School Tips 🍒

How Can We Still See The Disappearing Universe?

“In fact, we can even think about what you’d see if you were to look at a galaxy whose light hasn’t arrived at our eyes yet. The most distant object we can see, 13.8 billion years after the Big Bang, is presently 46 billion light-years away from us. But any object that’s presently within 61 billion light-years of us will someday have that light eventually reach us.

That light was already emitted, and is already on its way to us. In fact, that light is already most of the way there; it’s closer than the 15 billion light-year limit of what we could possibly reach if we left for it at the speed of light. Even though the Universe is expanding, and even though the expansion is accelerating, that journeying light will someday arrive at our eyes, giving us, in the far future, the ability to see even more galaxies than we can today.”

Dark energy seems to present a paradox. On the one hand, galaxies are receding from us as the Universe expands, meaning we can never reach them once they’re beyond a certain point, and that the light being emitted by them can also no longer reach us. But even though these galaxies are a part of our dark energy-dominated Universe, we’ll always be able to see them in the future once they become visible to us.

If the Universe is disappearing, how can we still see the galaxies in it? Come get the answer to one of cosmology’s biggest (misconception-related) puzzles today!

How the Geneva Drive (the mechanical step that makes the second hand on a clock work by turning constant rotation into intermittent motion) works.

Online Enrollment Growing Faster than Blended

Research

Online Enrollment Growing Faster than Blended

By Dian Schaffhauser

03/26/19

Growth rates between fall 2017 and fall 2018 for fully online and blended course enrollment (Source: 2019 CHLOE 3 Report)

Fully online courses are more likely to drive enrollment growth, according to a recent survey of institutions from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research, the research division of ACT/NRCCUA. Most respondents said that courses that were 100 percent online at their schools had grown between 2017 and 2018; about a third reported flat enrollment; and 10 percent saw a decline. The majority response for blended courses, on the other hand, was flat enrollment over that period, while a third cited growth and 14 percent recorded a decline.

The third annual “Changing Landscape of Online Education ” (CHLOE 3) report surveyed 280 chief online officers (COOs) (up from 182 last year) at U.S. colleges and universities about policies, practices and plans around online education. Researchers defined the role of “chief online officer” as having lead or shared responsibility for online faculty training, online instructional design and course development, coordination with academic units, online policy development and quality assurance and overall strategic planning.

The schools that reported completely online courses had an average of 19,000 students, while those that reported that all of their courses were blended or hybrid reported an average of 5,000 fully online and blended students. “Blended intensity” didn’t have the same link to institutional size, researchers noted, most probably because blended courses were “more difficult to scale up geographically.”

The institutions with the largest online enrollment were also the most likely to report growth (84 percent) compared to mid-sized, where 60 percent experienced growth, and small, where 46 percent saw growth. The researchers suggested that this was a signal that in “an increasingly crowded online market,” those schools with the most online offerings and years of delivery were also “more visible to consumers” and might “offer a superior online student experience.” It could also indicate, the report added, that those smaller institutions weren’t as keen “to ramp up online enrollment above a certain scale.”

Fully online courses were far more common among respondents than blended. More than 20 percent of reporting schools said most of their courses were online; just 8 percent reported the same for their blended courses. In fact, half of the reporting schools gave much higher priority to fully online courses and programs than they gave to their blended offerings. Their planning also emphasized fully online options over blended versions.

How schools prioritize fully online programs compared to blended programs (Source: 2019 CHLOE 3 Report)

Master’s degrees were the most fully online programs, according to the survey, and about a third of all master’s students study in a fully online program, which is considerably higher than any other degree level, the report said.

The full report, which explores trends in the management of online education as well as the tools and techniques employed in online programs, is available on the Quality Matters site (registration required). A webinar on the findings will take place on April 11, 2019 at 1 p.m. Eastern time; the event is open to members and non-members.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a senior contributing editor for 1105 Media’s education publications THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at dian@dischaffhauser.com or on Twitter @schaffhauser.

via Campus Technology: All Articles https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/03/26/online-enrollment-growing-faster-than-blended.aspx

little self care things ♡

taste:

eat small fruit snacks

buy yourself a treat occasionally

make a cake in a mug

chew flavored sugar-free gum

put lemon in your water

hearing:

listen to your favorite music

or just wear earphones to block things out

listen to white noise/ambient sounds

smell:

put on some sweet-scented lotion

spray a bit of your favorite perfume

make your favorite coffee or tea

sight:

look in the mirror and tell yourself you look good today

clean the clutter in your room + throw things away

close all the unused tabs

clean the dishes + do your laundry

delete unused apps

make your bed

fold your clothes tidily

organize your books and papers

turn down the brightness of your phone/computer at night

smile and be more polite at strangers

open up the curtains, let the light in

go outside often

touch:

hug people you love

cuddle your pet

read while lying in your bed

hug a soft toy

appearance:

