Progress
Click here for the past progress from the 2004 group.
Week 8
(25 July – 29 July 2005 )
Week eight’s focus was to continue the finalization of each project.
Cylinder
No changes were made to the cylinder progress this week. We are awaiting approval for the second test file to be sent to print.
Pulsar Projector
We have decided that the Pulsar Projector will be an optional device, rather than an inclusive component. Dr. Moffett will continue to develop the prototype for the pulsar projector once he returns to Furman University.
Lesson Plans
Fine tuning of the activity worksheet, as well as a little fine tuning on the diagrams for the electromagnetic spectrum and synchrotron radiation, were done this week and posted for review. Awaiting final changes to be made to the manual content.
Multimedia
Chuck’s focus this week has been further developing the Maya animation. Tommy has been preparing for the PDF file conversion process, as well as working on a few animations per Chuck’s request. Susan has been working full speed ahead on putting in the lesson plans into the multimedia presentation.
Week 7
(18 July – 22 July 2005 )
Week seven’s focus was to continue the finalization of each project.
Cylinder
Tommy spent the week modifying the optical cylinder template based on feedback and suggestions given by the team and mentors. Changes included cleaning up each of the radio sources to give a consistency of grays and blacks, as well as enhancing the overall levels of the images. We hope to get a second test template out to print this week.
Pulsar Projector
We have decided that the Pulsar Projector will be an optional device, rather than an inclusive component. Dr. Moffett will continue to develop the prototype for the pulsar projector once he returns to Furman University.
Lesson Plans
This week the pre-STARLAB activity was posted as a rough draft. The glossary has continued to grow and be modified this week. We are still awaiting confirmation from the mentors on any final changes that need to be made regarding the lesson plans so we can begin to build them into the multimedia component.
Multimedia
Chuck’s focus this week has been further developing the Maya animation. He has posted several concept art pieces on the forum and is making great progress. Susan has been focusing her time on formatting and modifying all the pictures that will be used in the multimedia component. She is awaiting the green light to begin building the main content of her side of the project.
Week 6
(11 July – 15 July 2005 )
This week has been focused on wrapping up loose ends regarding the manual, diagrams, and confirming the optical image specifications.
Cylinder
Tommy has been finalizing the optical side of the project by confirming the best levels to be used with the image, and confirming with last years interns any distortion specifications used on the radio image. He has included the Milky Way on the top of the cylinder to extend the view and relieve any unnecessary cropping. We hope to have the second test file sent to print by next week.
Pulsar Projector
We have decided that the Pulsar Projector will be an optional device, rather than an inclusive component. Dr. Moffett will continue to develop the prototype for the pulsar projector once he returns to Furman University.
Lesson Plans
The final drafts of the manual were due this week. We hope to have them proofed and returned next week for any final changes to be made in order to start building the multimedia slides. The bibliography and the glossary have been submitted for final approval. We have decided to include at least a Radio Sky image with the galactic coordinates in the manual for reference.
Multimedia
Susan has been patiently waiting for the final cut of content to begin building the bulk of the multimedia site. Chuck has been focused on the concept art for our intro/animation explaining the perspective of our cylinder design. We have also been in constant communication with the physics team regarding any final changes to current diagrams and animations.
Week 5
(4 July – 8 July 2005 )
Week five was our first week apart as a group. We have been utilizing the established communication methods to update each other on our progress. As a whole, the lesson plans are still coming along as planned, and each of the interns personal progress are following schedule.
The scheduled visit of the South Carolina University students, that was planned for Friday, July 8, 2005, was cancelled. Chuck and I did not have a chance to get a full test for the cylinder. We hope to have another opportunity in August.
Cylinder
Tommy has been working on variations of light and dark levels regarding the optical image. He is still waiting to hear back from Shawn about the distortion ratio, if any, used on the radio image. He is also researching the spherizing option in Photoshop to have some of the top of the optical image on the top of the cylinder.
Pulsar Projector
We have decided that the Pulsar Projector will be an optional device, rather than an inclusive component. Dr. Moffett will continue to develop the prototype for the pulsar projector once he returns to Furman University.
