 St Mungos Mod4 Privet Drive Mod
   Clabbert
Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Narnia
Posts: 19,357
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Zephyr Amstern
Ravenclaw First Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Florence Schultz
Slytherin Fifth Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Tristan Rivers
Hufflepuff Seventh Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Antony Vexmoor
Ravenclaw Sixth Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Nathaniel Hensley
Slytherin Second Year
  x7  x1
|  Baguette | there is no D in my name | TRAITORclaw | Queenie of Narnia
SPOILER!!: catch up Text Cut: professor Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie  "Good afternoon," he replied. Maybe he should have left the display overhead with an afternoon look instead of evening?
Pausing for a moment, Airey turned his attention towards a small sundial and checked the time. Not that it really mattered what the sundial read because they were all indoors without any sun and therefore rendering the piece of equipment useless.
Hmm...he should probably get things started, yes?
With a quick flick of his wand towards the doors, the Astronomy professor charmed them shut and then stood up on the elevated platform that the projector was on. Could everyone see him? Yes? Good.
"Hello and welcome to Astronomy! I am Airey Flamsteed and will be your professor this term." And hopefully future terms assuming the post wasn't cursed. "You may call me Professor Flamsteed or Professor Airey, whichever you prefer. Just a bit about me before we begin, and you should probably start taking notes. You will find a pull out desk surface on the right of your seat." He waited a moment to allow them all to do just that. "I was once a Hogwarts student myself, a Gryffindor in fact, and before coming to Hogwarts I worked at the mission operations directorate of NASA in Houston, Texas in America. I enjoy suits, science fiction, and... " He paused for a moment to add emphasis on what he was about to say next. There WAS a reason to his madness. We promise. "...singing." Pausing again, Airey jumped off the platform and began to walk around the circular area to make. "I know that standard procedure is to go over the definition of what astronomy is, but I trust you all to have already read about that in your textbook and if you have not, well, then please do so after class." He didn't want to waste any time on trivial things like that. Unless students were getting this noble subject mixed up with that rubbish that was Astrology. THEN there would be issues and THEN they would go over definitions.
But! Back to singing.
"Singing has been a favorite past time of mine since I was a Hogwarts student. Singing sad songs often has a way of healing. Happy songs help you channel your positive energies. Best of all is that anyone can sing, perhaps not well, but anyone can do it and there is a song for every situation." And he jumped back up on to the platform. "There are even songs that relate to Astronomy. Both directly and somewhat indirectly. Take for example the muggle childhood classic Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." He paused to clear his throat before singing the first two verses. "Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. " Applause, yes?
"We see from these lyrics several connections to astronomy. The more obvious connection is the use of star. It is also connected in that it shows man's curiosity of the cosmos and even gives a little bit of scientific explanation as to when most stars are visible in the sky. Most because there was a very VERY big star, our sun, that is most visible during the day because the Earth is rotating around it. When our part of Earth faces it, the sun's blue light - the same light that makes the sky blue, mind you - is so bright that it makes all other stars appear to vanish. BUT ANYWAY! I want you all to take a moment to think about what songs you know that you think have a connection to astronomy. Muggle and wizarding music, it doesn't matter. No connection is too small! Please only share one song please. No need to go into too much detail as to why it connects to astronomy. You may sing a few verses as well if you wish. " In fact, he highly encouraged it. "Oh, and if you could please say your name before you answer I would appreciate it."
And for those students who were probably rolling their eyes at this exercise, the was a point to be made! A very valid point in fact. Yep.
OOC: this lesson has officially begun! Please do NOT post your student arriving after this post or else risk losing points for your house. Please just pretend as though you have been here all along!
You can use a real song or make one up! Try not to repeat the same answer as someone else and be creative! There is no right or wrong answer to this question  This lesson will hopefully continue tomorrow around noon GMT+9. Oh, so this guy was a Gryffindor too? That sorta explained why he'd singled out Gryffindors in his rule thingy. Penelope hadn't been really worried about it, but it did cause her to raise an eyebrow as she read it. She didn't know what "red shirt syndrome" was, but whatever. She could be careful. Ish. When she wanted to be. Which wasn't often, but whatever.
So a song that related to Astronomy? Penelope had to mentally go through all the random songs she knew that she could think of until she finally thought of one that would fit. Parts of it, anyway. She didn't feel like singing though.
She raised her hand. "I'm Penelope Greenwell. And there's a song called 'Shooting Star' by Owl City that has Astronomy stuff in it." Which should be obvious given the name. "There's a few lines and then the chorus that has it. They go like:
Way up in the air, you're finally free
And you can stay up there right next to me
All this gravity will try to pull you down
But not this time
When the sun goes down and the lights burn out
Then it's time for you to shine
Brighter than a shooting star
So shine no matter where you are
Fill the darkest night with a brilliant light
'Cause it's time for you to shine
Brighter than a shooting star
So shine no matter where you are tonight."
Once she finished reciting it - though mentally singing it quickly in her head to make sure she said it all right - she put her hand back down. Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie "Very good all of you and thank you for being brave and singing." Most of them anyway and it hadn't been a requirement to sing. They had humored him though, which he appreciated. Awesome points to them all! "However, none of managed to mention the song that inspired this lesson." Shame really. There had been house points up as a reward for anyone that did."Are any of you familiar with the song Catch a Falling Star performed by Perry Como?" With a quick tap of his wand on the projector, lyrics written in bold white text appeared on the domed ceiling over the night sky for students to read. "As you may have been able to infer from all this, the theme of this term is stars and today we will be focusing on something rather special. A star that isn't really a star but has been mislabeled as one by humans. Often called shooting stars or falling stars like in the song, there is a proper name for this phenomena. Can anyone tell me what that is?" Oh, and look at that. They were talking about shooting stars, though his song didn't match hers. That was okay. They weren't really stars though? That was kinda lame. Penelope didn't know what the "proper" name for it was though, at least not before other students started answering. She wasn't gonna repeat those answers now though. So she sat there and listened for the time being. Maybe she'd answer the next question.
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