28 February. Today I worked with my group mates to make our presentation for why we need to explore space. I had a good time listening to my groupmates' ideas and learning how their ideas worked when I did not understand them. overall, I had a good first day in astronomy, and am looking forward to coming back next week. I think that next time, I should not spend so much time on one subject, and managing my time well.
6 March. Today, I presented the slides that I had worked on with my other groupmates to the secondary 1 astronomy cohort. I had a good time listening my fellow astronomy peers talking about why we should explore space, like to find more materials, or discovering alien life. I think that this was a good learning experience and I hope that we can do it again in the future. In addition, I was also briefed on the different tests and competitions that we were going to do for astronomy, and am excited to attend these competitions, and score well in my tests. I think that we could learn more about extraterrestrial life, and how their lives would differ from ours, with relation to the planets that they could live on.
20 March. Today, I had a test and had gone on my first ever stargazing session. I felt tired and good at the same time when we had finally finished admiring the stars. We also had to lecture about telescopes, and I understood the different parts of a telescope and which kinds of telescopes there were. Even though I am looking forward to having another stargazing session, I hope that it does not come really quickly, as the stargazing sessions are quite draining. I think that I realised that I still did not know a lot about the universe above us, and I hope that in the future I can learn more about the universe.
27 March. Today, I learned about the history of astronomy and the solar system. Learning more about the different planets that make up our solar system was very intriguing. I think that although the lesson itself may be a bit boring, the excos still made it fun in the end by making a blooket quiz to test our understanding of the subject. I think that the session right now is not bad, but it could be better by using microphones, as the excos had to shout so that we could hear. The link to my notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WrTMUglGyJFaKejMKspYe5Y-pRvipddgkP1kGS_uA8w/edit
3 April. Today, I learned about trigonometry, like how to calculate the angular distance bewtween two vertices. I also learnt about the different laws that lay the foundation for our understanding of astronomy today. Even though the CCA could be a bit boring at times, I still feel that it is quite interesting and am looking forward to doing this again. Next time, you could have like a blooket at the end, to make it a bit more entertaining.
8 May today, I learned about radio waves and the difference between frequency and wavelength. We also took a deep dive into radio waves, and the different frequencies used to transmit messages. However, Gavriel went a bit fast today, and it was a bit hard to catch up. However, I still understood what was taught and am looking forward to the next session. Next time, the presenter could go a bit slower.
17 July. Today, we heard about some competitions from Mr. Tan, then we went through some stellar properties, like how to find the radius of stars with their luminosity and their distance. We also then got to play a bit of ksp. Some of us had some troubles with the steam account, but most of us were still able to have a good time and we were able to build and fly an aircraft. One good thing is that the presenter had done quite a good job, although it was a bit mundane at times. I am looking forward to them making the slides a bit more entertaining.
31 July. Today, we learned about different astronomical phenomena, like auroras and seasons. We learned about how these phenomena occur and how they impact us. Although the presentation was a bit quick, I still think that most of us were able to understand the topic well. One good thing is that the presenter managed to keep his presentation engaging with jokes and humor, and I am looking forward to hearing this presenter present in the future.
7 August. Today, we learned about accretion and how the rings of different planets are formed. For example, the rings of Saturn were formed when a mon roache limit and disintegrated, thus creating the rings. One thing that I think could be improved was that the schedule was really messy, as when we went up to join the sec 2 and 3 in their lecture, they were already done. I am quite excited for the same presenter to present again though, he was quite interesting.
14 August. Today, we learned about nuclear physics, and we also learned about nebulae. The presenters were able to conduct the lesson well and make the lesson not too boring by mixing humor into the presentations. In addition, the presenters were able to teach us well so that we could understand the contents of the lessons. I am looking forward to these presenters presenting again. One thing that can be improved is that the presenters were fast and could slow down.
8 January
Today, I learned about the overview of our programmes for this year on astronomy, including the competitions and the opportunties that we could have over the year. In addition, Mr Tan also talked to us about the requirements to get the LEEPS points for astronomy. In the second half of the lesson, we also learned about the solar system and also how it was made, how the different planets were made, and what the differences of meteorite, comet and asteroid were. Overall, this was a good first introduction to the year, and I am looking forward to the next astronomy lesson. Though, I think that the presenter was a bit soft though, so the microphone volume could be increased in the future.