Lesson Plans
Chuck, Becky, Lauren, and Dana have been working hard to wrap up the first draft of the following:
Post completed PDF and Multimedia versions of the Introductory Lesson and the Optical vs. Radio Lesson on the MMAS Server
- Create a first draft of a script to accompany our STARLAB cylinder, and post that draft on the forum (under “Manual”)
- Continue working on the bibliography
- Email glossary words and definitions from the Introductory Lesson and the Optical vs. Radio Lesson to Lauren, so she has them to start putting together the glossary
- Begin working on the “Introduction and Background Information” section of the manual Post completed PDF and Multimedia versions of Radio Sources Lesson, and Pulsar
- Rough draft of Glossary
- Starlab Activity Sheet
Week 4 (27 June – 1 July 2005 )
Click here to view 6 photos from this week in a new window. Week four has been a very productive week. We are at a point of closure with the intense workshop, but at a very good point for continuing the work independently. As a group, the decision was made to implement several forms of communication. We will utilize a forum, a server, instant messaging, and email. We have viewed the first round of the optical cylinder template and have concluded specific design elements. The lessons are complete in content and awaiting approval for the final draft. All diagrams and animations have been confirmed regarding font, style, and colors.
The Cranium rematch was held Monday June 27, 2005 at 8:00 pm. On Wednesday the group decided to go out to eat at Dugan’s Pub, followed by watching Ghost Busters on the big screen. Friday wrapped up our journey as we celebrated the end of a great summer internship and Canada Day.
Cylinder We tested our first Optical template this week. We concluded that we will use an Arial font, with a white hue for all text, numbers and galactic coordinates. We have swapped the radio source SS433 with the Orion Nebula. After testing the cylinder, we have concluded that the optical image will need to have a higher contrast to more accurately display the data. We have purchased a high resolution image from Axel Mellinger that will be used for our optical image. Chuck and Tommy will be presenting the optical template on Friday, July 08, 2005. We hope to get some great feedback from the South Carolina State University visitors. Future cylinder tests will be announced at a later time.
Pulsar Projector We have decided that the Pulsar Projector will be an optional device, rather than an inclusive component. Dr. Moffett will continue to develop the prototype for the pulsar projector once he returns to Furman University.
Lesson Plans All of the lesson plans are scheduled to be submitted for review by the end of the day Friday. Dr. Moffett and Dr. Walsh will review for content and verbiage before resubmitting to the team for final changes. Week 5-8 will be dedicated to the development and production of the user manual. Dana intends to have the cylinder script approved prior to July 8th for Chuck and Tommy to present to the South Carolina University visitors.
Multimedia The final suggestions were made and are being implemented regarding the Multimedia website version of the project. All content copy and images are being transferred to Susan so she can begin completing the final product. We have decided to implement a couple of 3-D animations using Maya. Chuck has decided to head up this project. Our discussions included ways to help the viewer transition between the perspectives of the Earth view of the galaxy vs. the panoramic view of the galaxy.
Week 3 (20 June – 24 July 2005 )
Click here to view 22 photos from this week in a new window. Week three was a rollercoaster! Monday morning we had a meeting addressing the entire project. We decided that we needed to rethink aspects of the cylinder, with the possibility of a new design. We entertained the idea of activities within the planetarium, rethought the lesson plan layout to include a manual section, as well as content layout for the multimedia part of the project.
Fortunately, we worked hard and played hard this week. Monday we had a wonderful time making fools out of ourselves by playing Cranium, and on Wednesday we had Mexican food and Bowling night!
Cylinder Wednesday was our first look at the Optical Cylinder Template. The first template was questioned due to the design decision to modify the image with a fade. We decided that a fade would be necessary to make the cylinder design work, but decided to rethink the process and application of the fade. Tommy and Susan worked together to create a mask-gradient fade that more accurately dissolves the outer portion of the image without changing the format or positions of the stars. We added the galactic coordinates for both of the cylinders, as well as variations on ticks to illustrate the coordinates throughout the image. The templates will include three variations of hue, as well as three variations of new fonts. The templates were sent to Film Graphics, Inc. on Friday. We hope to have our test cylinders back early next week.
Pulsar Projector We have decided that the Pulsar Projector will be an optional device, rather than an inclusive component.
