A standard sheet of parchment is more than enough for the essay. Although extra work is always rewarded with extra credit.”
Kathleen had hoped that less specific instructions would get the students to use their brains and allow them to explore their personal areas of interest about the topic. Perhaps if she could engender interest, there wouldn’t be so many dismal CATS results in future years. At least she had no worries with this young man.
“An excellent start, Mr. Elms.” Professor McFarlan gave Brett an approving nod accompanied by a brief, encouraging squeeze on the shoulder. “Keep up the good work.”
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Professor McFarlan
Shiny is Always Good
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Echo Elms
October 26, 2007 6:22 PM
Ha! I've got you calling me Brett. by Echo Elms
[OOC: I'm assuming this is the first day of class so I'm in complete agreement that you have not yet received the letter]. BIC:An excellent start, sounded like he was on the right track so Echo checked his notes and opted to replace rotation with revolution before he continued writing.
Revolution is important because that's what the rest of the solar system does around the sun. It has been doing that for longer than anyone can remember, even the dinosaurs dad digs up don't remember before there was revolution around the sun, so it's not much of a revolution in the way that the Revolutionary War was a revolution. It is a revolution because Earth and the other planets circle the sun. That kind of revolution.
This revolution happens in a specific way. The sun has an imaginary friend who the other planets pretend to believe in. When the planets circle the sun, they also circle the sun's imaginary buddy in an ellipse. An ellipse is either three dots at the end of... or it is an oval. While a circle has one center point (also called a focal point) that everything moves around, an ellipse has two and they are called foci, which is just a fancy word for the plural of focal (like focus) points. In solar systems, the sun stands at one focal point and the sun's imaginary buddy stands at the other and all the planets circle both of them in a big oval or ellipse. The ellipses are different for each planet because none of the planets really know where the sun's imaginary friend is so they all put it somewhere different.
The reason the planets revolve around the sun is because it's so big that it acts like a magnet. Meanwhile, the sun is rotating around the center of the milky way galaxy and is bigger and brighter than most of the other stars in our galaxy.
Echo wasn't sure if that was a good ending or not. It didn't really sound like an ending. He looked it over, but couldn't think of a better line to end it with. Saul might have said something like, "And that's why Milky Ways are the best candy, but Echo wasn't about to do that. He fixed a couple missing words here and there and handed it in.
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Echo Elms
Ha! I've got you calling me Brett.
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Professor McFarlan
October 26, 2007 10:18 PM
OOC: As A Young Friend of Mine Says by Professor McFarlan
*headdesk*!!!!!!!!! sorry\n
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Professor McFarlan
OOC: As A Young Friend of Mine Says
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Professor McFarlan
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Echo Elms
October 27, 2007 10:58 PM
OOC: No worries! by Echo Elms
OOC: I think it's hilariously realistic, actually. I'm a RL teacher and I call this one kid Justin all the time and that is not his name. It drives me nuts that I can't get it straight! I know his name, it's just not the one on the tip of my tongue. He gets so exasperated at me about it, too. He's always saying, "My name's not Justin!" And I'm always saying, "Jacob! I did it again? I'm sorry!"So, far be it from me to get upset when someone gets my boys mixed up!
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Echo Elms
OOC: No worries!
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