wash your face/use face wipes

dry shampoo if you’re too tired to shower

brush your teeth

exfoliate + moisturize your skin

change into clean clothes

brush your hair

put on some lip balm

body:

do your favorite exercises

take a nap

take deep breaths with your stomach

take a warm shower

stand up and stretch your legs

put on some music and go for a walk outside

get at least 7 hours of sleep

drink lots of water

hobbies:

always make some time to do what you love

create art, writing and music for yourself, not anyone else

don’t feel embarrassed about your hobbies

be patient with yourself, progress takes time! don’t give up

hobby ideas: cooking, reading, drawing, painting, a sport, a new language, learn a musical instrument, collect things, photography, join a class or a club

mind:

put yourself first

spend less time around people who make you feel bad

write your thoughts in a journal

stand up for yourself

stop judging people

don’t dwell in the past

concentrate on what’s happening now

don’t try for people who don’t care

stop caring about what’s not important

be a friend to yourself, rather than a bully

learn to love your body

see the bigger picture

change self-destructive habits

appreciate the good

let things go

ask for help

studying:

make lists

focus on priorities

stop putting everything off

turn off your phone if you need to

take breaks

do one thing at a time

believe in yourself!

other:

laugh a lot

get a plant and name it

buy flowers for yourself

be ok with being alone

go out with your friends

watch a movie

I hope you feel better soon. You deserve so much. Things will get better soon so keep going. ☁️ I love you

A visualisation of the radioactive decay of uranium within a cloud chamber.⠀

⠀A cloud chamber consists of supersaturated vapor that interacts with charged particles that pass through it. ⠀⠀Via Science Rumors

Constellations and the Calendar

Did you recently hear that NASA changed the zodiac signs? Nope, we definitely didn’t…

…Here at NASA, we study astronomy, not astrology. We didn’t change any zodiac signs, we just did the math. Here are the details:

First Things First: Astrology is NOT Astronomy…

Astronomy is the scientific study of everything in outer space. Astronomers and other scientists know that stars many light years away have no effect on the ordinary activities of humans on Earth.

Astrology is something else. It’s not science. No one has shown that astrology can be used to predict the future or describe what people are like based on their birth dates.

Some curious symbols ring the outside of the Star Finder. These symbols stand for some of the constellations in the zodiac. What is the zodiac and what is special about these constellations?

Imagine a straight line drawn from Earth though the sun and out into space way beyond our solar system where the stars are. Then, picture Earth following its orbit around the sun. This imaginary line would rotate, pointing to different stars throughout one complete trip around the sun – or, one year. All the stars that lie close to the imaginary flat disk swept out by this imaginary line are said to be in the zodiac.

The constellations in the zodiac are simply the constellations that this imaginary straight line points to in its year-long journey.

What are Constellations?

A constellation is group of stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle. If you join the dots—stars, that is—and use lots of imagination, the picture would look like an object, animal, or person. For example, Orion is a group of stars that the Greeks thought looked like a giant hunter with a sword attached to his belt. Other than making a pattern in Earth’s sky, these stars may not be related at all.

Even the closest star is almost unimaginably far away. Because they are so far away, the shapes and positions of the constellations in Earth’s sky change very, very slowly. During one human lifetime, they change hardly at all.

A Long History of Looking to the Stars

The Babylonians lived over 3,000 years ago. They divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts – like cutting a pizza into 12 equal slices. They picked 12 constellations in the zodiac, one for each of the 12 “slices.” So, as Earth orbits the sun, the sun would appear to pass through each of the 12 parts of the zodiac. Since the Babylonians already had a 12-month calendar (based on the phases of the moon), each month got a slice of the zodiac all to itself.

But even according to the Babylonians’ own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac. So they picked one, Ophiuchus, to leave out. Even then, some of the chosen 12 didn’t fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and crossed over into the next one.

When the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of zodiac, a birthday between about July 23 and August 22 meant being born under the constellation Leo. Now, 3,000 years later, the sky has shifted because Earth’s axis (North Pole) doesn’t point in quite the same direction.

The constellations are different sizes and shapes, so the sun spends different lengths of time lined up with each one. The line from Earth through the sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for only 7 days.  To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, the Babylonians ignored the fact that the sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12. Then they assigned each of those 12 constellations equal amounts of time.

So, we didn’t change any zodiac signs…we just did the math.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Folks are getting excited about recent reports of an “interesting” signal picked up by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). SETI scientists say you shouldn’t get your hopes up - it’s probably not aliens.

**UPDATE: Definitely not aliens! - a Soviet Era satellite instead.**

The incident reminded me of another potential brush with E.T. back in 1977: The Wow! Signal. Robert Krulwich wrote a blog post all about it if you want to learn more. And for a more technical description, check out a report from Jerry Ehman, the man who wrote “Wow!”

Images: Big Ear Radio Observatory and North American AstroPhysical Observatory, Patrick Foto/Getty Images

Weird Eye

Microsoft Full STEAM Ahead Materials