Lesson Plans Week three has been a long week of submitting lesson plans, getting feedback, and making modifications. We have decided to keep the content lesson plans in full length on the multimedia presentation and for PDF download. The manual will mainly consist of the Introduction lesson plan created by Dana. We intend to include a section about coordinates and radiation into the Introduction manual to assist with the planetarium activities. Mel suggested activities to include a hypothesis about what to expect when comparing Optical vs. Radio. The second activity suggestion was to locate radio sources using the newly added galactic coordinate system.
Multimedia After meeting with the physics experts, Susan and Chuck have mainly been concentrating on creating supporting diagrams for the lesson plans. Once the lesson plans have been revised, the Multimedia content will begin to develop very quickly. We anticipate the next step in development to be at the beginning of week five.
Week 2 (13 June – 17 July 2005 )
Click here to view 6 photos from this week in a new window. This week we started off with a call to Trish at Learning Technologies. We wanted to confirm whether or not our new idea for the cylinder could actually be manufactured. We were pleased to learn that it was something Learning Technologies could do so we've went ahead with our sleeve design.
Tommy has been working hard all week perfecting the optical view of the milky way, and we have been in contact with past intern Zach Brown to discuss printing.
We also spoke briefly with Trish about the pulsar projector design. She discussed the design of some of their new fiber optic projectors which have small external projectors meant to display stationary elements. This sparked some interest in the group since it opened up the possibility of tying into the power from the external projectors for the pulsar projector.
On monday the group also decided upon the multimedia component layout. After discussing layout and color scheme we decided we would use Macromedia Flash for the interface. We chose Flash over a standard webpage because of its ability to be self-contained, its cross browser compatibility and the wide range of interesting technical components it would afford us.
With our medium and style set Chuck began developing some diagrams and Flash animations. Susan was able to complete an interface which is slowly coming to life in Flash. As more content comes in from the group, the multimedia aspect will continue to grow. We hope to have a robust collection of lesson and activities.
Another important discussion this week was surrounding the lesson plans. After a meeting full of great ideas, we were able to narrow down the basic format for each lesson plan. For the physics students- the majority of their time this week was spent writing their lessons. Dana and Lauren were even able to turn in a rough draft which was reviewed by Dr. LaFratta.
Our group goals for the upcoming week include: continued development on lesson plans; image accumulation and diagarm design for the lessons; one big editing session for all lesson plans; test run of the cylinder on the Duke TIP students.
Week 1 (6 June – 3 July 2005 )
Click here to view 14 photos from this week in a new window. The beginning of phase II, "Sensing the Radio Sky", was mostly spent settling into our new atmosphere and location. We spent the first part of the week in lectures learning about radio astronomy and the tools available through multimedia. We also began building the communication structure between the two very unique aspects of this project, which is merging physics with multimedia.
Thursday's group meeting fired up the team as we discussed various changes and modifications to the project. Many things will be continued from last year, while some things are back to the drawing board.
Cylinder Viewed and discussed the cylinder in the StarLab. For most of us, this was the first time to see the StarLab. We also have decided to modify the cylinder layout to include a two sleeve option that displays both the radio sky, as well as the optical sky. We intend to use the original graphic of the radio sky image and create a complimentary optical sleeve. We hope to have this developed and to the printer by the end of week two.
Pulsar Projector Ideas and discussions are still being held regarding the pulsar projector. Dr. Moffett has decided to head this aspect of the project. The main hurdle we face right now is deciding whether our design should be included within the existing cylinder structure, or if we should have a separate piece of hardware for the pulsar display. We are fairly confident in using a laser to display the optical side of the pulsar, and a standard speaker for audio. We are still entertaining ideas about how to incorporate a third sensory device. Right now we are leaning towards a hand held device that pulses in harmony with the optical and audio devices.
Lesson Plans This week was mostly spent on gathering all the data and pre-written information regarding each of the lesson plans. We have discussed minor modifications regarding content within each lesson plan, but nothing has been solidified. The goal of this week was to redesign our game plan for what will need to be included and what may not fit within the curriculum. We have decided to include a "Mandatory Lesson" plan that will include all the essential information that will need to be covered prior to visiting the StarLab.
Multimedia Working with our teammate we came up with ideas about how we would like the multimedia aspect of the program to look and feel. Upon presentation, we have decided continue working on the design, and come to a decision in week 2. Right now, we are leaning towards a very clean, precise and professional look for the online/offline version of the project, based on feedback from a Brevard teacher.