Latest Site Notices

sweetpinkpixie · 01-18-2013, 02:25 AM

The first thing you notice as you enter the dimly lit planetarium is that the dome-shaped projection screen above you shows the night sky with the occasional comet slowly making its way from one side to the other. Try not to get too caught up in looking at the display, however, this is a lesson after all. Professor Flamsteed can be seen standing in front of the planetarium projector wearing a dark khaki colored suit and burgundy tie with a knowing smirk on his face as he waits for students to come filing in. To the right of him on the floor is a box of small pickling jars lined up in neat rows. So come on in, take a seat in one of the comfy chairs, and get yourself situated. The lesson will begin shortly.
⌦Lesson Progression
▸First question :: what songs do you know that have a connection to Astronomy?
▸Second question :: shooting stars/falling stars are really called what?
▸Time to SUIT UP! Erm...put on protective gear and get ready for the activity LAST CHANCE TO PLAY CATCH UP
▸Activity instructions :: catch a 'falling star'
▸spell practice :: Fingere Elementi, Dextrini Potitus, Cumugasalis, Deminugasalis, & Crescere Hydrogenenii

OOC: Please be sure you are familiar with Professor Flamsteed's rules BEFORE you post in this lesson. We will know if you haven't read them! All SnitchSeeker site rules apply. This lesson has officially begun! Please use the class progression to keep up and IF you wish to do a bit of catch up please do so under a spoiler.

Steelsheen · 01-19-2013, 12:28 AM

The first Astronomy class of the term....

Corin was rather curious of how this one will go. Not only because this man was a replacement of the sadly departed Mrs Burbage, or that the Astronomy tower was the last place the septuagenarian was seen alive ~~hence another reason why he wanted to get up here~~ but that the suited fellow spent an entire DADA lesson on the classroom floor.

Suffice it to say his curiosity was piqued as to how a man who would spend the entire time planking in another subject would conduct his own classes.

He slipped past the doorway oh so quietly, behind all the other students now enraptured with the discussion—and singing—and glanced around. Shouldn’t Sherman be here? He thought he read something but may have been mistaken. In any case this silver haired one waited for the Astronomy man to look his way before nodding his head in silence. Yup just observing. Carry on.

sweetpinkpixie · 01-19-2013, 04:52 AM

SPOILER!!: West and ANIMANIACS!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

5 points off Ravenclaw for improper use of a lint roller in astronomy class? West shot a little look at Mo that translated to something like this-dude-is-dafter-in-the-head-than-the-divination-professor which was really the sort of message that could only be communicated to someone who you'd spent a huge chunk of your life around, but hey! That Peyton girl got points! For telling him-- oh a free lint roller?

And had anyone noticed he looked at a sundial inside?

So to recap, the professor was a Gryffindor, Mo had lost points while Anya and Peyton gained some, and he, West Odessa, had a lint roller of his very own.

Blink.

And now he was supposed to sing a song? About astronomy.

Err okay. He put his hand up which meant waving the lint roller in the air, and then spoke up. "I'm West Odessa." Paaaaaaaaause.

And it was time to sing, so the third year did and used the Lint Roller as a makeshift microphone.

Ahem.

"It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny!
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney!
It's big and black and inky!
And we are small and dinky!
It's a big universe and we're not!"

Was he done? Nooooooo:

"And we're part of a vast interplanetary system
Stretching seven hundred billion miles long
With nine planets and a sun; we think the Earth's the only one
That has life on it, although we could be wrong
Across the interstellar voids are a billion asteroids
Including meteors and Halley's Comet too
And there's over fifty moons floating out there like balloons
In a panoramic trillion-mile view!

And still it's all a speck amid a hundred billion stars
In a galaxy we call the Milky *craaaack* Waaaaay!
It's sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other
And still that's just a fraction of the way.
'Cause there's a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky
Filled with constellations, planets, moons and stars.
And still the universe extends to a place that never ends
Which is maybe just inside a little jar!"

Err. Ignore that one little voice issue. He rubbed his throat. Obviously no need to explain the connection right? Oh and FYI professor, apparently lint rollers were good for makeshift microphones too. He beamed and because he was curious to try this thing out now that he knew what it did, West busied himself delinting his already lint-free sweater.

Ah yes, Mr. Odessa was at THAT age. Once he got past puberty that would all even out. It would just be ridiculously awkward and uncomfortable for a few years less if he was lucky. Airey had hated that phase. Really put a damper on his singing career at Hogwarts, but there were potions and home remedies that one could take should they so desire.

Not that he would bring that up NOW. Poor boy was probably already feeling a bit awkward as it was.

"Thank you for that, Mr. Odessa," Airey replied with a wide grin as he gave the boy a round of applause. No need to go into how this song in particular related to astronomy, right? "Funny that you should mention jars," he smirked, nodding his head towards the pickling jars on the floor. They would be getting to those soon. After a bit of fun.

And he didn't comment about the slight improper use of a lint roller. It wasn't a microphone...but at least the boy wasn't trying to wear it as a hat. He was keeping it clean.

SPOILER!!: Beezus

Quote:

Originally Posted by xXxPandora

Okay. It was legit. This Professor was indeed weird, just as how most of her peers had described him. Seriously, he WAS wearing a suit (she had to admit that it was a fine piece of fabric, yes), he asked them to bring a baseball glove during that lesson (Astronomy? Baseball glove? When did that become the norm?), he also suggested that them girls wear pants instead of skirts which she so willingly promptly compelled to doing so, he had a 'usage of lint roller' rule before entering the classroom which made things a hundredfold weirder because apparently, she didn't see one when she stopped by the door before walking in.

And now he was taking points from Ravenclaw. HOLYSNITCH! Not again. BLOODYQUAFFLE! Again, under her watch. Why were they losing points sooooooo early? Marcus, WHYYYYY? She was such a failure in keeping an eye over her 'claws. Inner!wibble. Inner!wibble. Sometimes, they're really too curious for their own good.

She didn't have too much time to dwell on her own thoughts though because the man in the suit began to address the class. Professor Flamsteed. Oh, she'd go with Professor Airey. And Professor Airey enjoyed suits, science fiction....and singing?

O.o

He....was.....singing.... Twinkle twinkle little star?

Err. Beezus' palms went together and yes, she clapped. It wasn't a usual thing for a Professor to sing in a lesson, and his first lesson at that. Plus! She loved singing. Not love love love, but she loved to sing...especially when she was frustrated, depressed and bored and yeah.

So, here she was, raising her hand. First song that popped into her brain with the word 'star'. She was very much fascinated with stars. VERY. "Uhm, the song Airplanes, Professor. Although I can connect only a small part of it to Astronomy." But no connection is too small as he'd said, right? Wait, wait...she had to introduce herself! "I'm Beatrice Castell, by the way, Professor." So, back to giving a song. The brunette cleared her throat, blushing slightly before going on. "The exact verse that somehow coincides with Astronomy goes like this:

"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky
Are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now,
wish right now, wish right now."

Okay, yeah. "Star is present in the lyrics." It OBVIOUSLY had something to do with Astronomy. "And it implies the common belief that wishing on a shooting star comes true." Beaaaaaam. She did that so often. But she was too busy this term that she didn't have the time to visit the Observatory on a non-class setting. Mental note to come back here and do some star gazing. Hm. Definitely.

AHA! Shooting stars. Yes! This was on the right track with today's lesson. "Thank you, Miss Castell," he nodded, offering the Ravenclaw a round of applause as well. "We will be discussing the concept of shooting stars in more depth in a moment," he said, using air quotes around the word star. Kids these days knew what air quotes were, right? "But you bring up a valid point here. Wishing on shooting stars in hopes that that wish comes true. For centuries and centuries humankind has romanticized the stars and space as an attempt to explain astronomical phenomena."

But he was going to leave that there for now and move on to the next student who had raised their hand to share a song.

SPOILER!!: Minerva

Elvis! Bless this young Hufflepuff for knowing a classic like that! She got some applause simply for knowing the name of the legen wait for it dary figure in music. "Thank you, Miss Wheatborn. We see in your example a more figurative usage of the term star, but also the concept of wishing upon stars as Miss Castell just mentioned. Very good." And several awesome points to you for knowing Elvis!

Quote:

Originally Posted by vijaya

Zack was actually very happy to be in the astronomy class. He was glad to be here with the new professor. He had heard some rumors about the professor being half crack or something, he just wanted to see it himself if they were true. As he was sitting at one of the corner seats, he could see all the starts giving the room a great look of a starry night.

He loved that as well. So far it was all going very good, until he heard the professor say something about singing. He didn't like singing at all. He was the worst at singing, maybe some of the students could even faint if he sang. So for the moment he would just sit tight and see if he could come up with any muggle song....but till then he would just enjoy others sing....~~and make fun of them later~~

Where was this boy's Gryffindor courage?! Airey paused for a moment in front of the young man, waiting somewhat expectantly for him to jump up and sing, but did not linger too long when he didn't do so immediately. Perfectly alright to just listen as long as one was being attentive.

