Weekly Point Prompts

This page houses the Reflection Prompts of the Week & the Weekly Quick Point Prompts. The most recent week appears at the top. Older weeks appear below. You can always go back to previous week's prompts

Reflection Prompt of the Week - A targeted reflection prompt that you can add to your weekly reflections

Quick Point Prompts - Prompts related to what is happening in class that can earn you points. These are smaller and more playful than challenge problems. You can add these to your Weekly Reflections. Choose to do as many as you want... including none.

Week 15/End of Spring 2025 Semester

Prompt of the Week: Legacy & Reflection

Write a memoir, or some form of legacy, for your character and their lives. What are their thoughts about who they are and who they became through the Salvation of the Yggdrasil? What do they want to leave behind for others to know about them? Outside of the Salvation of the Yggdrasil, what were some of their life accomplishments, aspirations, etc.?

This is a chance for you to leave the tale of who you were as a character in the Yggdrasil World.  

With your permission, I would love to log these memoirs for future Astronomy 490 students to see upon completion of the Salvation of the Yggdrasil or the end of the class.

Rewards

+25 Creativity; +10 Habits & Life; +5 Connections
Other points possible depending on what is written.

Week 14

Prompt of the Week: Black Mirror Agent vs Utopia Designer 

This prompt is a bit different than previous ones. It brings in elements of the "Science, Technology, Society, and Ethics" project I originally had planned for us before I got lost in the World Building part of the class. It is also larger in scale, and accordingly, is potentially worth A LOT of points

When: 224 YD - 25th Karhset

You are part of a selection committee tasked with deciding what technology should be reintroduced, or introduce, to the Yggdrasil nearly 50 annums after the OKC and over 15 annums since the return of the Project Icarus teams with their civilization saving supply of hydrogen, water, organics, silicates, and metals from the Farros system.

The result of the committee’s selections will be announced at the 225th anniversary of the Yggdrasil launch. The wounds of the nearly 30 years of uncertainty and fear that faced Drasilians are still fresh. The hope of the current Prime Council is that a large celebration with announcements of re-introduced or new technologies will provide a seed for the Drasilians to begin a new era of prosperity.

Dr. Lindsay Created Technology Choices

Pick one of the following technologies (or propose one of your own to me for approval) and go through an exercise I call, “Black Mirror Agents vs Utopia Designers.” The exercise is described below. The choice of provided technologies are:

• Re-introduction of SWAIN 

  • Possible extension: Merge new SWAIN with the digital remnants of Steven in hopes of reviving him. 

• Gene Manipulation & Modification: At it's most basic level, gene manipulation uses stem cells to grow everything from lab grown meat to spare organs. Historically, it was also used to correct debilitating gene disorders prior to birth and reduce a myriad of risk factors and common genetic problems (bad/degrading eye sight, hearing, etc.). Assume that this technology is much more advanced than our current version of it. Think critically and creatively about where this technology could be in the future.

• Hologram Tech: Use for communications, building immersive environments, holographically reskinning people, infrastructure, entertainment, quality of life (for example: a holocast sky in the biomes) etc.

• Asgard (VR and AR Reality Overlay) and/or Valhalla (See related Ygg-World Project) for additional details: Asgard is the digital version of the Yggdrasil that can be seen and interacted with using augmented reality and virtual reality. It was the realm of the sprites, who have been missing since Steven’s death, and allowed for the benefits of a digital overlay of reality that you can think of.

  • Offshoot technology that you can consider is digital consciousnesses.

• Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs): non-invasive or invasive – your choice: A method to link your mind with computers. Requires the re-introduction of SWAIN or Steven.

  • Invasive means computer chip implanted in the body;
    Non-invasive means the brain-computer connection is done by non-surgical means.
    Series 7 of Black Mirror explores the theme of BCIs

• Nanobot technology: Advanced Features require re-introduction of SWAIN or Steven.

  • Basic Functions: Used for medicine, ship repairs, and personal enhancements. Nanobots can monitor your health, diagnose problems before or as they develop, and apply direct treatment. They can also be employed to enhance healing from wounds

  • Advanced Functions (include but can also be excluded by your choice): Advanced ship repairs guided by SWAIN or Steven. Enhancement (or dulling) of senses and emotions. Mild to moderate enhancements to other physical attributes. Brain to brain communication. Recording of dreams. Much more! Get creative!

• Bionics & Cybernetics: Fully articulated artificial limbs and organs. Can be used as limb replacement, or human augmentation to push past biological limits

• Humanoid and other Biomimicry Robots: Either integrated with AI tech or not.

