Professor Alexander O'Rourke
September 16, 2012 10:01 PM
Intermediate Astronomy by Professor Alexander O'Rourke
Professor O’Rourke spent hours looking over his lesson plans, trying to narrow down the most important aspects of astrology. Not exactly the easiest feat once you stop and think about it. The dictionary defines astronomy as the study of objects and matter outside of the Earth's atmosphere and their physical and chemical properties. The study of the universe. The study of, well, everything."Start at the beginning, Alex. The basics." He thought to himself as he paced around the Astronomy classroom. There was a fine line between being informative and overwhelming when it came to teaching. A line he was well aware of, particularly when it came to the universe.
"Might as well start with our solar system, since most humans believe the universe revolves around us..." Alex decided, drawing his wand from the pocket just inside his robes. Pointing it at the ceiling, he muttered a few words before the Milky Way spewed forth from the tip, canvassing the ceiling with planets and other celestial bodies.
He then turned wand to the blackboard and watched as a piece of chalk rose into the air, and began writing the words ' What is Astronomy?' Alex nodded slightly in approval, it wasn't his best handwriting, but it'd do. Stepping back to his desk, the astronomy professor straightened his cream colored robes before taking a seat on the edge of it, facing the room before him.
“Welcome to intermediate Astronomy.” He started, placing his wand back inside his robes as his students made their way to their seats. “I’m Professor O’Rourke, and yes, I am English.” He added with a slight smile. Since Alex had been in Arizona, he’d been asked where he was from more times that he cared to count. He figured it’d be easier just to get it out of the way, and hopefully, considering English wizards weren’t a complete novelty; his class would be able to understand him well enough.
The astronomy professor let his hazel eyes survey the classroom for a few more moments, making sure everyone was more or less settled before he started the bulk of the lesson.
"Astronomy…” He started, scratching the back of his neck. “What is it? How do we use it? What are celestial bodies, and constellations? By the end of term, you’ll be able to answer all of these questions. We’ll be covering quite a bit of information, so if at any time you are unsure about something, do feel free to ask. Also, while I am all for learning, this class doesn’t require wands, so please keep them tucked away.”
“The following handout will be used throughout this lesson. Please take one and pass them on.” Professor O’Rourke said, rising from his desk, and handing a stack of parchment from his desk to the student sitting at the end of the first row. “You’ll find it particularly helpful for the homework portion of this lesson, but you may also refer to your textbooks.” Alex folded his arms across his chest and began to pace in front of his class, his brow furrowed slightly as he chose his next course of action.
“Astronomy is the study of the universe—the stars, the planets, other galaxies, black holes, asteroids—everything. It is not to be confused with astrology which, forgive me, is complete rubbish. Astrologers believe that the position of the stars and planets determine an individual's personality and future. Astronomers study the actual stars and planets, but have found no evidence supporting astrological theories. In short, astrology is simply another form of divination. Whether or not you believe in that is up to you, but the only Cancer and Gemini we’ll be studying are the constellations.”
“Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Prehistoric cultures left behind astronomical artifacts such as the Egyptian monuments and Nubian monuments, and early civilizations such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, Iranians and Maya performed methodical observations of the night sky. It has been used in navigation; Polaris, or the North Star, helped sailors find their way at night. Astronomy allowed people to mark the passage of time through the making of calendars and sundials, which, along with ceremonial uses, allowed them to determine the best time for planting and sowing their crops.
“Without Astronomy, we wouldn’t have watches, compasses, calendars, or a number of technologies that were born of astrological discoveries. We’d also still believe that we revolved around the sun, which, we all know to be erroneous.” Alex paused for a moment, and ran a hand through his artfully disheveled hair. He feared he was getting a little long winded, and decided to get to the assignment. Long lectures often caused him to lose students, and he had to mindful of the fact that he was in the presence of 13 year olds.
“At this point in your lives, you all should know our relative position in the ever expansive universe. Our solar system consists of the Sun, nine planets, their moons, planetoids, asteroids, meteors, and comets. Our solar system is also part of the Milky Way galaxy, along with 100-400 billion other stars and Merlin knows how many other planets.” The professor turned his gaze upward, toward the swirling Milky Way on the ceiling. There was something about the universe that always made him feel particularly insignificant. He took a deep breath to shake the feeling before proceeding, and allowing his gaze to sweep the room once more.