SPOILER!!: Jory

Oh oh oh! Airey clapped his hands together once VERY loudly at a certain point in the boy's song and LEAPED back onto the platform and did a sort of happy dance. "Humans just part of a peaceful Galactic community," he repeated. "This! Yes! While not the topic of our lesson today, this is a very important concept that I want you all to keep in mind." And no, we were not talking about aliens. "Many wonder just why even bother to study astronomy. Why is it important and how can is possibly relate to me seeing as all those stars and planets are billions of miles away. Well, this is why." And he pointed back at the Hufflepuff. "Those words just now. Humans being part of a peaceful Galactic community. As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, the atoms that comprise life on Earth are traceable to the very stars that you and I look up at every night. To quote the man, when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. Excellent reference! Take 5 points for that one."

SPOILER!!: Kanna

After giving Miss Basthowe some applause, the astronomer nodded his head a little at her analysis. Yes yes, very good - although again a rather abstract use of the word star, but by no means any less relevant. "Another fine example of how stars have been romanticized by humankind, thank you Miss Basthowe. Some very nice connections you drew as well to show other aspects of astronomy, such as mapping out constellations." Very good.
[

SPOILER!!: Nigel

Space Oddity. Heh. Sounded like a nickname that Airey would have received as a student. Heheh.

But the song's lyrics themselves brought Airey back to his astronaut training and the....accident. Stepping off of the platform with a bit of a somber undertone in his step, he nodded at the Ravenclaw boy. "Thank you, Mr. Barrington."

Sorry for not giving more insight there kid.

SPOILER!!: Cle

Ah yes, here we go. "Thank you for that Mr....." Whatever this kid's last name was because he hadn't included it in his response. "Those lyrics bring up many things connected to astronomy besides the sun and stars. There is a reference to the Milky Way which is the galaxy that contains our Solar System." And was also a rather delicious muggle chocolate bar. "The Milky Way is something else that has been romanticized by humanity over the centuries and plays an important role in many myths and legends." But he would not be going into details on all that now. Perhaps a future lesson though.

These kids were giving him so many ideas!

SPOILER!!: Kat

THIS CONCEPT AGAIN! "YES! Brilliant!" Airey man!squealed as his energy came back to him tenfold. In fact, he was SO excited that instead of leaping back up onto the platform he leaped onto the girl's desk. "Miss Hudson has an even clearer example of what I was saying earlier with Mr. Stonewall's choice of song. While not starlight but atoms, we are just that. We are all made of the same bits that stars are. Take 5 points as well."

SPOILER!!: Oakey

Oh! Airey liked this song and it was one that he was not familiar with. Still on the Miss Hudson's desk, Airey looked at Mr. Gunter and gave an approving nod. "A excellent choice, Mr. Gunter. Very education - much like Mr. Odessa's song. Keep that bit about hydrogen and helium in your mind, yes?" Actually EVERYONE should keep that bit in their minds because it was going to be important later. "And for the record, it is said that 1.3 million Earth volumes would fit into the Sun's volume."

Just a little fun fact for everyone since it had been brought up.

SPOILER!!: Nessie

"Very good, Miss Nessie," he said with a nod. Although he did know that her last name was Dixon as he had made it his business to know the first and last names of the student leaders as they were ready available. "Another fine example of how humankind views the stars. Some say that they are diamonds in the sky, like you said just now and how they are referred to in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, while other notions include dead kings of the past and there is even one Native American tribe that described the stars as being holes poked into night's canvas by a hummingbird." Did they see how humans had a tendency to use their imaginations a bit when it came to space? Not that there was anything wrong with this, per say.

SPOILER!!: Sarah

"Thank you, Miss Edwards," Airey grinned. Another educational song to add to his stash of music. "Nothing childish about something that is educational and helpful." OWL and NEWT students, should probably write that one down and memorize it. Could be very useful. Yep.

SPOILER!!: Alyssa - sorry you had to pick this song >_________\<

Airey couldn't help but chuckle a little under his breath. He was wondering when someone would bring up this particular song and there was a particular quote that he had been dying to use in response. "Thank you, Miss Potter. Here we see another example of how stars have been romanticized and perhaps the clearest example thus far of the idea of wishing upon a star." He paused here and finally jumped off of Miss Hundson's desk so he could walk around a bit. "There is just one problem with wishing on a star. According to astronomy when you wish upon a star you're actually a few million years late. That star is dead, just like your dreams," he said in a rather deadpan tone laced with sarcasm.

He waited a little bit more to let that thought sink in and for any possible reactions before slooooowly moving on to the next student.

SPOILER!!: n'aaaaaaaaaaw Theo

"Very good, Mr. Kinsley!" Airey applauded. "Class, as you see in this example a star is being used as a metaphor for a girl, a girl that is so bright - or beautiful - that she is blinding. This is directly connected to the whole idea of wishing on a star. You see, in ancient times when people looked up at the night sky the planet Venus, named after the Roman goddess of love, was and is the brightest point in the sky and mistaken for an actual star by ancient peoples. The Romans built temples to Venus, and since it was the first "star" that could be seen in the sky for much of the year, and always the brightest whether seen in the morning or the evening, it was an easy way to remember it as a prayer point." He paused here to allow students to catch up with note taking. Mr. Kinsley didn't mind him going into all this detail, right? It was just a song after all. "You can probably all guess what the number one thing people prayed for was. That's right, love. The prayer evolved into a wish as people forgot completely about the Goddess of Love and her origins - as is something that humans tend to do with such things - and the wish expanded into realms well outside the cosmic sphere of love. 5 points to you as well, Mr. Kinsley. Excellent reference."

SPOILER!!: Tiffany

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiffyteddy

Tiffany was swinging her legs back and forth while this new ~~handsome~~ professor was delivering his long and prepared speech. She dd not move her glance off him but she believed that he was being a little bit...talkative. But that's fine because the lioness was still going to like him and all his lessons no matter what.

He likes singing and suits. Well she had to admit that he looked really good in this suit but actually he would have looked as well in other more casual clothing. Then all of a sudden, he started to sing a lullaby which she used to hear when she was three. Her mum always sung this for her till she was asleep. Even now when he was singing the song line by line, she could still picture her mum sitting at the bedside, slowly patting her head so she could be secured. She missed all those tender touches and pats which she longed for. However she didn't forget to give him a round applause when he finished singing. She was probably the one who clapped the most loudly of all.

Anyway, back to business. Tiffany started to look for a song that she could remember in her mind but it was really hard. She barely remembered all the lyrics from a song, not even the songs that she likes very much but there's one which stuck to her mind. A song that her parents used to sing. "Tiffany Pevensie,"she exclaimed in her energetic tone. "You can call me whateve you want but please don't add a 'Miss' in front of it. It makes me spond old."she added a small chuckle at the end of the sentence. Clearing her throat, she decided to sing.

"The sun goes down, the stars come out,
And all that counts, is here and now,
My universe, will never be the same, I'm glad you came,"

Did she sing well and correctly? She thought that it would be pretty obvious how that was relate to astronomy, right?

"You cast a spell on me, spell on me,
You hit me like the sky fell on me, fell on me,
And I decided you look well on me, well on me,
So lets go somewhere no one else can see you and me."

Okay that was enough, she guessed. "That's clearly about how a person's world can be changed without specific people in their lives,"she replied. That was possiblywhy itmade it as a love song right? Leaning her back to the comfy chair, she quietly hummed the tune of that song she had just sung. Hopefully no one was going to make fun of her.

Good...but not quite what he meant with his question. Her reasoning that is. And oh? He wasn't allowed to use Miss with this one? Well then... "Thank you, Lady Pevensie." Was that alright? He would soon find out. "I think you have focused on the wrong aspects of the lyrics in terms of my question - although you are correct in your reasoning about it showing just how influential a person's life can be on another. Care to venture another try? Focusing more on the lyrics and how they relate to Astronomy that is." Because she had some good examples in there about the nature of how things worked.

SPOILER!!: Gary

Frank Sinatra! Another student that earned several ~~billion~~ awesome points for knowing such a legend. "Thank you for that, Mr. Rush. A classic song that is one of my personal favorites. Yet again showing us all the romanticized vision of astronomy, but also holds some truth. There are indeed seasons on Jupiter and Mars. Mars' spring, just to give some details, is obviously quite different from spring on Earth because Mars has not just permanent ice caps, but also seasonal polar caps of carbon dioxide. Are you familiar with dry ice? Same thing."

SPOILER!!: Sky

Board of Governors, right. Those people were here in the school...and some were slotted to come and visit his this lesson as well. Ug. He had completely forgotten about that until just now and the astronomy professor nearly let out a small man!wibble at the thought. First year at Hogwarts. First lesson of the year. First everything and people were coming here to judge him. SO not fair!

"Good choice, Miss Carter-Hope," he nodded. Black holes. Heh. Where all bad students went.

Just kidding.

"Black holes are another fascinating subject, but not something we will be discussing today unfortunately. Although, it is interesting to note that astronomers believe that many galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers." Something to think about.

SPOILER!!: Daichi

Oh! Foreign music! Airey was certainly not familiar with this song, but it had several nice connections nonetheless. "Very good, Mr. Katharos. Cassiopeia is indeed one of the 48 constellations documented by Greek astronomer Ptolemy and remains among the 88 modern constellations." He would have to ask Mr. Katharos for some more of this music later. "It doesn't have to rhyme as long as it has melody," he added with a wink.