• Creation of new Sprites based on AI Technology: A Sprite is a personal AI companion. You have it from a young age, so the Sprite learns and grows with you. 

  • Requires re-introduction of SWAIN and possibly resurrection of Steven.

The Black Mirror Agent vs Utopia Designer Challenge

For this prompt, you need to begin an imaginary larger project of producing a report about one of the proposed new technologies or re-introduced technologies. This larger prompt can be completed on your own or in collaboration with someone else (See below for collaboration task). 

Your task is to create up to at least 3 “Black Mirror Agent” and 3 “Utopia Designer” propositions for your chosen technology. A proposition is, at a minimum, a bulleted list of sentences listing the benefits (Utopia Designer) or harms (Black Mirror Agent) of the technology. When coming up with these propositions, try to think of ones that would have a profound effect on Drasilian life.

• Create Three Black Mirror Agent and Three Utopia Designer propositions about the technology. 

• A “Black Mirror Agent” is a person who thinks about how a technology could be exploited for harm (including weaponization); and how it might create inadvertent, but potentially detrimental harms. The theme here is akin to the television show “Black Mirror” which imagines potential dark futures related to our emerging technologies (some shows are positive).

  • Recommended Black Mirror episodes for those interested in more deeply understanding the theme and goals of a black mirror agent.

    • Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too: Series 5

    • San Junipero: Series 3

    • USS Callister: Series 4 (Sequel - USS Callister Infinity in Series 7)

    • Hotel Reverie: Series 7

    • The Entire History of You - Series 1

    • White Bear: Series 2

• A “Utopia Designer” is a person who imagines how a technology can alleviate the ills of society by increasing human well-being, sustainability, and functional & healthy society and culture. It is the counter to the “Black Mirror Agent,” and deeply embraces the genre of Solarpunk. The San Junipero episode may be more closely aligned with Utopia Designer than Black Mirror Agent.

Completion Criteria (Solo)

• Pick one of the technologies or come up with one of your own.

• Create your three Black Mirror agent and three Utopia Designer propositions for this technology

• Identify one to a few important ethical questions related to the technology that you would want to have addressed before deciding to bring the technology to the Yggdrasil.

• Make a justified recommendation on if the technology should be allowed or not.

Completion Criteria (Collaboration)

• Find someone to work with and pick a technology or create one of your own

• Have each person create three Black Mirror agent and three Utopia Designer propositions for this technology

• Share your propositions with each other, and together, identify a single ethical question related to that technology that both think must be addressed before the technology could be introduced to the Yggdrasil.

• Articulate and expand on that ethical concern and use it to make a justifed recommendation on if the technology should be allowed or not.

• Provide a brief description of how the collaborative efforts.

Rewards

+25 Critical Thinking; +25 Connections; Up to +15 Research if citations included;

Collaboration points if done in collaboration, but reduced points for other categories
+17.5 Critical Thinking; +17.5 Connections;  Up to +10 Research if citations included; +20 Collaboration

Quick Point Prompts

• Describe how your view and approach to problem solving has changed over the course of this class.
  +5 Problem Solving

• Give me some suggestions for improvements to the Salvation of the Yggdrasil scenario
  +5 Collaboration

• Give a rough sketch of, or a fully described, challenge problem based on the storyline of the Salvation of the Yggdrasil
  +5 to 10 Problem Solving; +5 to 10 Creativity

• Design the tether length and rotation rate for the BoRoHs to generate the 1 g of gravity they have during their bolo-rotation separation configuration.
  +5 Problem Solving; +5 Critical Thinking
  Would this aspect of the BoRoHs be feasible?
  +5 Research; +5 Connections

• What is a wicked problem that might face the people of the Daedalus Convoy?
  +5 Creativity; +2.5 Critical Thinking

Week 13

Reflection Prompt of the Week: Wicked Problem Solving
(Problem Solving + Critical Thinking + Connections)

A "wicked problem" is a problem that is incredibly difficult or impossible to solve due to the complexity of the problem, interaction of multiple factors/systems, and resistance to being well-defined. There are no clear solutions, and there is no ONE correct solution. Creating "solutions" to a wicked problem involves attempts to understand the breadth of the problem, identify and understand those affected by the problem and potential "solutions" to it, mapping out the factors of the problem and how they influence one another, and accepting the ambiguity of having no fixed solution(s).