“Moving on, to start to explore and attempt to understand something as massive as the universe, it’s best to start small. For today’s assignment, I’m going to have you lot split into groups. Choose a planet from our solar system, Pluto still counts in my eyes, and write a brief summary on its characteristics. If your chosen planet has moons, include those as well. Place them on my desk when you are finished, and as I stated previously, don’t be afraid to ask if you need assistance.” Alex found his way back to his desk and sat behind it, leaning back casually as his class formed their groups.
((Welcome to Astronomy! Please note your house in the author line so I can award points appropriately. Also, keep the posting rules in mind, and feel free to tag Professor O’Rourke if needed.))
Subthreads: Astronomy Handout by Alexander O'Rourke
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Professor Alexander O'Rourke
Intermediate Astronomy
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Professor Alexander O'Rourke
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Regina Parker, Teppenpaw
September 17, 2012 10:19 PM
I choose MERCURY!! by Regina Parker, Teppenpaw
Reggie hadn’t really thought about taking Astronomy before and only changed her mind when she got a look at the professor. Yeah, it was probably wrong for her to decide to take a class based on how hot she really though the professor was, but as long as she didn’t actually say that was her reasons why, she felt justified all the same. He was good looking and British. Okay, so there were quite a few people from overseas at this school, but an older guy with an accent was quite lovely. She could just tell everyone that she simply wanted to learn about the stars. It seemed reasonable enough. And who would suspect otherwise?Well, maybe Maddie, if she were paying attention.
Lately, Reggie had been noticing the boys of Sonora more and more. She noticed them a while ago, but now it was different. She wanted to date someone, but it was hard for her to decide on who. The problem was that most of them were from ‘Proper’ Pureblood families and would never even consider her to begin with. They might even laugh in her face for even thinking so. There were a few other boys who interested her who weren’t Proper or Pure (like David), but she didn’t really get the feeling they were interested in her. Then again, she could be wrong. There just weren’t enough to go around and that was the problem.
Reggie took a seat in Astronomy, not right up close because that was way too obvious, but near the middle so that her view wasn’t completely obscured and took out her parchment notes and self-inking quill. As she listened to him talk, she jotted down notes, but when he scoffed at forms of Divination, her quill (and possibly her heart) stilled. A couple of years ago, Reggie would have agreed with him on Divinations, but since she had recently found out she had ‘The Sight’ she felt somewhat offended by his closed-mindedness. It was like he was dismissing an important part of her (so what if she doesn’t acknowledge it all the time, it still doesn’t mean he had the right to be so dismissive). This made him slightly less attractive to her.
Her quill started moving again though and she tried to shake off her negative feelings. She knew people wouldn’t always believe in it and she was sure there were some who wouldn’t believe that she could ‘See’. Heck, sometimes she didn’t think she could either. They were just déjà vu moments. The assignment for the day seemed okay and easy enough.
“So, I used to watch Sailor Moon growing up and Mercury and Jupiter were my two favorites, for various reasons. Mercury because she was smart and Jupiter because she was athletic.” Depending on who she was talking to (whoever decided to sit beside her), they probably had no idea what she was talking about. “Let’s go with the brainiac and choose Mercury.” Reggie advised with only a little thought. “So, some characteristics… it’s the planet closest to the sun, so it would make it super hot – we’ll have to look up how hot – and, since we’re counting Pluto in this, the second smallest. What else?”
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Regina Parker, Teppenpaw
I choose MERCURY!!
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Regina Parker, Teppenpaw
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Henny B-F-R, Aladren
September 27, 2012 5:13 PM
And I choose YOU! Not that I'm calling you a planet... by Henny B-F-R, Aladren
Henny was excited by the idea of a new class. Astronomy was something she really felt that she should know about but didn't. When she looked up at the sky she could appreciate its beauty but she could say nothing about it. It was this vast, probably endless, expanse that she knew nothing about. She liked the idea of being able to look up and understand things. It seemed somehow important that she changed that, or even owed. The stars and planets dominated every aspect of human life; the exploration of the solar system was the highest achievement of Muggle technology, the theory of how it all worked some of the most complex physics, it had influenced ancient cultures and inspired the arts throughout every civilisation. If her parents had looked up, they would have seen those stars. Once she, too, was dead and gone people would look up and see them. It seemed arrogant to assume that trying to understand them didn't matter.She did not arrive first nor last but all the front row seats were taken, so she sat down in the middle. A smile crossed her mouth as the Professor established the clear difference between his subject and astrology, and the fact that there would be no overlap. If she'd wanted to listen to a load of tosh about the future, she would have taken Divination. Her attention remained throughout his lecture. Astronomy was a subject where she suspected there might be a lot of listening. However, the Professor then moved them onto a practical project.