SPOILER!!: Belle

No stain on the suit? Hmmm? Airey raised an eyebrow at Miss Fischer and was tempted to march right over to her and take 5 points from Gryffindor for LYING and TEASING a professor about something that ought NOT to be joked around with, but he refrained.

For now. We are keeping a close EYE on you though, captain.

Oh yes, Owl City. He was familiar with this particular group and found himself humming along as the Hufflepuff prefect shared. "Thank you for that, Miss Lecium. It is nice to see other constellations referenced in songs, don't you think?" All constellations deserved some love, not just those associated with the zodiac ~~and that rubbish subject~~. "Hercules is sometimes hard to spot with the naked eye due to the high magnitude of the stars included in it, but should not be overlooked as it is the fifth largest of the modern constellations."

SPOILER!!: Jake

YELLOW! It was like this boy was a Seer or something! Airey's face lit up ~~like a star~~ and he grinned at the boy. "Very good, Mr. Keller. Keep in mind the color yellow as we move through the lesson, yes?"

SPOILER!!: Ella

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Miss Ella? BEAM! That name reminded the blonde very much of Sir Treyen and she couldn't help but feel all warm and fuzzy when thinking of her older brother-ish bestie. Mhm! Sir Treyen was the coolest! And then...Professor Flamsteed knew her last name too? This made sense though, yeah? Since they'd be working together on yearbook stuff and all. The fifteen year old took a minute to decide on which name she preferred, stroking her imaginary beard. "Miss Ella is just fine, Professor." Mhm!

Singing? They were going to be singing? That was definitely an interesting way to start off class and the blonde listened intently as Mr. Snappy dresser sang Twinkle Twinkle to the class. Ella hummed along because really, this song reminded her of her Gran ~~who had a much better singing voice~~. And then it was time for them to pick songs and sing which was...well a bit scary. The badger liked to sing and all but doing it in front of classmates? Well that was kind of scary.

As the other students sang, Ella smiled encouragingly because she knew not everyone was comfortable being up in front of the class. She gave an especially nice smile to Theoman because they were partners in crime fighting and all. BEAM!

When it was her turn, Ella cleared her throat before smiling a bit sheepishly. "Um I'm Ella Bishop and erm...well this is Drops of Jupiter..."

SPOILER!!: The Song

When she was finished the blonde tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and bit her lip nervously. Yeah...that had been a bit frightening.

Oh yes! He knew this song well too. Drops of Jupiter, brought him back to his school days and the one time he had tried to serenade a girl and...well...never mind. A very tragic a beautiful song to be sure. "Thank you, Miss Ella," he smiled. Since he was allowed to call her Miss Ella and all. "Another fine example of how astronomy is used metaphorically in everyday speech."

SPOILER!!: Lottie

The Beatles! Airey knew that he like this Hufflepuff - even if she was sort of giving him weird looks right now about something. Was it the bumblebee comment? Oops. It WAS true though. "One of my personal favorites," he said with a quick wink. "Although one should technically say that the sun does not come as it is the Earth that is rotating around it and not the other way around so in fact it is we that come to it."

SPOILER!!: Selina

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

Selina could not help but smile at the fact that well-dressed man knew her name. Of course, she supposed that with the bloody badge on her chest that was sort of a given. Huh. She had always thought that when she accepted this thing it wouldn't change anything and in the most common sense it hadn't- Selina was still nutters, BUT NOW she was a crazy person who teachers actually knew the name of. Even Mr. Well-Dressed man knew her name and he had just gotten to the school. How could she forget? He showed up with cat food. Weirdo. Eh, she liked him. She REALLY hoped that he wasn't a Slytherin.

And then class started.

Merlin, he really liked to talk, didn't he? The poor chap just kept going and going and going. She was worried that he might pass out or worse keep talking. Did he have a severe case of blabber mouth or something? The only people she knew who talked THAT much were... ah... yeah, well... that made sense. HE was a Gryffindor. No wonder he talked so much. Lions were dizzying creatures who, even being one herself, Selina did not fully understand.

Well at least he was a lion. That made her inwardly bounce because she had been worried that he would be a snake because only Slytherin boys were sort of girly men about their appearances. So maybe he was just like a self conscious lion. Yes, they would go with that.

O________________________O

He wanted them to WHAT now? Selina Skylar, as a rule, did not sing. It was not that she did not like singing in grand venues like her shower, but singing in public was a whole other demon on its own. Besides, the redhead had been told on numerous occasions that she could not sing or dance. In fact, the words people used most often were tone deaf and awkward fish. For those reasons and the simple fact that she actually could not sing, the whole prospect of singing in front of the class was TERRIFYING. Um, yeah could she not do that?

The seventh year felt a tad better when he said that they did not have to sing if they did not want to, but then why was EVERYONE singing? Merlin, this was not an episode of the old Muggle television show Glee. Not everyone knew the choreography... some awkward little gingers actually couldn't keep up.

Clearing her throat a little and feeling all SEVEN types of awkward- uncomfortable, self-conscious, embarrassed, inadequate, fidgety, unprepared and awkward (which was the worst type of awkward)- Selina rose her hand and said, "Um, hello. I'm Selina Skylar." She was almost waiting for the hello Selina echo to come back to her like one of those Muggle self-help groups. "And I guess you could say that the song Stars I Shall Find by David Dickau could work."

VERY out of tune and almost unlistenable, she started to sing softly, "TherUH WILLA beeee reeessT AHND SUUURE Stars ShIIINing over the ROOF tops crowned with SNOOOOOOWWWUUHHH. A reign of resth- sirene forgettinGGGG the MUUUSTICK of stillness... HOLLYYY aaaand lowwwwwuh! I willl make THIS world of MIYYYAAHH devising out of a Dreaam in my LOOOOONElyyuh minduh! I shallluh find the KRYSTAL of peace aboooove me. Stars I shall FINDDUH." Clearing her throat a little, she stopped. Yeah, that was REALLY out of tune.

Yeah...that thought earlier about how everyone can sing despite ability? It was still true...but didn't mean that everyone should sing. Miss Skylar fell into the category of shouldn't, although he still applauded her efforts and smiled through the twitching vein in his forehead. Sadly, he hadn't been able to make out single thing the young lady had said, so he stood there just smiling and nodding at the Head Girl. "Thank you very much, Miss Skylar."

And we were moving on.

SPOILER!!: Violet

Quote:

Originally Posted by SweetPeea

Violet sat in her desk silently as class had begun and listened intently to the new Astronomy Professor...And from the moment she saw him, Violet had gotten an immediate flashback of him lying face down in another class. OH how that was really unkind to do such a thing..and scare other students..and her. For Violet was about to scream actually if Professor Romanos hadn't calmed her down.

But anyways...before she knew the Professor was suddenly singing in class? That was definitely something that caught Violet off guard, were they all really going to sing? The answer to that question was suddenly answered when she saw students getting up and going to the front of the class...and they were all singing. And most of them sounded quite lovely and were really good at singing. Then there was of course....Selina..Um...well...Violet could say that she knew she was definitely better..than when she was younger..?

Before she knew it..it was Violet's turn. She felt her heart leap in her chest a little as she stood and walked to the front of the classroom. She twirled her hair a little bit nervously as she reached the front of the classroom, but she took a deep breath and stopped herself from doing it. Violet smiled out at the classroom and then nodded politely to the Professor saying,"My name is Violet Le Veela..." she paused and went on,"And I will be singing a song from the Musical..The Light in the Piazza.." Violet then nodded again and softly coughed to clear her throat before she opened her mouth to begin:

The Light in the Piazza
"I don't see a miracle shining from the sky
I'm no good at statues and stories
I try

That's not what I think about
That's not what I see
I know what the sunlight can be

The Light, the Light in the Piazza

Tiny sweet
And then it grows
And then it fills the air
Who knows what you call it?
I don't care
Out of somewhere I have something I have never had
And sad is happy
That's all I see

The Light in the Piazza
The Light in the Piazza

It's rushing up
It's pouring out
It's flying through the air
All through the air
Who knows what you call it?
But it's there
It is there

All I see is
All I want is tearing from inside
I see it
Now I see it everywhere
It's everywhere
It's everything and everywhere

Fabrizio
The Light in the Piazza

My Love"

By the end of the song, she noticed that she reeally gotten into it, because there had been a couple of tears that escaped her eyes, to which Violet hadn't anticipated happening. She quickly wiped then away and then cleared her throat again. Violet then smiled again looking back at the Professor.

MUSICALS! Another one billion awesome points to this student! Airey just adored musicals - and perhaps should have included that in his little self introduction...oh well. "Nicely done, Miss Le Veela," he applauded, noting the tears but not commenting on them. "A good example of how stars and other celestial bodies are compared to more earthly things. Very good."

SPOILER!!: Melanie

Quote:

Originally Posted by iBeJenn

Oh. Pebbles. She would like to see the pet too. Maybe next time though? She just smiled and nodded, waiting for class r begin. And soon enough, it did. She watched as the professor stood up and started to take out her notebook and quill. Wait... no... des-- oh. She pulled it out and placed her notebook and quill on top of it. Melanie started to scribble in her notebook, listening to the professor speak as she did so. Did she have to take notes on what the professor liked and stuff? Melanie wrote it down anyways and immediately looked up, grin on her face when the professor said the word singing.