For this week's prompt, I want you to try to go through a brainstorming session to identify the most important actions the Drasilians need to take after the Oppenheimer-Krishna Catastrophe (OKC). What are the people's most pressing needs? What damage needs to be fixed first? How can you maintain hope? You don't have to answer those questions, but do consider them when presenting the results of your brainstorm.

Clear Criteria:
1) Create a mindmap or some other written organization of your brainstorm that helps you identify the most important things to address and how they might be interrelated.

2) Make a Top Actions List with the top 3 to 5 things that Drasilians need to do to begin recovering from the OKC. 

3) Give a brief rationale for your Top Actions List

You can work on this with a partner. If you do, please indicate who you worked with so I can award collaboration points.

Rewards:

• Up to +15 Problem Solving; +15 Critical Thinking; +10 Connections

• +10 Collaboration if you worked with a partner

• Possibility of creativity points

Quick Point Prompts

• Provide a physical description and an analogy for any of the following terms (+2.5 Critical Thinking & +2.5 Connections per)

  • Optical Depth

  • Mean Free Path

  • Opacity

  • Column Density

  • Extinction cross section

  • Ratio of selective extinction

• 1) Look up some of the complex molecules that we have discovered in molecular clouds.
  2) Comment on what the presence of these molecules forming in space might mean for the origins of life in the universe
  +5 Research for  (1); +5 Connections for (2)

• Describe how extinction and reddening make astronomical observations difficult. This prompt might be called, why do astronomers hate dust?
  +5 Critical Thinking
  
  

Week 12

Reflection Prompt of the Week: Leadership
(Collaboration + Critical Thinking + Problem Solving)

We have recently had a few in-class activities - Ollie's World & Chapter 1: The Oppenheimer-Krishna Catastrophe - where you were working as a class to develop solution strategies, and in the case of Ollie's World, execute a solution. For each of these, there were facilitators acting as leaders to help everyone to understanding a solution strategy complete with a pathway to solution.

For this week's reflection prompt, I want you to 1) reflect on your role in leadership or your observations of the leadership during the class problem solving sessions; and 2) answer the question of what qualities make for effective leadership? Expanding on the second part, what personality traits, actions, communication strategies, etc. go into being a good leader or co-leader?

After you have answered (1) and (2) above discuss how you might improve on the class-level problem solving for the peer-teaching & class unification state for Chapter 1 & problem solving strategy building day for the future chapters.

Rewards:

• +10 Collaboration; +5 Critical Thinking; + 5 Problem Solving

• Possibility of other points because leadership combines all the skill categories.

Quick Point Prompts

• What is the current state of our fusion technologies ?
  Between 5 and 15 Research Points depending on depth of answer

• Imagine the response Drasilians have to the death of Steven
  +5 Creativity; +5 Critical Thinking

• The average US nuclear fission power plant produces about 1 GW of energy. How much hydrogen needs to be fused into helium to produce this amount of energy via nuclear fusion?
  +7.5 Problem Solving

• The first step in the proton-proton chain is two protons fusing to create a deuterium nucleus, a neutrino, and a position. How much energy (in MeV) is produced when the positron gets annihilated by encountering an electron? Given that the annihilation creates two gamma ray photons, what would the wavelength of each photon created be assuming they are equal?
  +5 Problem Solving for Energy; +2.5 Problem Solving for wavelength of photon

• In your own words, describe why we must consider quantum tunnelling for fusion to occur in the core of the Sun.
  +5 Critical Thinking

• What's one thing you hope to do over the Spring Recess to help you recover to finish the Spring 2025 semester strong?
  +5 Habits & Life

• What is your work plan and goals for the rest of this class?
  +5 Habits & Life

Week 11

Reflection Prompt of the Week: (Problem) Creation
(Problem Solving + Creativity + a portion of the points you assign it to be worth)

This semester, you have seen several examples of how I take course material and try to create engaging problems around it. My focus has been on developing problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration, while giving you the opportunity to do independent research, draw connections to other disciplines, and improve your scholarly habits. With problem-solving, my personal focus have been on helping you build ability to do multi-step problem solving through building problem solving strategies.

If I have been meeting my goals, many of you should be getting to a place where you can start to see how to build a problem that is interesting, engages with the material, includes deeper, multi-step problem solving strategies, and incorporates follow-up questions that engage with things like creativity, metacognition, and connections between disciplines. I'm eager to see if I am meeting these goals.

