El Fin

FAVORITE   
  During this semester in Space Science, I have had a few favorite topics and projects. My favorite project was the electromagnetic spectrum newsletter based on the WebQuest. I loved this project because I'm not quite fond of group projects, but I liked that we could easily confer with classmates to check our answers and information. The spectrum may not have been my favorite topic, but the creativity involved in this project made it my favorite. The life cycle of stars was my favorite topic, because it's fascinating that such massive objects change, are born, and die just like animals, plants, and people. The fact that this study can help us to understand how a star started is really cool, too!
LEAST FAVORITE    
     My least favorite technology that we utilized was Glogster. The project itself was fun because we got to research stars, but Glogster made the whole process frustrating and tedious. PowerPoints would definitely have made for an easier, and better organized, presentation. My least favorite project was the galaxy project, because, though I loved VoiceThread, the websites provided to us for research has varying and inconsistent information.
WHAT I WOULD CHANGE
     One thing I learned in Space Science this year is that there is a plethora of ways to present projects: PowerPoints, Glogs, VoiceThreads, Blogs, Newsletters, and posters. Obviously not everyone is going to love every single one of these methods, so I propose that you introduce the ways of presenting at the beginning of the semester, and then give students the choice of their method. Personally I feel like some of my presentations would have been more organized and less stressful if I had been able to make PowerPoints or newsletters for everything.
HARDEST TO BELIEVE
     I think that there were two topics this year that I really could not wrap my head around. Black holes were definitely impossible for me to understand, because they are invisible, "eat everything", and have massive gravity without being, well, massive. The model of a black hole where it makes a "dip" in the "sheet" that is the universe actually made me even more confused on the topic. The Big Bang was also difficult for me to understand, though I definitely believe it. Just the fact that nothing existed before the Big Bang is hard for me to grasp, though I'd love to learn more on the topic.