26 March 2025
What did u like abt today’s session? I liked how you added a quiz to today’s session.
What can be improved in today’s session? The motive for the capture of the flag game wasn't clear, so some people accidentally cheated, and some people didn't say their names out loud enough, so some people still didn't know the names of others.
Do you have any suggestions for future sessions? I suggest integrating the CCA itself into the activities.
9 April 2025
Today, we did presentations about what we learned last week. I got to collaborate with people who were not in my class and whom I had not talked to before. We also did a quick recap about what we learned last week on Blooket, which helped refresh my memory for the presentation we had to do. Overall, I hope we have more interactive and engaging lessons like this one.
16 April 2025
Today, we learned about orbits and gravity and tried a simulation about Keplers three laws. The simulation was interesting, but we had quite a limited time to try it.
Exit ticket question
Why do scientists use light years instead of kilometres in space? Scientists use light years in space because kilometres are far too short to measure long distances in space; however, light years are much longer as they measure the length that light can travel in a year, so it is more useful in space
23 April 2025
Today we learned about radiation and spectra. However, it's hard to process the information when Advaith went through the slides too fast. Overall, the lesson was less engaging because I had no time to process the info, but other than that, it was interesting.
If you could travel back in time and join an ancient civilisation, how would you convince your leaders to use astronomy for planning and decision-making?
I would convince the ancient leaders to use astronomy for planning and decision making by showing how this could advantage them in war by finding out when the opposing country's farmers will harvest, and with that, they can pillage their farms for extra supplies. This could also help them by planning when to attack enemies or when enemies will attack them, and putting up defences in advance.
How will radiation be used to find stars in the Milky Way?
The doppler effect
30 April 2025
Today we learned about how to use a telescope and how it works, and also about binoculars. Although I liked how this was interactive, I didn't like how others didn't share the small telescope, and I couldn't use it. Despite this, I still felt this lesson was overall good, although I didn't get to try everything.
3 cool things I learned about telescopes and how I can apply them in future stargazing events.
I learned that telescopes can be either refracting or reflecting
I learned that finderscopes are an accessory of a telescope used to find the rough location of a celestial body.
I learned how to assemble a telescope.
I can apply them in future stargazing events by helping to assemble the telescopes.
7 May 2025
Today I learned what planet should be researched and/or colonised by NASA. I feel that today's lesson was slightly less engaging since I don't think that debates are very engaging in the first place, and the second part was a bit short and rushed to comprehend much of the information shown.
Exit Pass!
Who do you think had a greater influence on Astronomy: Galileo or Newton?
I feel that Galileo had a greater influence on Astronomy as he is the one who found out about Jupiter's moons and how astronomy is not geocentric, and later Copernicus found out that it is heliocentric. This resulted in modern astronomy where we found out that the sun isn't the centre of the Universe either.
14 May 2025
Today I did a task to make a moon base with a group. This helped me learn more about the life conditions on the moon even thought working with a group is still tough. I also learned about the three conditions for life around a star.
What are some improvements you would want to add to your moon base?
I would want to add a dome and some heaters.
How can you further improve the moon base with the information you have learnt in the Universe Sandbox session?
I would add heaters and larger area for research
21 May 2025
Today, there was a summary of all the things we learned in Term 2, which helped me understand all the topics that I didn't understand. It was also fun when there was a Kahoot that had so many twists to it. After that, I soloed a Mars Base that wasn't marked.
Exit Question
How do you think spacebases will be built on Mercury? Why?
I think that there would be many coolers since Mercury is very hot, and also we will need a sort of hibernation chambers since one Mercury day is a lot more than one Earth day. I think there will also be a lot of areas to research so that we can find out the necessary requirements to live on a planet outside of the Goldilocks Zone.
2 July 2025
Today there were two presentations by the Upper Sec, and afterwards we watched a rocket simulation that showed us how to use the simulation. Then we did a Blooket quiz.
9 July 2025
Today, there was an announcement made about the FCC and the talks to be held next week. After that, there was a lesson about the sun, plasma, and electromagnetic waves. We had our own deck of slides and had to fill in blanks in the slides. Afterwards, there was a Q&A about what we learned today. I enjoyed the lesson, other than Advaith going through the slides too fast and the fact that the quiz was cancelled.
What do you think neutron star anatomy would be like?
I think neutron star anatomy would be
What about red and white dwarf anatomy?
I think it would be
23 July 2025
Today we did fox hunting in school. We had to use radio frequencies to find a box that emits radio waves. We used the radio frequencies and walked around the school looking for the box. Although it was confusing and kind of tiring, I like this kind of hands-on experience where we can do it ourselves. Overall, I really liked this lesson, and I hope there will be more lessons like this.
How do you think fox hunting works?
I think they use radio frequencies from the box emitted to the radio to find the right frequency to "hear" the box.
What do you think are the applications of fox hunting in astronomy?
I think they use the radio waves to "hear" the galaxies so that they can find out the location or the general area of a galaxy.
6 August 2025
Today we learned about trigonometry. We learned how to use tangent, the cosine and sin rules and how this can be applied in astronomy. We also learned about stars and how to measure the mass of a system and to use the Hertzsprung - Russel diagram to classify stars. Overall I liked the lesson because we learned something we can use in the future,
Exit Pass Qn:
How do you think you can apply the sine and cosine rule in real life?
You can determine the angle of a right angled roof.
How to measure the mass of a star?
Use Keppler's third law to measure the mass of the star.
13 August 2025
Today we learned about exoplanets and how stars are formed. We also did a recap about wavelengths and the Doppler Shift. We learned each step for how the stars are formed, then we did a Blooket midway through the presentation. Overall, it was very fun.
Exit Pass Qn:
Can stellar spectrometry be applied somewhere else?
Yes it can, when communicating using walkie talkise or other appliances.
20 August 2025
Today we learned about stars and the different stages of stars from birth to death and about the main sequence. We also learned about birth to death of the stars not from the main sequence. After that we learned that we cannot use stars not from the main sequence to measure luminiosity using colour because the table can only be applied to min sequence stars. After that we did a Blooket about stars and saw a simulation about magnetars, the crab plasar's size and the composition of the sun and UY Scuti. Overall, a really fun lesson and I hope to see more of these in the future.
27 August 2025
Today we did fox hunting for about an hour, then did a quiz about the Sun. After that, we got to actually see the information about the Sun, like it is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, or it has many layers with the photosphere being the one we can see, and the corona, which has strong magnetic fields that bind plasma and prevent turbulent solar winds from escaping.
Exit Ticket Qn:
What surprised you most about the sun today?
I was surprised that the sun had that many layers and could release such strong solar winds.