Melanie liked singing too.

She grinned, putting her quill down and started to listen to the professor a bit more intently, nodding along when the professor spoke about singing. She agreed with him one hundred percent. Melanie resisted the urge to sing along with the professor, opting to hum quietly to herself as he did so. Were they supposed to applaud afterwards? Melanie did it, unsure. Because it was always nice to her applause after performing. Melanie loved hearing it.

Melanie resumed scribbling in her notebook, listening to the other students sing and grinning as they all did so. Oh music, how she loved it so much. She tried to think about a song relating to space and the whatnot but nothing really came to mind and then it did. Stars. When the next person had finished singing Melanie decided it was her turn. Breathe. She could do this. "Hello~ My name is Melanie Sung, and I will be singing Like A Star by Corinne Bailey Rae..." Right. She needed to start singing now and not stare at the stars. She smiled and took another deep breath before singing one of her favorite songs.

"Just like a star across my sky,
Just like an angel off the page,
You have appeared to my life,
Feel like I'll never be the same,
Just like a song in my heart,
Just like oil on my hands,
Honour to love you..." [[ song is here sung by Melanie's model IU :3 ]]

Melanie grinned, face flushing slightly pink before she slid into her seat. She liked this class.

"Lovely, Miss Sung!" Airey applauded. At least there was one Gryffindor who could carry a tune. No offense, Miss Skylar. "While not something I will be going into detail, your song of choice brings up another aspect of astronomy and its connection to religion and mythology. Astronomical phenomena were often described as being the acts of gods and spirits by ancient peoples. For example, thunder and lightening were said to be cause by Zeus by the ancient Greeks. Comets were considered bad omens of deaths of kings or noble men, or coming catastrophes. Sometimes they were even interpreted as attacks by heavenly beings."

SPOILER!!: Sierra & the other half of wishing on stars and Disney and wee!

Ah yes, this song again. He should probably go back and explain things a bit more so that he didn't really look like a dream crusher - because that wasn't his intention at all! ~~Even if his dream of becoming an astronaut had been crushed and he was still very bitter about it~~. "Thank you, Miss Greingoth," Airey said with a small smirk as he looked back and forth between the Slytherin prefect and Miss Potter. "As I said to Miss Potter earlier, wishing on stars is somewhat laughable from a scientific standpoint because the star you are wishing on may very well not be there anymore. While the quote says late, you should not get confused with it being a measurement of time because it is not." Just to clarify that. "It is a unit of length, the distance that light will travel in one year, and when you see a star in the night sky you are looking at its light and not literally THE star. If the star is one thousand light years away then the light has been traveling one thousand years to reach your eyes. Therefore, you are seeing the star as it appeared one thousand years ago." Were they all getting the picture here? One thousand years was a LONG time ago and Merlin knew what all could have happened between that time and the present. Black hole. Supernova. Cosmic dust. So many possibilities. "Most stars last far longer than one thousand years so it is probably still there."

So keep wishing and dreaming kids.

SPOILER!!: Mo, aka the kid with the DIRTY hair

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Keep it out of his hair and give her lots of chocolate. Check and check CHECKCHECKCHECK. He could do those things. Mo nodded very solemnly at Anya's instructions. He took his seat by West again, although he snuck a few tentative smiles back at his savior. Maybe she'd even saved him from... baldness. Blindness. Lint-roller-induced-insanity!

Mo was feeling the top of his head, just in case baldness was occurring, as he best considered how to explain to West what he'd been doing with the roller. Not the actual purpose of it, although there was that to explain, but just the overwhelming curiosity he'd had when it had been in his hand. He'd rolled it on the floor to see if it picked up a spider, and he'd rolled it over a broken quill to see if it picked that up. And then he'd just extended his experimentation and rolled it on his head.

Because how could he not roll it on his head?

But he didn't have a chance to explain all this to West, although his expression probably expressed about half of it (some people were such slaves to their curiosity, and West ought to know by now), but then the Professor was there and glowering and very very intimidating. Mo's chin actually wobbled dangerously before the man backed off.

"Sorry, Professor," Mo whispered, the expression on his face communicating the deep trauma he felt at disappointing the professor, disappointing his housemates, and probably embarrassing West.

Only... no. West was making supportive faces, so that was good, at least. Something was totally awful.

And he'd been looking forward to this class too.

He didn't even perk up at the thought of singing, although Mo took down careful notes the whole time the professor was speaking. There were lots of songs with star references, although sometimes they were more metaphorical stars than anything else. Less so songs with planets and comets and other heavenly bodies, although there were a few.

But songs about the whole universe? Those were extra special, right? Could he think of one of those? Mo tapped his quill on the top of his desk thoughtfully as he tried to think of a song. What was that one about the start of the universe? Oh yeah!

"Umm. My name is Marcus Orion Branxton, and I'm a third year. And I heard this song before about how the universe began and continues to expand, only one day it will all collapse in on itself. Which is pretty dire, actually, but not happening soon, so I guess we should just keep on like we're not worried."

Because he wasn't particularly worried about that. He WAS concerned and embarrassed about house points, though.

"Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait...
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unravelling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang! BANG!"

BANG. Mo sat down quickly and picked up his quill again, his eyes intent on his paper.

Branxton. Just his luck that this one was related to the PRESIDENT of the Board of Governors and he had just taken points away from the kid. Don't go crying to mommy about it, okay? He assumed that the woman was his mother at least. Older sister? Aunt? Didn't matter, they had the same last name - a rare one at that - so they had to be related. Still...it was the boy's fault for rolling the lint roller in his hair.

Oh yes! A very interesting topic as well! "Very good, Mr. Branxton!" Airey applauded. "The universe is indeed always expanding and the explanation for this is rather complicated and requires that we all reevaluate how we look at such words as space and universe. The notion of an expanding universe comes from the Big Bang cosmological model, referenced in your song as well, where, in summary, the hot and dense components that evolved to create the universe was followed by a continuous expansion, cooling, and thinning out of these same components. Cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole, is a fascinating field to study." But not what they were discussing today. Another lesson idea!

SPOILER!!: Alexa

What was with some of these Gryffindors and being nervous about singing? Oh, wait...cue a nervous glance at Miss Skylar. Never mind. "Flaming flowers, yes, very good Miss Cambridge," Airey applauded. "More good examples of how humans view the stars from a more creative angle. Thank you for that."

SPOILER!!: Ellura

More nodding and another approving smile towards this Gryffinor. "Very good, Miss Hardwicke. While presented in a somewhat metaphorical way, there is still some scientific connections in this song. Stars being different distances away from us for example. The star closest to us is actually the sun," for those who didn't know. "The second closest is Alpha Centauri, which is 4.2 light years away." Some more fun facts for everyone!

SPOILER!!: Peyton - and it kills me to have him say he doesn't know Sailor Moon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubbles

Peyton looked over at the Ravenclaw boy the same time the West kid did. Did HE know where the roller went? 'Cause she needed it, though her uniform was spotless. She turned to West again.

Why was he asking her?

It was the funny professor's idea. "I dunno," she shrugged. "Maybe he's like this clean freak, muggle enthusiast?" Could be. Her dad was except for the clean freak part. He was too cool for that, her dad was.

"You're welcome," she grinned, just as the professor walked in. Peyton was SO ready to point her finger at West when...

...the professor began distributing and taking points. Yikes!

It didn't matter though, 'cause she earned some of those said points. She beamed up at the professor, forgetting about blaming the West kid. It was his lucky day it seemed. And how awesome was it that she got points? Huh? Huuuh?

Mega awesome.

Peyton blocked out most of what the funny professor said next. Sticky roller. Takes lint off. That's all she needed to know. Instead she took out parchment and a quill. That way she was prepared when he asked them to take notes...about him? Someone was full of himself. *inner giggle*

The third year wrote some stuff down. She then went ahead a drew a miniature bunny next to Professor Airey's name. He reminded her of one. :3

Her hand stopped, though, when he mentioned singing. Was this Astronomy: A Musical or something? Don't get her wrong. Peyton enjoyed singing...when she was in the shower, or flying, or when no one was listening. But in front of an audience? Um, no. They'd have to pay at least five sickles to hear her voice. She did have a song though. A song that she loved. And the professor better be grateful of her sharing it.

"I'm Peyton Baltazar." Okay. Here goes. *Ahem*

"Fighting evil by moonlight,
Winning love by daylight,
Never running from a real fight,
She is the one named Sailor Moon.

She will never turn her back on a friend,
She is always there to defend,
She is the one on whom we can depend,
She is the one named Sailor...

Sailor Venus,
Sailor Mercury,
Sailor Mars,
Sailor Jupiter.

Secret powers all so new to her,
She is the one named Sailor Mooooon."

Heh.

Hehehe.

"It's from Sailor Moon," she said, not realizing her cheeks had gone all red. "She's my favorite superhero," she said, going all bashful all of the sudden. And she felt he needed to know that 'cause she had to sing. So there.