Fo this week's "prompt of the week" I want you to create a Yggdrasil World Problem. The problem can be at any scale (Challenge Problem, Class Activity, or Achievement Problem), and be related (but entirely limited to) to the course material we have covered so far. Your problem must include:

• A short preamble that contextualizes it within the world

• What the criteria are for the problem to be completed

• Any extensional options that may include things like creating a short story, a news release, graphics, research, drawing connections to other disciplines, etc.

• Skill Point Rewards for completion.

You can collaborate with another student to build your problem. If you do so, please indicate who you worked with, and you both still need to submit this weekly reflection.

Rewards:

• For problem creation:  10 - 15  Problem Solving;  10 - 15 Creativity;  up to half the reward point values you put into the problem

• For solving your own problem: The 10 - 15 Problem Solving & Creativity for the creation PLUS all the point rewards you put into your problem. 

Quick Point Prompts

• What are some examples of hydrostatic equilibrium in contexts other than stars?
  +5 Connections

• Do you think Doc Ollie is onto something with this suspicions of The Scheria Institute? If so, create a little story about what their plans were for this pyschosocial experiment?
  +10 Creativity; +5 Critical Thinking

• Do you think that the "Destination Planet" is the only potentially habitable world, or world with the possibility of life on it, in the destination planet system? Support your claims.
  +10 Critical Thinking; +5 Problem Solving

• Come up with a reason you think the Yggdrasil was launched. Why did people want to leave Earth to establish a new home amongst the stars?
  Up to +10 Creativity & +5 Critical Thinking

• Produce your own derivation of hydrostatic equilibrium. Provide full explanations to the steps and logic used
  +5 Problem Solving; +5 Critical Thinking

Week 10

Reflection Prompt of the Week: Curiosity
(Research, Critical Thinking, and Connections)

Read through the following:

• The History of the Yggdrasil to Present Day

• The Decline of Human Thinking in the Era of Steven by Erik Selwyn

Allow yourself to become curious about one of the details of the Yggdrasil World that is contained in those two documents. Example possibilities: How the Yggdrasil was constructed, the Scheria Institute, Steven, Steven's appearances, the Apparitionists, the Sprites, the megaqubit revolution, etc. 

What ideas and inspirations do you have related to your chosen detail? 

Keeping to the information presented in the documents, do a bit of your own world building by adding to that detail along an axis of your own curiosity. Get imaginative and creative to make your curiosity come to life. Try to add a bit of research into what you create.

These instructions are a bit nebulous, so let me give you an example of a few of the curiosities that I have that aren't yet explored in the materials I have given you:

• Why did the Scheria Institute want to build the Yggdrasil? Why did people want to leave Earth?

• What is the reality of The Apparitionists on the Yggdrasil? Does anyone take them seriously? Are they akin to a fortune-teller? 

• Shortly after coming into existence, Steven created a lot of brain-rot programming for Drasilians, which was heavily aimed at children. What aspects of psychology could be hijacked to create the problems presented in the Erik Selwyn essay?

• Is Steven really sentient, or does it just give the impression of sentience so well that we can't tell the difference?

• etc.

Please try to come up with your own questions, but if you are really curious about any of the above, then feel free to adopt them for yourself.

You can present your answer to this prompt any way you want to. As a story, an essay, a story/essay (like Erik Selwyn), prose, etc.

Rewards: 10 - 15 Creativity; 5 - 15 Critical Thinking; 0 - 15 Connecitons; 0 - 15 Research
Other if applicable and appropriately suggested

Quick Point Prompts

• In your own words, describe why the Balmer hydrogen absorption lines reach a maximum at spectral class A0.
  +5 Critical Thinking

• In your own words, describe why giant and supergiant stars have narrower spectral lines than main-sequence stars.
  +5 Critical Thinking

• If you look at the examples of HR Diagrams I have in the course slides, you will that the Main Sequence has a decent width. That is, for a given surface temperature, there is a range of possible luminosities. What causes this spreading out of the main sequence on an HR Diagram?
  +5 Research

  • Mathematically demonstrate one of the sources for a spread in luminosity
    +5 Problem Solving

• Look up and give a brief description of what the "Instability Strip" on the HR Diagram is
  +5 Research

• If you were given the spectrum of a star, how would you go about assigning a spectral classification to it?
  +5 Problem Solving; +5 Critical Thinking

Week 9

Reflection Prompt of the Week: Ingenuity (Critical Thinking, Creativity, Connections)

This week's Prompt of the Week focuses on identifying problems and proposing inventive solutions to them that utilize the unique environment of the Yggdrasil. Think of a problem that we have in our everyday lives that could be solved through the technology, social structures/policies, culture, etc. within the Yggdrasil World. Describe what the problem is (big or small) and what ingenious way Drasilians have eliminated or minimized the problem.