15 January
Today, I learned about the upcoming events and the overview of the entire year, including some competitions that I am interested in joining. Also, we also learned about the Earth, including the different layers of the ground and the different layers of the atmosphere, like the troposphere. I think that today's content was quite interesting, and it was also quite informative, but the presenter was a bit soft, so I think that that can be improved in the following sessions.
12 Febuary
Today, we had a presentation on if we should have asteroid mining, or if we should monitor the asteroids near Earth, and also if we should or we should not continue naming planets after gods. It was entertaining seeing how the different groups were able to bring across their point. We also learned about the moon, about how we can estimate the age of the craters based on how big they were, or how the phases of the moon work. It was quite entertaining, and I am looking forward to CCA sessions like these. I just think that for some of the presentations, they were quite obviously a joke, so I think that should be amended in the future.
19 February
Today, we had an activity using a water rocket to try and send a bottle as far as possible. The activity was quite fun, and I had fun launching the bottles with my friends and getting wet. It was quite entertaining, and we were also able to learn the concept of pressure through the activity. In addition, we also learned about moons, where we learned how there were actually around 200 moons in the solar system. We also learned about the construction of the moons in our solar system, and how some might be able to support life.
Reflection for the activity
The less water we put into the bottle, we actually observed that the bottle was able to fly further than if we were to put more water into the bottle. I think this is because the added weight had weighed the bottle down, as all of the water would not exit the bottle at once, rather the water would be released from the bottle during its flight. Thus, the more water was put in, the more weight that the bottle would have to shoot.
26 February
Today we had a lecture by a NASA researcher about space weather and solar phenomena. We learned about what space weather was, about why they can harm us, their potential side effects on our technology, and so much more. For example, space weather was the study of the variation in the space environment, how they can impact technology and how we can protect technology against them, In addition, we were able to learn about the different solar phenomena, including solar flares and coronal mass ejections, and what their differences were, like how Solar flares are giant bursts of X-rays and energy, while coronal mass ejections are massive amounts of material being thrown towards the planets. This lecture has been enlightening for me, and I am looking forward to attending more interesting lectures like these again.
5 March
Today we had a briefing on the upcoming events as well as a summary of everything that we had learned in term 1. The presentation was entertaining and informative, and was able to capture all the main points of the numerous lessons that we had in term 1. I think that the presenter was able to bring across the points very clearly and he was very prepared for this presentation. However, there was a techical difficulty during the start of the session, so it would be nice if we could get that fixed in the future. I am looking forward to the next astro session.
12 March
Today, we had an activity on creating a habitable planet in Universe Sandbox. It was quite fun, as we were able to play around and find out how the application can work. However, although the students had enough time to make a habitable planet, many of them were not able to produce a good product, that had a high probability of producing life. I feel this is quite unfortunate, and I am quite disappointed in my fellow astro members. I hope they will be able to take the task more seriously and do better.
26 March
Today, I had helped out to teach the secondary 2s about telescopes, and showing them how they can model one out in a digital programme like tinkercad. Although, I was a bit underprepared as we had not made a deck of slides to teach them, thus we were scrambling to find something for them to do. I think that we were able to handle the situation pretty well, though I think that I will just have to be more prepared in the future for these astro lessons.
2 April
Today, I was able to teach some secondary fours about black holes. I hope that they had fun listening to yous present, though I think that the other presenters could be more interactive. Another thing is that although I tried my best to be as interactive as possible, they sec 4s were ont very areesponsive, and many were off doing their own thing. I think that this could be improved on in the future. All in all, this was a very valuable learning experience, and I will take what I learnt and apply it to future presentations.
9 April
Today, I was able to teach the secondary 4's again about black holes. They were a good audience, though it was a bit tiring to present and shout across the room. I think it would be good if we added a microphone to the engineering lab. However, I was also able to gain experience on presenting through trying to present to them and improving on the parts that I need improvements on. All in all, this was a valuable experience that I will use in the future to become better in presenting.