Sailor Moon? Airey was not familiar with...whoever that was. A superhero? Hmmm...he would have to check his superhero books back in his office and see if she was listed there. BUT, from what he gathered in the lyrics themselves...there was mythological connections. Not so much straight up astronomy, but one could not study the subject without diving into the mythology a little. Something he had planned for future lessons. "Thank you, Miss Baltazar. I am afraid I am not familiar with this particular superhero, but I gather there is some Greek and Roman mythology about the planets and the moon involved?" Was this Sailor Moon's name Selene?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rosa Chispa Princessa

Oichi was rather puzzled by this first question of the lesson. It took her a minute to even think of any song related to astronomy. When she finally got one she raised her hand responded, "I know a song called Airplanes by BOB and Hailey Williams, it goes, Can We pretend like airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars, I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now. I hope that will work.".

"Yes yes, shooting stars! I will be getting to those in just a moment," he nodded. As for that whole wishing thing, well, he had gone into that in great and gory detail already.

SPOILER!!: Dylan

MORE AWESOME POINTS BEING AWARDED HERE! Airey piratically beamed at the Quidditch captain and his choice in music. Very good taste. Yes yes. "Excellent choice, Mr. Montmorency," Airey nodded. "A few concepts came up in those lyrics that we have not yet discussed and ---" he glanced down at his sundial again. Merlin! He needed to get a move!

SPOILER!!: Anya

*blink blink*

Well...he had said that no reference was too obscure...but he was pretty sure that this song was more about pizza than it was the stars. However! "Interesting example Miss Phillips. For centuries humans often blamed behaviors and other things on the phases of the moon and other astronomical phenomena." Like comets as he had mentioned earlier.

SPOILER!!: Alice the LIAR

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon

Alice found it a little funny that the Professor was that skittish about a stain on his suit. Ducking her head to hide a little smirk, she waited until the professor began to speak again to lift it back up. Airey? Like.. like air? Like an airhead? HAH. A professor. Named Aireyhead. Was she the only one who found that slightly amusing? Yes? Okay, then. She supposed she would just keep that to herself. 'Cause, judging by the looks she was getting, someone didn't find suit stain jokes very funny and already knew she was trouble.

Oh. And they were singing now? "I'm Alice Fischer. And I'm awesome." Pause.

And she.. wasn't going to SING. She didn't sing. Of course, it was for the welfare of her classmates and all, because they probably didn't want to hear something that sounded like a tone deaf, dying cat. So.. she was just going to recite lyrics. "There's this one from this Muggle guy, and he's really funny. My Gramps likes him. His name is like.. Moby Python?" Or was it Monty? Or Mort? Eh. Whatever. It was the song that mattered.

And with that, she began to recite. Not sing, RECITE.

Text Cut: The Galaxy Song - Monty Python

EYEING YOU SO HARD RIGHT NOW MISS FISCHER!!

"That would be Monty Python," he corrected calmly as he gave an approving nod towards the girl. "A fine wizard who I believe was a Gryffindor." As for her song, well, the connections were obvious.

SPOILER!!: Rachel

Giving the girl an approving nod - although wincing a little at a certain part in the song where something rather dire was mispronounced, the astronmer gave her a quick round of applause. "Thank you, Miss Fletcher. Plenty of good examples of astronomy in there." Many of which had already been discussed which is why he was going to move on now to the main topic of today's lesson.

SPOILER!!: Corin

Oh, hold on there. When had this man arrived?! Had he seen him jump on a student's desk? Oops? Hopefully the man had a sense of humor. Although, he had been expecting someone else to be observing him today. A Mr. Sherman - who he had been surprised had opted to come all the way up to the Astronomy Tower given his, erm, age and all.

Airey gave the man a quick nod and awkward smiling before turning his attention back to the students. Yes. He should be moving things along.

"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?"

OOC: it is alright to repeat answers here. Your student character doesn't have to answer either if IC it would make more sense for them not to know which Airey is talking about. Points are not awarded for correct answers only This lesson will continue in hopefully 15 hours.

Catch up posts are allowed if you missed a question, but PLEASE put it under a spoiler tag or else you will not receive credit for your efforts.

FireboltAvis88 · 01-19-2013, 05:09 AM

Alyssa blinked when the Professor explained to her that the star that she was most probably wishing on would be dead. It didn't really bother her because she rarely made wishes on stars.

But she did know what the phenomena was that was related to shooting stars. So she raised her hand and answered.

"Professor, a shooting star is actually a large chunk of rock, commonly known as a meteorite, that is burning up as it passes through earth's atmosphere. The large rock could probably be debris from a dead star that has broken up into pieces."

'See I do know about dead stars.' Alyssa thought to herself.

Syd · 01-19-2013, 05:10 AM

...Yellow? Jake blinked, surprised. So yellow had something to do with the lesson, then? It must, since Flamsteed's face brightened up like that. Slowly, Jake smirked. He was pretty good at guessing lesson topics. Unintentionally.

Looking up at the ceiling, Jake thought about the question. Falling stars. He knew they weren't stars... maybe... "Comets?" He thought out loud, raising his hand. Except it was probably wrong, because most people knew when it was actually a comet.

lemon · 01-19-2013, 05:11 AM

Text Cut: Airey, the apparent Python fan XD

WELL. Someone was obviously in a bad mood. "Sorry, Professor. I meant MONTY," she said bluntly, averting her eyes from the man. So she'd gotten a name wrong. Hmph. And now they were talking about stars, huh? Her hand flew up immediately. "A shooting star is meteoroid that burns up as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere to become a meteor." Was that right? Who knew about science, anyways? She was probably a bit off, but she didn't really mind. MONTY Python, yeah?

One class she didn't suck at, yep.

---

Sherman was LATE.

Really, really late. What was he supposed to do if his wheelchair was hard to maneuver around the castle? He was old. Not his fault, he supposed. Either way, he burst into the Planetarium to find a bunch of little children already in there, listening intently to a Professor. Trying to make as little noise as possible, the man wheeled in quietly and slipped to the back of the room after beaming at the professor in the impeccable suit, sliding next to Corin and observing quietly.

OH THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT MONTY PYTHON. He could not believe he had missed this.

Stupid wheelchair.

itsjustjesse · 01-19-2013, 05:16 AM

SPOILER!!: catchup//lyrics

Amelia looked up at Airey and just queitly listened to the responses. In fact he probably didn't hear her singing because she was almost as quiet as she was not. Something about stage freight.

"Professor Flamsteed," she quietly smiled, gulped and looked up at him her hand raised into the air of course. "W-would that term be a bolide?" She asked. "Er the term basically defines any extraterrestrial body that collides with our atmosphere and makes a big ball of shiny-light...i know sometimes they are called fireballs, and sometimes they explode and don't make it to earth but when they do make it to earth there can be craters formed."

FearlessLeader19 · 01-19-2013, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Oh oh oh! Airey clapped his hands together once VERY loudly at a certain point in the boy's song and LEAPED back onto the platform and did a sort of happy dance. "Humans just part of a peaceful Galactic community," he repeated. "This! Yes! While not the topic of our lesson today, this is a very important concept that I want you all to keep in mind." And no, we were not talking about aliens. "Many wonder just why even bother to study astronomy. Why is it important and how can is possibly relate to me seeing as all those stars and planets are billions of miles away. Well, this is why." And he pointed back at the Hufflepuff. "Those words just now. Humans being part of a peaceful Galactic community. As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, the atoms that comprise life on Earth are traceable to the very stars that you and I look up at every night. To quote the man, when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. Excellent reference! Take 5 points for that one."

Jory stared as Professor Airey clapped and bounded onto the platform then followed it all up by a dance. If he weren't so surprised, he might have burst out laughing. The Puffer listened as the very excited teacher launched into an explanation about studying Astronomy. The astrophysicist's quote interested him and he made a mental note to learn about the man. And then... five points! Jory grinned. "Thanks, Professor,'' he said. And to think he was nervous about his voice and all.

Quote:

"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?"

Jory raised his hand. "It's called a meteoroid,'' he said. "It burns as it goes through the Earth's atmosphere.''

Lockhartian · 01-19-2013, 06:16 AM

Text Cut: <3

Honestly. Lottie suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at him on the account that he was the Professor and this sort of clarification needed to be made, but it was only a song, "I'm quite aware of that, yes, Professor," she said, with a nod. She wasn't stupid. She knew the basics of Astronomy anyway.

But it was a personal favorite of his. So, she still smiled.

Also, no, we're not familiar with that because we only listen to The Beatles. There cannot be anything better than them. Old music was the best.

Her eyes landed on the Gryffindor Prefect that said comets and she was reminded of the conversation she had with Airey at his office. Also, comets are pretty. But had little to do with the topic at hand. Her hand was raised, "Well, you see, the 'shooting' part of said 'star' is actually a path that's left visible to our eyes of...not a star but a meteoroid. Which...is called meteor when it comes into our atmosphere...but then changes its name again to meteorite once it touches ground." Can they be more complicated?

