Final Project – Astronomer Spotlight
Overview
In this project, each one of us will study and present the life and works of an astronomer, then share their life story and research achievements with peer classmates in a recorded presentation on PeerScholar.
Grading Scheme
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Structure
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8/50 (16%)
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Flow
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8/50 (16%)
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Clarity
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8/50 (16%)
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Depth of Research beyond AST101/201
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8/50 (16%)
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Connection with AST201
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8/50 (16%)
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Reviewing Others
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8/50 (16%)
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Self-reflection
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2/50 (4%)
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Total
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50/50 (100%)
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Recording the Presentation (Create Phase on PeerScholar)
Assignment of Astronomers
• On this spreadsheet, one astronomer is pre-assigned to each student. There are up to 3 students who may study the same astronomer.
• Within 72 hours of the posting of this project, you are allowed to switch to a different astronomer that is being studied by fewer than 3 students at a small cost of grades (1%, or 0.5/50, for this project). Email the course instructor to discuss your intention of switching.
o Note that the depth of your research is graded by how much you research beyond AST101/201 contents, NOT by how advanced the research work of the astronomer is.
o The list of astronomers is sorted by the year when they were born.
o Generally speaking, astronomers who lived closer to modern times worked on more complex questions and more advanced techniques. If your astronomer worked on foundational topics, try focusing on how they completed their research despite limited prior knowledge and instruments. If your astronomer worked on highly advanced and complex topics, try focusing on topics that are more understandable by peer AST201 students.
General Guidelines for the Presentation
• Aim for a presentation file containing 10-15 slides of contents (excluding the title page and the reference pages).
o Less than 20% of the slides should be on the life story of the astronomer.
o At least 80% of the slides should be on describing the achievements of the astronomer, explaining the challenges that they have to fight through, and making connections with
• Use Zoom to record a short (12-20 minutes) video teaching fellow AST201 students about your astronomer. (Google to learn how to record on Zoom. You may need to log in to your UToronto Zoom account. Other screen capture software is allowed, but the size of the recording should be kept under 100MB)
• It is advised that you do NOT include your name or show your face in either the presentation slides or the recording of the presentation.
• Convert your presentation file to PDF format.
• Upload your presentation file and the Zoom recording to PeerScholar by clicking on the "Load Final Project in a new window" button at the bottom of the Quercus Assignment page.
• (*) If PeerScholar does not accept the video file, you can upload the video through the sharing functionality of UToronto MyMedia:
o Log on tohttps://mymedia.library.utoronto.ca/
o Upload your video.
o Click the share button, copy the link, and paste the link into PeerScholar.
o Verify that the link works in PeerScholar.
o Do NOT upload your PDF file to MyMedia. Upload the PDF directly to PeerScholar.
Peer Review (Assess Phase on PeerScholar)
During the review period, everyone watches the presentations of five peers and grades them following the rubrics. Your grades for this section are determined by how close your grades are to the TA’s grades, NOT affected your peers’ reviews on you.
Grading peers following the rubrics
The main focus of each section is outlined below:
• Structure: number of slides, duration of presentation, distribution of attention on sections of the presentation.
• Flow: smoothly stitching the contents; NOT reading the slides, NOT reading a script; guiding the audience with a pointer; engaging the audience with passion.
• Clarity: clear voice, text, and explanations; effective use of diagrams, animations, etc.
• Depth of Research beyond AST101/201: how much the presenter has researched beyond the AST101/201 course contents; proper citations.
• Connection with AST201: how well the presenter connects the astronomer’s works with our course.
• (Optional: you may leave comments to specifically help your peers improve.)
[Detailed rubrics of the Assess Phase will be provided in the table below. Please check this document one day later.]
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Grades
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Structure and Flow
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Clarity of
Presentation
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Depth of Research beyond AST101/201
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Connection with AST201
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5
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4
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3
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2
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1
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0
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The submission is missing.
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Self-reflection
After reviewing the peers and receiving peer review results, write a short bullet-point list to explain how you can improve your work.