Investigation Summary: Mini Poster Session
Overview: Students create a poster based on their exploration of different parts of a SNR, or different SNR, and share these with others in order to spark the generation of interesting questions which can be observed and answered by participants for their independent investigations.
- Each group uses a whiteboard and some printed material to post on it (i.e. spectrum plots and overplots of subregions, and 3 color X-ray images) to create their “poster.”
- Each group chooses two different regions (red and blue) or two different SNR (if completed in activity 5) to compare.
- Each group reports on and compares “standard properties”
- Angular size / linear size / distance / age or velocity estimate.
- True color X-ray image.
- Spectrum comparison (overplot) of different parts of the remnant (or different remnants).
- Chart of comparison, including identification of elemental lines in each part (i.e. composition).
- Tell the story of how light is produced in each region, using a diagram.
- Develop a model for what is different about the matter in each region, which explains your observations.
- For these explanations, use the following words: “atom,” “electron,” “energy level,” “energy level “jump” or “fall”, “photon,” “photon energy,” “interstellar dust,” “luminosity,” “intensity,” “spectrum,” “detector.”
- “Example mini-poster” given to students as a template: (instructor example poster).
- Students then roam to other posters, and ask clarifying questions about the comparisons of other groups
- If students have examined more than just Cas A, structured discussion at the poster session can result from the following task that each student must complete.
- Identify one difference between your own group’s SNR and another group’s SNR, and give a basic model (explanation) to explain that difference, in writing.
- As a result of their discussions, students generate questions about SNR, which are shared, and saved as ideas for the SNR investigation project that will be undertaken by groups later.