We have something else to add, "Meteor showers look amazing, too."

pundantic · 01-19-2013, 06:24 AM

SPOILER!!: Airey

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Yeah...that thought earlier about how everyone can sing despite ability? It was still true...but didn't mean that everyone should sing. Miss Skylar fell into the category of shouldn't, although he still applauded her efforts and smiled through the twitching vein in his forehead. Sadly, he hadn't been able to make out single thing the young lady had said, so he stood there just smiling and nodding at the Head Girl. "Thank you very much, Miss Skylar."

And we were moving on.
Airey gave the man a quick nod and awkward smiling before turning his attention back to the students. Yes. He should be moving things along.

"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?"

OOC: it is alright to repeat answers here. Your student character doesn't have to answer either if IC it would make more sense for them not to know which Airey is talking about. Points are not awarded for correct answers only This lesson will continue in hopefully 15 hours.

Catch up posts are allowed if you missed a question, but PLEASE put it under a spoiler tag or else you will not receive credit for your efforts.

Okay, Selina wanted to crawl up in a hole right about now. Singing in front of her entire class knowing that she was extremely tone deaf was really hard. And now that suit man had heard her sing she was NEVER going to sing again. If anyone had a problem with that they could have a nice, long chat with Mortimer. After that perhaps they would see eye-to-eye on the issue. Honestly, Selina did not want to deal with the whole singing thing... she knew she couldn't sing. End of story. But it was awfully nice of Mr. Airey to lie to say thank you... he was welcome!

Okay cool, they were starting with some astronomy now. That was good. No more singing was ALWAYS a positive. Seriously, she NEVER wanted to sing again. That was horrifying.

When he asked the first question- suit man that was- Selina was sort of surprised thats he knew the answer. Then again, she had dated an astronomy enthusiast for almost four years. If she hadn't picked up SOME knowledge on the subject she might as well just go through with dying her hair blonde. Shrugging a little at the thought, she rose her hand and spewed out, "Its a meteor, well-dressed man." He WAS really well dressed. Was he SURE he was a Gryffindor?

DecemberMoon · 01-19-2013, 06:24 AM

SPOILER!!: Catching up

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?"

Ah falling stars. They are so pretty aren't they? But as to the proper term for them, Eliza did not know much of it. She raised her hand to try a guess none the less. "Are they called comets or meteors? Or is it meteorites?" She furrowed her brows and twisted her mouth in doubt of her answer.

Awarlesta Black · 01-19-2013, 07:00 AM

SPOILER!!: Mr. Professor

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Ah yes, Mr. Odessa was at THAT age. Once he got past puberty that would all even out. It would just be ridiculously awkward and uncomfortable for a few years less if he was lucky. Airey had hated that phase. Really put a damper on his singing career at Hogwarts, but there were potions and home remedies that one could take should they so desire.

Not that he would bring that up NOW. Poor boy was probably already feeling a bit awkward as it was.

"Thank you for that, Mr. Odessa," Airey replied with a wide grin as he gave the boy a round of applause. No need to go into how this song in particular related to astronomy, right? "Funny that you should mention jars," he smirked, nodding his head towards the pickling jars on the floor. They would be getting to those soon. After a bit of fun.

And he didn't comment about the slight improper use of a lint roller. It wasn't a microphone...but at least the boy wasn't trying to wear it as a hat. He was keeping it clean.

AHA! Shooting stars. Yes! This was on the right track with today's lesson. "Thank you, Miss Castell," he nodded, offering the Ravenclaw a round of applause as well. "We will be discussing the concept of shooting stars in more depth in a moment," he said, using air quotes around the word star. Kids these days knew what air quotes were, right? "But you bring up a valid point here. Wishing on shooting stars in hopes that that wish comes true. For centuries and centuries humankind has romanticized the stars and space as an attempt to explain astronomical phenomena."

But he was going to leave that there for now and move on to the next student who had raised their hand to share a song.

Elvis! Bless this young Hufflepuff for knowing a classic like that! She got some applause simply for knowing the name of the legen wait for it dary figure in music. "Thank you, Miss Wheatborn. We see in your example a more figurative usage of the term star, but also the concept of wishing upon stars as Miss Castell just mentioned. Very good." And several awesome points to you for knowing Elvis!

Where was this boy's Gryffindor courage?! Airey paused for a moment in front of the young man, waiting somewhat expectantly for him to jump up and sing, but did not linger too long when he didn't do so immediately. Perfectly alright to just listen as long as one was being attentive.

Oh oh oh! Airey clapped his hands together once VERY loudly at a certain point in the boy's song and LEAPED back onto the platform and did a sort of happy dance. "Humans just part of a peaceful Galactic community," he repeated. "This! Yes! While not the topic of our lesson today, this is a very important concept that I want you all to keep in mind." And no, we were not talking about aliens. "Many wonder just why even bother to study astronomy. Why is it important and how can is possibly relate to me seeing as all those stars and planets are billions of miles away. Well, this is why." And he pointed back at the Hufflepuff. "Those words just now. Humans being part of a peaceful Galactic community. As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, the atoms that comprise life on Earth are traceable to the very stars that you and I look up at every night. To quote the man, when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. Excellent reference! Take 5 points for that one."

After giving Miss Basthowe some applause, the astronomer nodded his head a little at her analysis. Yes yes, very good - although again a rather abstract use of the word star, but by no means any less relevant. "Another fine example of how stars have been romanticized by humankind, thank you Miss Basthowe. Some very nice connections you drew as well to show other aspects of astronomy, such as mapping out constellations." Very good.
[

SPOILER!!: Nigel

Space Oddity. Heh. Sounded like a nickname that Airey would have received as a student. Heheh.

But the song's lyrics themselves brought Airey back to his astronaut training and the....accident. Stepping off of the platform with a bit of a somber undertone in his step, he nodded at the Ravenclaw boy. "Thank you, Mr. Barrington."

Sorry for not giving more insight there kid.

Ah yes, here we go. "Thank you for that Mr....." Whatever this kid's last name was because he hadn't included it in his response. "Those lyrics bring up many things connected to astronomy besides the sun and stars. There is a reference to the Milky Way which is the galaxy that contains our Solar System." And was also a rather delicious muggle chocolate bar. "The Milky Way is something else that has been romanticized by humanity over the centuries and plays an important role in many myths and legends." But he would not be going into details on all that now. Perhaps a future lesson though.

These kids were giving him so many ideas!

THIS CONCEPT AGAIN! "YES! Brilliant!" Airey man!squealed as his energy came back to him tenfold. In fact, he was SO excited that instead of leaping back up onto the platform he leaped onto the girl's desk. "Miss Hudson has an even clearer example of what I was saying earlier with Mr. Stonewall's choice of song. While not starlight but atoms, we are just that. We are all made of the same bits that stars are. Take 5 points as well."

Oh! Airey liked this song and it was one that he was not familiar with. Still on the Miss Hudson's desk, Airey looked at Mr. Gunter and gave an approving nod. "A excellent choice, Mr. Gunter. Very education - much like Mr. Odessa's song. Keep that bit about hydrogen and helium in your mind, yes?" Actually EVERYONE should keep that bit in their minds because it was going to be important later. "And for the record, it is said that 1.3 million Earth volumes would fit into the Sun's volume."

Just a little fun fact for everyone since it had been brought up.

"Very good, Miss Nessie," he said with a nod. Although he did know that her last name was Dixon as he had made it his business to know the first and last names of the student leaders as they were ready available. "Another fine example of how humankind views the stars. Some say that they are diamonds in the sky, like you said just now and how they are referred to in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, while other notions include dead kings of the past and there is even one Native American tribe that described the stars as being holes poked into night's canvas by a hummingbird." Did they see how humans had a tendency to use their imaginations a bit when it came to space? Not that there was anything wrong with this, per say.

"Thank you, Miss Edwards," Airey grinned. Another educational song to add to his stash of music. "Nothing childish about something that is educational and helpful." OWL and NEWT students, should probably write that one down and memorize it. Could be very useful. Yep.

Airey couldn't help but chuckle a little under his breath. He was wondering when someone would bring up this particular song and there was a particular quote that he had been dying to use in response. "Thank you, Miss Potter. Here we see another example of how stars have been romanticized and perhaps the clearest example thus far of the idea of wishing upon a star." He paused here and finally jumped off of Miss Hundson's desk so he could walk around a bit. "There is just one problem with wishing on a star. According to astronomy when you wish upon a star you're actually a few million years late. That star is dead, just like your dreams," he said in a rather deadpan tone laced with sarcasm.

He waited a little bit more to let that thought sink in and for any possible reactions before slooooowly moving on to the next student.

"Very good, Mr. Kinsley!" Airey applauded. "Class, as you see in this example a star is being used as a metaphor for a girl, a girl that is so bright - or beautiful - that she is blinding. This is directly connected to the whole idea of wishing on a star. You see, in ancient times when people looked up at the night sky the planet Venus, named after the Roman goddess of love, was and is the brightest point in the sky and mistaken for an actual star by ancient peoples. The Romans built temples to Venus, and since it was the first "star" that could be seen in the sky for much of the year, and always the brightest whether seen in the morning or the evening, it was an easy way to remember it as a prayer point." He paused here to allow students to catch up with note taking. Mr. Kinsley didn't mind him going into all this detail, right? It was just a song after all. "You can probably all guess what the number one thing people prayed for was. That's right, love. The prayer evolved into a wish as people forgot completely about the Goddess of Love and her origins - as is something that humans tend to do with such things - and the wish expanded into realms well outside the cosmic sphere of love. 5 points to you as well, Mr. Kinsley. Excellent reference."