Henny grinned as the girl next to her enthused randomly, seemingly unbothered by whether the person next to her would understand. She knew Reggie in the same way that she knew many people at school, i.e. from seeing her around. She'd always seemed like a pretty happy, outgoing sort of person. Someone around whom she might not need to mind her Ps and Qs so much. Henny had a vague notion of what she was talking about. The Home had had a television, possibly as some of the tenants had been Muggleborns whose parents were struggling to cope, and they needed some familiar things to help them adjust. That meant Charlie had, for as long as he could remember, had a television, and so Dad and Father had got one when they'd adopted them. She thought. They might have had one at a previous point in their lives too. They had seemed familiar-ish with the idea, as far as she remembered, but then adults tended to seem automatically competent when you were little.
“I can get behind choosing Planet of the Braniacs,” she smiled, “Though maybe we shouldn't title our project that... Looking at different characteristics the planets have been attributed in fiction would be – erm, irrelevant for this class,” she blushed, quickly curbing her enthusiasm, “And possibly only of interest to me.” She flipped to Mercury's page on the handout, skim reading the information. “Its temperature range in general is crazy,” she informed Reggie, “Super hot by day, super freezing at night... How do we want to lay this out? Can you think of a way that's not just copying the handout in list form? Cos that doesn't seem very exciting...”
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Henny B-F-R, Aladren
And I choose YOU! Not that I'm calling you a planet...
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Henny B-F-R, Aladren
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Reggie
September 30, 2012 7:08 PM
Aw, thanks! So kind of you! by Reggie
Reggie smiled at the other girl… she was a fourth year, right? No, maybe that wasn’t right. Reggie has seen her around school and probably in classes, but she hadn’t really ever spoken to her. She remembered her name sounding a bit old school the way that Reggie’s did. What was it again….Henrietta, that was it. Reggie never really understood why people called their children such old names this day and age. Reggie didn’t even feel as though her name sounded very pretty or really all that cool. It was one of the main reasons she preferred to go by her nickname. Reggie just suited her better.“Oh, I suppose that makes sense.” Reggie said after a moment, surprised that Henrietta wasn’t questioning Reggie’s thought process on picking Mercury. Either the girl knew what she was talking about or she thought Reggie was crazy and didn’t want to point it out. To be honest, Reggie was okay with either opinions. Things like that never bothered her. She was who she was and either people appreciated it or they didn’t. She could handle not being liked. “I mean, if you think about it, deserts are the pretty much the hottest climates on Earth during the day, but without coverage, are the coldest ones at night. I can understand Mercury being that way as well. Plus, it’s like solid rock, so there isn’t much there to soak up the heat to sustain it through the night.”
Actually, Reggie had no idea if it was mostly just rock, but from the look of the pictures, that’s just what she thought. It’s okay if she was wrong, Reggie was rarely embarrassed. She would rather someone explain to her why she was wrong than make fun of her for it, of course, but kids were kids. She’d either give in to it or just walk away. People had faults, they made mistakes, and she was only human after all.
“Oh, you know, let’s try to make something like a poster board, what do you think?” Reggie asked. Back in her Muggle school, whenever they had projects where they needed to get out facts, they always used poster boards so that they could show the students the facts instead of reading them off. “We can have the information grouped and pictures to help get the points across. What do you think? I mean, we might have to ask for the material, but it could make the lesson a lot more fun.”
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Reggie
Aw, thanks! So kind of you!
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Reggie
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Henny B-F-R
October 01, 2012 1:41 PM
Is that sarcasm? (TAG PROFESSOR) by Henny B-F-R
The main thing Henny knew about Reggie was that she had made the zombie film last year. She hoped that the main thing Reggie knew about Henny was not that she was the girl who had walked out of it. She had had her very obviously younger brother with her at the time, so she thought that her decision was understandable, plus Reggie seemed too outgoing and confident to really care what a third year – at the time second year – thought of her. She just hoped the other girl hadn't noticed and been upset.She nodded along with Reggie's comments about the desert, even though the only desert environment she'd been in was Sonora, which didn't exactly count as typical, given the weather charms. But she had certainly experienced how, even after the hottest summer day, the night time temperature could plummet. She didn't know enough about the planets to know whether Reggie was right about Mercury being made of rock. She had heard of some planets being referred to as 'gas giants' so had a vague appreciation that they weren't all rock, which would have been her default assumption, but she was fairly sure Mercury didn't fit that category, so it seemed like a reasonable assertion. She didn't feel the need to cross-reference what Reggie was saying with their handout immediately. They would, obviously, check all their facts before writing them down.
