The CLEA lab was canceled today so the day began with Shelly's lecture on 'H-R Diagram of the Stars and Stellar Evolution.' There are three ways to determine where a star is on an H-R diagram:
absolute magnitude and spectral class
apparent magnitude can be used, but then it won't be standardized
scientists use luminosity (rate of energy being given off by a star) and temperature
Some ideas pulled from Shelly's lecture:
white dwarfs are hot but small, so they appear not so bright
the sun is on the main sequence
giants are huge, they give off a lot of energy but are considered cool
super giants are huge
a main sequence star is burning hydrogen to helium
stars spend 90% of their time in the main sequence
all stars go through lifecycles
Earth was a star 13 billion years ago. It exploded and made the solar system and other stars. It was a supernova. That is known because it has elements higher than iron.
Black holes, if they are sucking in things, suck in things that are close by. It is gravity that does the sucking. The holes absorb a lot of energy. The inside of a black hole is very dense. A grain of sand could weigh as much as a solar system.
Shelly's lecture was interesting and packed with information. There was so much information that, try as I might, I couldn't keep up.
After lunch the teachers were summed up the week in a symposium prepared in advance. We were asked to speak about the things that we learned that surprised us, the tools we honestly felt we would use in our classrooms and those we didn't feel we would use at all. We also talked about the impact of the various activities from the week. Group presentations followed based on how we would use what we learned in our classrooms based on the state standards. The week closed with the distribution of certificates.
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