Good...but not quite what he meant with his question. Her reasoning that is. And oh? He wasn't allowed to use Miss with this one? Well then... "Thank you, Lady Pevensie." Was that alright? He would soon find out. "I think you have focused on the wrong aspects of the lyrics in terms of my question - although you are correct in your reasoning about it showing just how influential a person's life can be on another. Care to venture another try? Focusing more on the lyrics and how they relate to Astronomy that is." Because she had some good examples in there about the nature of how things worked.

Frank Sinatra! Another student that earned several ~~billion~~ awesome points for knowing such a legend. "Thank you for that, Mr. Rush. A classic song that is one of my personal favorites. Yet again showing us all the romanticized vision of astronomy, but also holds some truth. There are indeed seasons on Jupiter and Mars. Mars' spring, just to give some details, is obviously quite different from spring on Earth because Mars has not just permanent ice caps, but also seasonal polar caps of carbon dioxide. Are you familiar with dry ice? Same thing."

Board of Governors, right. Those people were here in the school...and some were slotted to come and visit his this lesson as well. Ug. He had completely forgotten about that until just now and the astronomy professor nearly let out a small man!wibble at the thought. First year at Hogwarts. First lesson of the year. First everything and people were coming here to judge him. SO not fair!

"Good choice, Miss Carter-Hope," he nodded. Black holes. Heh. Where all bad students went.

Just kidding.

"Black holes are another fascinating subject, but not something we will be discussing today unfortunately. Although, it is interesting to note that astronomers believe that many galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers." Something to think about.

Oh! Foreign music! Airey was certainly not familiar with this song, but it had several nice connections nonetheless. "Very good, Mr. Katharos. Cassiopeia is indeed one of the 48 constellations documented by Greek astronomer Ptolemy and remains among the 88 modern constellations." He would have to ask Mr. Katharos for some more of this music later. "It doesn't have to rhyme as long as it has melody," he added with a wink.

No stain on the suit? Hmmm? Airey raised an eyebrow at Miss Fischer and was tempted to march right over to her and take 5 points from Gryffindor for LYING and TEASING a professor about something that ought NOT to be joked around with, but he refrained.

For now. We are keeping a close EYE on you though, captain.

Oh yes, Owl City. He was familiar with this particular group and found himself humming along as the Hufflepuff prefect shared. "Thank you for that, Miss Lecium. It is nice to see other constellations referenced in songs, don't you think?" All constellations deserved some love, not just those associated with the zodiac ~~and that rubbish subject~~. "Hercules is sometimes hard to spot with the naked eye due to the high magnitude of the stars included in it, but should not be overlooked as it is the fifth largest of the modern constellations."

YELLOW! It was like this boy was a Seer or something! Airey's face lit up ~~like a star~~ and he grinned at the boy. "Very good, Mr. Keller. Keep in mind the color yellow as we move through the lesson, yes?"

Oh yes! He knew this song well too. Drops of Jupiter, brought him back to his school days and the one time he had tried to serenade a girl and...well...never mind. A very tragic a beautiful song to be sure. "Thank you, Miss Ella," he smiled. Since he was allowed to call her Miss Ella and all. "Another fine example of how astronomy is used metaphorically in everyday speech."

The Beatles! Airey knew that he like this Hufflepuff - even if she was sort of giving him weird looks right now about something. Was it the bumblebee comment? Oops. It WAS true though. "One of my personal favorites," he said with a quick wink. "Although one should technically say that the sun does not come as it is the Earth that is rotating around it and not the other way around so in fact it is we that come to it."

Yeah...that thought earlier about how everyone can sing despite ability? It was still true...but didn't mean that everyone should sing. Miss Skylar fell into the category of shouldn't, although he still applauded her efforts and smiled through the twitching vein in his forehead. Sadly, he hadn't been able to make out single thing the young lady had said, so he stood there just smiling and nodding at the Head Girl. "Thank you very much, Miss Skylar."

And we were moving on.

MUSICALS! Another one billion awesome points to this student! Airey just adored musicals - and perhaps should have included that in his little self introduction...oh well. "Nicely done, Miss Le Veela," he applauded, noting the tears but not commenting on them. "A good example of how stars and other celestial bodies are compared to more earthly things. Very good."

"Lovely, Miss Sung!" Airey applauded. At least there was one Gryffindor who could carry a tune. No offense, Miss Skylar. "While not something I will be going into detail, your song of choice brings up another aspect of astronomy and its connection to religion and mythology. Astronomical phenomena were often described as being the acts of gods and spirits by ancient peoples. For example, thunder and lightening were said to be cause by Zeus by the ancient Greeks. Comets were considered bad omens of deaths of kings or noble men, or coming catastrophes. Sometimes they were even interpreted as attacks by heavenly beings."

Ah yes, this song again. He should probably go back and explain things a bit more so that he didn't really look like a dream crusher - because that wasn't his intention at all! ~~Even if his dream of becoming an astronaut had been crushed and he was still very bitter about it~~. "Thank you, Miss Greingoth," Airey said with a small smirk as he looked back and forth between the Slytherin prefect and Miss Potter. "As I said to Miss Potter earlier, wishing on stars is somewhat laughable from a scientific standpoint because the star you are wishing on may very well not be there anymore. While the quote says late, you should not get confused with it being a measurement of time because it is not." Just to clarify that. "It is a unit of length, the distance that light will travel in one year, and when you see a star in the night sky you are looking at its light and not literally THE star. If the star is one thousand light years away then the light has been traveling one thousand years to reach your eyes. Therefore, you are seeing the star as it appeared one thousand years ago." Were they all getting the picture here? One thousand years was a LONG time ago and Merlin knew what all could have happened between that time and the present. Black hole. Supernova. Cosmic dust. So many possibilities. "Most stars last far longer than one thousand years so it is probably still there."

So keep wishing and dreaming kids.

Branxton. Just his luck that this one was related to the PRESIDENT of the Board of Governors and he had just taken points away from the kid. Don't go crying to mommy about it, okay? He assumed that the woman was his mother at least. Older sister? Aunt? Didn't matter, they had the same last name - a rare one at that - so they had to be related. Still...it was the boy's fault for rolling the lint roller in his hair.

Oh yes! A very interesting topic as well! "Very good, Mr. Branxton!" Airey applauded. "The universe is indeed always expanding and the explanation for this is rather complicated and requires that we all reevaluate how we look at such words as space and universe. The notion of an expanding universe comes from the Big Bang cosmological model, referenced in your song as well, where, in summary, the hot and dense components that evolved to create the universe was followed by a continuous expansion, cooling, and thinning out of these same components. Cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole, is a fascinating field to study." But not what they were discussing today. Another lesson idea!

What was with some of these Gryffindors and being nervous about singing? Oh, wait...cue a nervous glance at Miss Skylar. Never mind. "Flaming flowers, yes, very good Miss Cambridge," Airey applauded. "More good examples of how humans view the stars from a more creative angle. Thank you for that."

More nodding and another approving smile towards this Gryffinor. "Very good, Miss Hardwicke. While presented in a somewhat metaphorical way, there is still some scientific connections in this song. Stars being different distances away from us for example. The star closest to us is actually the sun," for those who didn't know. "The second closest is Alpha Centauri, which is 4.2 light years away." Some more fun facts for everyone!

Sailor Moon? Airey was not familiar with...whoever that was. A superhero? Hmmm...he would have to check his superhero books back in his office and see if she was listed there. BUT, from what he gathered in the lyrics themselves...there was mythological connections. Not so much straight up astronomy, but one could not study the subject without diving into the mythology a little. Something he had planned for future lessons. "Thank you, Miss Baltazar. I am afraid I am not familiar with this particular superhero, but I gather there is some Greek and Roman mythology about the planets and the moon involved?" Was this Sailor Moon's name Selene?

"Yes yes, shooting stars! I will be getting to those in just a moment," he nodded. As for that whole wishing thing, well, he had gone into that in great and gory detail already.

SPOILER!!: Dylan

MORE AWESOME POINTS BEING AWARDED HERE! Airey piratically beamed at the Quidditch captain and his choice in music. Very good taste. Yes yes. "Excellent choice, Mr. Montmorency," Airey nodded. "A few concepts came up in those lyrics that we have not yet discussed and ---" he glanced down at his sundial again. Merlin! He needed to get a move!

*blink blink*

Well...he had said that no reference was too obscure...but he was pretty sure that this song was more about pizza than it was the stars. However! "Interesting example Miss Phillips. For centuries humans often blamed behaviors and other things on the phases of the moon and other astronomical phenomena." Like comets as he had mentioned earlier.

EYEING YOU SO HARD RIGHT NOW MISS FISCHER!!

"That would be Monty Python," he corrected calmly as he gave an approving nod towards the girl. "A fine wizard who I believe was a Gryffindor." As for her song, well, the connections were obvious.