“A poster sounds good,” she nodded. She wasn't the most artistic person and she was having trouble envisaging how a poster would not just be the handout copied out, in brief, with bubble-writing and a picture of Mercury in the middle but she trusted Reggie's judgement and she seemed to have some ideas. “There might also be some charms we could use on it to show different things. Like we could have a diagram with it moving around to show its orbit, stuff like that?” she asked. As far as the artistic direction of the poster went, Henny was happy for Reggie to take charge.
“Professor O'Rourke,” she asked, raising her hand, “Are there any materials we could use to make a poster?”
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Henny B-F-R
Is that sarcasm? (TAG PROFESSOR)
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Henny B-F-R
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Professor O'Rourke
October 02, 2012 11:43 PM
Hall pass to MARS by Professor O'Rourke
Alex was pleased with the turnout of his class. Granted he wasn’t selling out arenas, but he had a few students, which was more than could be said for other classes. As they broke into groups and claimed their respective planets, Alex wondered if he shouldn’t have also included the other dwarf planets; Ceres and Eris. He decided not to worry about it too much as the discussion on other heavenly bodies was a lesson for another day, and there were still plenty of planets to go around. He settled himself at his desk in front of the room and decided to work on his lesson plan for the advanced class.Professor O’Rourke lifted his gaze from his parchment when one of his students called out to him. She wanted materials for a poster. It wasn’t exactly what he’d expected, but he appreciated the enthusiasm and looked forward to seeing what the girls came up with for Mercury—if only he knew where there might be art supplies. At least, that’s what he assumed Miss Boxton-Fox-Reynolds was after.
“Art supplies?” He confirmed, furrowing his brow slightly as his hazel eyes scoured the classroom for any clues to where something like that might be. The astronomy professor rose from his chair and began searching cupboards for anything that might be useful. Broken telescopes, compasses, constellation maps—check. But nothing that seemed particularly useful for poster making. Not that he was terribly surprised, this was astronomy after all.
There had to be some somewhere in the castle, assuming they weren’t currently being monopolized by the first years.
“Sadly, I’m not currently in possession of the materials you seek, but I believe, Miss Boxton-Fox-Reynolds, that there are supplies in the Magical Arts Room. You have my permission to go and gather what you need for your poster under two conditions; no faffing about, and please—no glitter. Miss Parker, you may join her, should you feel so inclined." The astronomy professor said with a smile.
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Professor O'Rourke
Hall pass to MARS
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Professor O'Rourke
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Reggie
October 06, 2012 11:49 PM
We skip right over 2 planets by Reggie
Reggie was slightly disappointed that the professor (still hot, but less so for this narrow-mindedness) didn’t have any art supplies. Reggie was a firm believer that educators should be completely prepared for everything because they never really knew what the students would need in order to learn. Especially when it came to projects like this. Reggie loved projects. She loved crafts. She did scrapbooks every year with her Nana. She even created the Zombie movie last year with her friends and other students. She just loved creating things from nothing. Admitting that was strange because Reggie did not consider herself an artist at all. But knowing how much she enjoyed crafts, she was surprised that she did not consider herself that.Reggie got up from her seat to head to the Art Room with Henny. “Or, we could maybe create Mercury itself and use charms to explain the fun facts about it and use the charms to show the orbit like you were saying.” Reggie suggested as they walked. She really just wanted to see what there was to offer in the room so that they can maybe figure out something to work with. Of course, they had only a limited amount of time to really do this, but she wanted to make it fun and there was a chance that the professor may let them carry it over into the next lesson so that they could really present something worthy in front of the whole class.
“What are some other facts about Mercury?” Reggie asked, pulling out her handout. They might as well discuss what they want to convey on their project as they went to get supplies. She felt that they could do some really fun things with it if they had the time. “We can talk about the length of day and maybe the mass of the planet. The size of it too.” Reggie was just looking at the information trying to figure out how to work into their project without being too bland. “What do you think is so important that it has to be laid out somewhere on our project?” She asked.
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Reggie
We skip right over 2 planets
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Reggie
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