Your problem can be anything. This could be something silly that bothers you, or something grand related to something like the UN's 17 Goals for Sustainable Development (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). I encourage you to use the power of storytelling to make this a more tractable prompt. You do not have to work out every detail. Instead, try coming up with a solution idea, however flawed it might end up being when exposed to heavy scrutiny and peer evaluation, that would be the kind of detail you would add to a fictional story about the Ygg-World.

This can be a small addition to your larger Building the Ygg-World project or it can be an independent from anything you have previously worked on

Rewards: 5 - 10 Creativity; 5 - 10 Critical Thinking; 5 - 10 Connections;
Other if applicable and appropriately suggested

Quick Point Prompts

• Tell me about one of the primary sources you are using for your addition to the Build the Ygg-World Project. Let me know why you chose that as a resource and how it is influencing your thoughts about your addition
  +5 Research

• Come up with an alternative to the infamous O B A F G K M mnemonic
  +5 Creativity

• In your own words that make sense to you when you write them down, describe why A-type stars have strongest hydrogen absorption lines.
  +5 Critical Thinking

• Describe a way that you collaborated with a fellow student on your Building the Ygg-World Project
  +5 Collaboration

• What is your reaction to empirical relationships like the Mass-Radius-Relationship (MRR) and the Mass-Luminosity-Relationship (MLR) that are used for stars?
  +5 Critical Thinking

• The spectral classification system is a form of taxonomy. Other than the the obvious choice of biological taxonomy, give an example of where taxonomy is a useful tool in science or other forms of scholarship
  +5 Connections

• Extend your learning about how light interacts with atoms by defining the following as if you were trying to explain it to a 12-year old.
  Bremsstrahlung radiation, cyclotron radiation, synchrotron radiation, Cherenkov radiation, Thomson scattering, Compton Scattering, Rayleigh Scattering, Mie Scattering, and free-free and bound-free emission & absorption.
  Some of these have significant overlap, which should make finding the connections fun.
  +2 per definition

Week 8

Reflection Prompt of the Week: Storytelling
(Creativity plus your selection of other skill categories)

For this prompt, you will need to tell me which categories you are earning points in. This will depend on how you choose to respond to the prompt.

One of the most important activities humans engage in is storytelling. It is one of the primary ways we transmit information about ourselves, share cultural values, build commonality, experience a shared reality, and build a foundation of ethics and morals. Stories provide meaning and purpose to the events that surround our past and present, and speculate about the future. 

Prompt: Build a pitch for what you think would be a basis for an interesting story to be told in the Yggdrasil World. You do not have to include all of them, but generic elements of a story are: plot (sequence of events); characters, setting, conflict, theme, and point of view. What is your idea for an interesting story? Who is involved? What are they doing?  You don't have to have the plot worked out. I would rather you emphasize the overall idea for something interesting.

Creativity +10;  Up to +5 in the categories you identify as relevant to your pitch.

Dr. Lindsay example: Shorter than what I expect, but I wanted to give you an idea of what I'm looking for.

• My pitch for a story follows the character Celis. Celis is a sprite that is involved with a movement to establish rights and representation for all sprites. The primary setting is in the virtual world, Asgard, where she spends most of her time interacting with other sprites. She is the personal sprite of a someone who is on their Drakimasia, and the story focuses on her trying to rally human support for the sprites cause. She is not one of the leaders of the Sprite's Rights Movement, but through her actions, she ends up being one of the primary agents of change.

Quick Point Prompts

• Reflect on our Collaboratorium Mixer with English 340 (CCREATE). What did you think about the experience? Are there any lasting outcomes (collaborations, budding friendships, etc.?) What worked well, what would you like to see for future Collaboratorium Mixers?
  Up to +10 Collaboration depending on depth of response

• Summarize and comment on the methods that astronomers use to turn observational properties of stars into physical properties of stars. What do you think of the methods? What do you want to know more about them?
  +5 Critical Thinking

• Create one to two sentence Ygg-World Story ideas
  +2.5 Creativity per pitch

• Do you think a post-scarcity technotopia like the one on the Yggdrasil can exist? Justify your response
  Up to +10 Critical Thinking

• Come up with cool technologies that exist on the Yggdrasil that are advanced versions of our current technology or emerging technologies.  Think of this as a very short version of the Week 6 Prompt of the Week
  +2.5 Connections per technology

Week 7

Reflection Prompt of the Week: Characterization (Creativity + Connection + Habits & Life)

This week's Prompt of the Week focuses on getting you to play around creating a Yggdrasil World character for yourself. Instead of just creating one, however, you are going to create two. Create one character in the Yggdrasil World that is a representation of who you would like to be in such a world. Describe who they are, what they do with their time, and their basic values and personality. Create another character of someone in this world who you would admire and strive to be like. Again, describe who they are, what they do with their time, and their basic values and personality.

