Physics 111; Fall 2009
Group Project Assignments

On this page, you will find the group assignments. Make sure that you have been assigned to a group; if you haven't, please contact me as soon as possible or you won't get a grade for the project. The person listed just below the group number is the leader (two names indicate coleaders).

PLEASE NOTE: I typed these names in rather quickly from the questionnaire that you filled out exam 2. If you find any error (my apologies), please let me know, and I can make the necessary changes.

The Assignment

Each group is assigned to research its topic and answer the question that it poses (you may use the library, the Web, whatever. Here's some good advice: start with your textbook and the text website!). The group is then to construct a Web page detailing what they have found and citing references and links as appropriate. The group leader is to act as a coordinator for group meetings and it is his/her responsibility to see that the Web page is submitted by the due date. Your group's page will be judged by how well the question is answered and how complete the answer is. The page will also be judged on its coherence and quality.

First Assignment:

Details of the Web Page

The topics listed below cover areas of astronomy that we have (or will have) mentioned only briefly in class this semester. I have tried to select questions from planetary science, stellar astronomy, galactic astronomy, and cosmology that we don't have time to study in detail in class. In most cases, these topics represent active areas of research, and many questions remain to be answered.

Please Note: If you aren't sure exactly what I want you to research for your topic, I would be happy to discuss it with the group either directly or through email. (For example, in the past, I assigned a group a question about the Hubble Constant, and they reported on the Hubble Space Telescope! Needless to say, their grade suffered!)

The Web page that your group constructs does not have to be fancy - - I am more interested in content, completeness, and coherence. You may link to outside Web sites and use images and other media if you like. The content should reflect a standard research paper: introduction, body, and conclusions. MOST IMPORTANT: Your audience is your fellow classmates, not me. Write your Web page so that the other members of Physics 111 will read it and learn something from it.

A word of caution about URL's: make sure to type the URL exactly; one wrong character renders the URL useless. It is good practice to electronically copy the URL directly from the browser to your page. A faulty link in your page will reduce your grade.

You may submit your web page in three different ways:
  1. (Very Preferred) Construct your page and make it accessible on a server. Then just email me the URL for your page, and I will link to it from here. (If you post your page on a server, leave it there until after the final exam for the course.)
  2. (Very Unpreferred!) Email me all of the necessary files for your page and I'll post them on this server.
  3. (Very Unpreferred!) Same as #2 except bring me the files on a memory stick or CDROM.

Some Ground Rules (more may added at a later date)

  1. The Web page is due by 5:00 pm on the designated date (Wednesday, December 9) - you can submit it earlier if you have it ready. Late reports will receive a 50% reduction in grade for each day after the due date.

  2. Everyone in the group receives the same grade; however, if a group member does not make an adequate contribution, it is the leader's responsibility to notify me of this and the grade for that person will be reduced.

  3. Group leaders will receive 3 points extra credit; however, the rest of the group should evaluate their leader's performance, and on their unanimous reccommendation, the amount of extra credit may be reduced.

One Last Remark . . . This all has some pupose.

I will link to all of the groups' pages from this page. Some of the better ones will be nominated for the highly coveted Hubble-Bubble award. The information from the reports from those Nominees will be fair questions on the final exam.

Groups and Topics

Group 1

Joseph Hamrock
Ryan Hanrahan
Kristen Yagley
Josh Balicki
Courtney Clark
Byron Viets

Topic: What are the mission and goals of the Dawn Mission?

Group 2

Jennifer Patton
Andrew Klatzke
Ian Monnin
Scott Sprague
Grace Czerniawski
Ashley Wiot

Topic: What are the mission and goals of the New Horizons Mission?

Group 3

Charles Christoferson
Patrick Shannon
Kristen Lintz
Matt Perkins
Andie Jackson
Jared Olson

Topic: What are the mission and goals of the Kepler Mission?

Group 4

Dagney Challoner
Ian McGuinness
Matt Jackson
Keenan Watson
Anne Casciani
ShannonLynch

Topic: What are the mission and goals of the WISE Mission?

Group 5

Wes Marsh
Anne Snyder
Matt Bodner
Mark Lambrechts
Reed Muething
Kaitlyn Thomas

Topic: What Space Transportation Systems will come after the Shuttle is retired?

Group 6

Xiang Cheng
Rachel Leonard
Matt Shroder
Kane Vaughan
Kurt Imber
Jasmine Patel

Topic: Can we terraform Mars?

Group 7

Patrick Mellott
Stephen McInturf
Jessica Downs
Alex Cloonan
John Shufelt
Emily Lehmann

Topic: What's the deal with water on the Moon?

Group 8

Brian McCoy
Mike Dudzinski
Victor Byrum
Jenna McGivney
Eric Lee
Lindsey Carman

Topic: What are we doing to protect ourselves from the impact of comets and asteroids?

Group 9

Joseph Kurt Small
Alexandria Aydin
Niccole Doddridge
Gina Lothrop
Alex Thomas
Jake Pellicano

Topic: What will the James Webb space telescope do?

Group 10

Joshua Halbert
Heather Showalter
Patrick Tarkey
Christin Nein
Kaitlin Palzck
Evan Ilgenfritz

Topic: What's planned for the Mars Science Lab Mission?

Group 11

Ali Karani
Randall Smith
Grant Peterre
Kevin Roach
Alicia Gresla
Nathan Hume

Topic: What's planned for the Juno Mission?

Group 12

Chris Bilek
Sid Sharma
Chelsea Davis
Courtney Lynch
Marc Chenowith
Sarah Field

Topic: What is the dark matter problem?

Group 13

Kenichiro Nishii
Hans Rhenisch
Allison Nemeth
Meredith Willse
Harrison Blackburn
Randy Yim

Topic: What are Gamma-Ray Bursts?

Group 14

Chris Hatrke
Pete Ford
Stephanie Weber
Xiao Li
Nicole Theobald
David Hurley

Topic: Do central blackholes have anything to do with galaxy formation?

Group 15

Kevin Berkel
William McBride
Weiwei Hu
Jin Liu
Jennifer Horwitz
Adam Clampitt-Dietrich

Topic: What were the first stars in the Universe like?

Group 16

Mason Young
James Brzezinski
Sharayne Jackson
Heather Mandrell
Patrick Kenning
Shane Visconti

Topic: What is dark energy?

Group 17

Fiona Chan
James Sams
Arjun Bhatia
Li Yang
Emily Gibson
William DeDakis

Topic: What is inflation in cosmology?

Group 18

Monica Lewe
Daryl McSweeney
Joe Millea
Chris Greene
Kathleen Jordan
Javiera Aguirre

Topic: Will we ever be able to travel to the stars (besides wormholes)?

Group 19

Bradley Porter
Bobby Stinson
James Connolly
Sarah Traxler
Taylor Ahearn
Will Byrne
Emily Juilfs

Topic: What is a wormhole?

Group 20

Mike DeZenzo
Richard Lundgren
Gregory Tortoriello
Emily Aubry
Alex Dietz
John Ascher
Hilliary Randall

Topic: Is there any scientific evidence for UFO's?

Group 21

Gerald Eighmy
Weston Oberg
Connor Gore
Michael Hofmann
Victor Kopen
Nicole Mitchell
Zhuan Cheng

Topic: What are we doing about SETI?
This document was last modified on Friday, 20-Nov-2009 08:49:56 EST ;
Send comments or suggestions to:
alexansg@muohio.edu