Creativity +10; Connection +5; Habits & Life +5

Quick Point Prompts

• In the relationship between magnitude and flux given in the notes (Slide 33 in "Introduction to the Stars" consolidated slide deck), why is it F1/F2 instead of F2/F1? What would the equation be if you used the ratio of fluxes F2/F1?
  +5 Critical Thinking; (+3 Problem Solving for the equation for F2/F1)

• Can you think of any other systems that are set up similar to the astronomer's magnitude system? What is your example, and what is the connection?
  +5 Connection

• Explain why a B - V < 0 corresponds to stellar surface temperatures greater than 10,000 K and B - V < 0 Corresponds to stellar surface temperatures less than 10,000 K.
  +5 Critical Thinking

• Why is a bolometric magnitude always smaller than a photometric (U B V R or I) magnitude?
  +5 Critical Thinking

Week 6

Reflection Prompt of the Week: Speculation (Problem Solving + Critical Thinking + Creativity)

Take a technology or device that currently has a large impact on our society. Speculate on a futuristic equivalent to this technology that could exist on the Yggdrasil. To keep things from being Steven-dominated, consider that this is a technology that existed before Steven became sentient. In a short passage, describe what the technology is, what the current analogous technology is, and some of how it is used by Drasilians.

In the theme of hard sci-fi, try to keep the technology realistic. Do you think we could really invent your tech in the future?

There may be some overlap between this prompt and your Addition to the Ygg-World Project. That is okay and even encouraged!

Rewards: +5 Problem-Solving; +5 Critical Thinking; +5 Creativity

Quick Point Prompts

• The magnitude system is a relative system that compares the object of interest to some standard. Where else have you encountered relative systems like this?
  +5 Critical Thinking

• Watch this clip (movie clip). Share your thoughts about what Han Solo says about the Kessel Run
  +5 Critical Thinking

• Where would you say that the small angle approximation of tan(x) is approximately equal to x breaks down and is no longer an acceptable approximation. Back up your claim with some statement about how much error is acceptable.
  +5 Problem Solving

• Find and describe a fun example of paralalx that exists in your day-to-day life. 
  +5 Connection

• Repeat: What is the silliest Ygg-World physical or social aspect that you can think of that would have a big impact on the ship and culture? Don’t just list your idea. Give it some life with words.
  +3 Creativity; +2 Critical Thinking

Week 5

Reflection Prompt of the Week: Imagination Prompt (Creativity + Interdisciplinary)

Think of some aspect of our universe that you are deeply interested in. This could be some academic discipline, field of scholarship, philosophical reasoning, cultural element, a passion or interest, etc. For this prompt, your task is to imagine how that interest manifests itself within the Yggdrasil World. Writing from an "in-world" perspective, create a short passage that details how that interest is expressed on the Yggdrasil. Be creative, have fun, and remember that this is a futuristic sci-fi world that takes place on a generation space ship. There are no other bounds or rules. Have fun!

Rewards +5 Creativity; +5 Connection

Quick Point Prompts

• Find and describe a fun example of thermal equilibrium that exists in your day-to-day life. 
  +5 Connection

• Use the Kinetic Theory of Gas’s definition of temperature to describe the motion of particles in a relevant example (e.g., the v_rms of the oxygen on the 6th floor versus the 2nd floor)
  +5 Problem Solving

• What is the silliest Ygg-World physical or social aspect that you can think of that would have a big impact on the ship and culture? Don’t just list your idea. Give it some life with words.
  +3 Creativity; +2 Critical Thinking

• We saw that the Earth’s thermal equilibrium temperature is about 255 K. The real average temperature of the Earth is closer to 287 K. Look into the causes for the difference and describe the processes that account for the difference.
  +5 Research

• Take something we discussed in class this week and connect it to another discipline. Explain why it is important and relevant to that other discipline
  +5 Connection

• Create three to five characters of Drasilians. Who are they and what do they do? Do your best to make them feel real and more than one-dimensional.
  +2 Creativity Per Character Created; Bonus points if you provide a graphic of the character. Yes, you can use AI.