Giving the girl an approving nod - although wincing a little at a certain part in the song where something rather dire was mispronounced, the astronmer gave her a quick round of applause. "Thank you, Miss Fletcher. Plenty of good examples of astronomy in there." Many of which had already been discussed which is why he was going to move on now to the main topic of today's lesson.

Oh, hold on there. When had this man arrived?! Had he seen him jump on a student's desk? Oops? Hopefully the man had a sense of humor. Although, he had been expecting someone else to be observing him today. A Mr. Sherman - who he had been surprised had opted to come all the way up to the Astronomy Tower given his, erm, age and all.

Airey gave the man a quick nod and awkward smiling before turning his attention back to the students. Yes. He should be moving things along.

"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?"

OOC: it is alright to repeat answers here. Your student character doesn't have to answer either if IC it would make more sense for them not to know which Airey is talking about. Points are not awarded for correct answers only This lesson will continue in hopefully 15 hours.

Catch up posts are allowed if you missed a question, but PLEASE put it under a spoiler tag or else you will not receive credit for your efforts.

[/QUOTE]

The Muggle movie, Star Wars's, theme song was stuck in her head as they all pointed out star related songs and this was the only one that stuck. She hummed it to herself.

Then the professor mentioned that song! Oh it took her back to when her mother used to sing it to her. Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, save for a rainy day. Great, it was going to be stuck in her head for the rest of the day!

"Aren't shooting stars astroids with a fire tail or something like that?" She said timidly, before realizing she didn't answer the last question so she should probably mention her name. "Er...I'm Awarlesta Black."

LilFox06 · 01-19-2013, 07:12 AM

Anya smiled happily to herself. She didn't quite realize that interesting was code for Anya Phillips, you are an insanely weird child.

That could have been due to the fact that she was only half paying attention though. The ceiling was covered in stars. So... she really couldn't be blamed. It was essentially the Professor's fault for having such an interesting ceiling. Didn't he know that kids were easily distracted?

Whoa. And... then there were words. She hummed the song to herself as she read the lyrics.

... then was distracted by an old man. OH!! It was Alipop's grampypop. Fun. Was he here to learn too? ... wait a second. ... how did old!dude get his wheelchair up here?! It was like... a mystery of the universe. She'd have to ask him after class.

... and did the Professor just ask a question? She raised her hand. "They're called meteors when they are falling... and meteorites when they hit the ground. ... and you also probably shouldn't catch them. I'd imagine falling through the atmosphere would make them pretty hot." And fast. ... which sounded like a painful combination.

the fastest seeker · 01-19-2013, 07:20 AM

So she was quiet and all. But because she wasn't so strong in this subject which exactly why she was here. To learn more. With her quill in hand she scribbled down important stuff. She didn't write the songs though because it was hard to write and listen at the same time. She'd ask people who sang to give her the lyrics later. How come she didn't know many songs about starts and stuff. Well, she does now.

Listening attentively to students' answers and the nice Professor's replies. Cassia felt stupid not having any thing to answer. She needed to read ahead in the book and prepare next time. Bad first impression. That of course if the Professor noticed her here. She like hadn't spoken a word!

Falling stars..

She knew that! Cassia raised her hand enthusiastically because she had an answer. "IT's a very very hot rock. And we might see it in the sky like a faint arrow-shaped line." She said with a grin. Because she was glad she knew a little about this. And she wanted to add that it was her dream to see a star actually falling from the sky. So she could catch it.

TeafortheSoul · 01-19-2013, 07:32 AM

So from what he could tell with this class, they would get weird points and lose weird points regardless of what they did or said? Soooo why didn't he randomly get points for mentioning jars? ~~Or lose points for singing into a lint roller?~~ While he was wondering these things of course a lot of answers got said... West still stuck his hand up though. "The meteor, thats the burning trail of light bit what we see as a falling star, what is made by a meteoroid, and only if it doesn't hit the ground, then it gets called a meteorite." He paaaaaused thoughtfully and then asked a question, "Professor, Asteroids are like bigger Meteroids right? Except one what is big enough to be in a orbit? So if one of them burned up in our atmosphere, would its trail be a Asteor? And if it impacted would it be a Asteorite?"

WeasleyGirl · 01-19-2013, 08:19 AM

SPOILER!!: Airey

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"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.

[/FONT][/COLOR]

Nina wasn't very excited about Astronomy since she didn't care much about stars, planets and all that stuff but she couldn't deny that it was pretty interesting. Anyways the girl waited for the class to begin and in the meantime she eyed the jars assuming those were from the kitchen, since he was looking for them last time.

So class began and...he was singing. Maybe he was a child trapped in an adult's body.

Nina thought of a song that mentioned something about the universe, it took her a while because the ones that she knew had already been said but finally one came to her mind, raising her hand first she said "Nina Doherty" probably he didn't remembered her "Stop crying your heart out by Oasis says: 'Cause all of the stars are fading away just try not to worry you'll see them someday" it was one of her favorite songs it always cheer her up.

SPOILER!!: Airey :)

Continuing on with the lesson, Flamsteed asked the first question because the last one didn't count. Again she raised her hand "Meteor shower?"

Emzily · 01-19-2013, 10:14 AM

SPOILER!!: LOL Theo is blushing

...

Wow. Theodore's face went a little pink as the professor starting talking about girls and love, regarding his song choice. In front of the whole class. In front of ELLA. ELLA WAS IN THE ROOM, PROFESSOR. Get with the program. He ducked his head low and didn't look to anyone in particular.

He may have given Theo 5 points, but Professor Flamsteed just LOST 5 Theo!points.

"Thanks for that, sir."

SPOILER!!: Question 2!

Theo liked to think that his knowledge of stars was pretty good, but the question seemed to be a lot more complicated in his head than what it actually was. Falling stars kinda gave it away in the end. Phew, he knew this. Shooting his hand up, like a shooting star, Theo said, "That would be a meteoroid, I think." Or an Asteroid, or a comet. He didn't know this stuff, so he just ducked his head down low again.

slytherus · 01-19-2013, 10:20 AM

So, this is how Professor Sleepy is like. Judging from the Defense Against the Dark Arts, Alex didn't expect the professor to have them singing in class in midday... Being the shy boy he is, Alex mumbles the tune to himself rather than singing it out loudly for the whole class to hear.

He knows what shooting stars are! The thing that killed dinosaurs millions of years ago. And so the boy raises his hand, "The... Dinosaurs killers...?"

RandomRaven · 01-19-2013, 12:49 PM

The head boy actually didn't know about the 'astronomy facts' on that song. He just knew that it was a very old love song and his uncle loved to sing that. Well, no wonder. This professor was such an astronomy geek, right?

Back to the lesson. Falling stars. Hmmm... It wasn't a real stars that fallen from the sky right? "It's a meteor, sir." he said as he raised his hand. "A meteor is a particle of solar system that had passed the Earth atmosphere." So, if it is just a particle why many people like to wish something when they see the falling star? Well, it's just a silly myth actually.

MagicalWorld · 01-19-2013, 01:03 PM

Text Cut: Professor

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Ah yes, Mr. Odessa was at THAT age. Once he got past puberty that would all even out. It would just be ridiculously awkward and uncomfortable for a few years less if he was lucky. Airey had hated that phase. Really put a damper on his singing career at Hogwarts, but there were potions and home remedies that one could take should they so desire.

Not that he would bring that up NOW. Poor boy was probably already feeling a bit awkward as it was.

"Thank you for that, Mr. Odessa," Airey replied with a wide grin as he gave the boy a round of applause. No need to go into how this song in particular related to astronomy, right? "Funny that you should mention jars," he smirked, nodding his head towards the pickling jars on the floor. They would be getting to those soon. After a bit of fun.

And he didn't comment about the slight improper use of a lint roller. It wasn't a microphone...but at least the boy wasn't trying to wear it as a hat. He was keeping it clean.

AHA! Shooting stars. Yes! This was on the right track with today's lesson. "Thank you, Miss Castell," he nodded, offering the Ravenclaw a round of applause as well. "We will be discussing the concept of shooting stars in more depth in a moment," he said, using air quotes around the word star. Kids these days knew what air quotes were, right? "But you bring up a valid point here. Wishing on shooting stars in hopes that that wish comes true. For centuries and centuries humankind has romanticized the stars and space as an attempt to explain astronomical phenomena."

But he was going to leave that there for now and move on to the next student who had raised their hand to share a song.

Elvis! Bless this young Hufflepuff for knowing a classic like that! She got some applause simply for knowing the name of the legen wait for it dary figure in music. "Thank you, Miss Wheatborn. We see in your example a more figurative usage of the term star, but also the concept of wishing upon stars as Miss Castell just mentioned. Very good." And several awesome points to you for knowing Elvis!

Where was this boy's Gryffindor courage?! Airey paused for a moment in front of the young man, waiting somewhat expectantly for him to jump up and sing, but did not linger too long when he didn't do so immediately. Perfectly alright to just listen as long as one was being attentive.

Oh oh oh! Airey clapped his hands together once VERY loudly at a certain point in the boy's song and LEAPED back onto the platform and did a sort of happy dance. "Humans just part of a peaceful Galactic community," he repeated. "This! Yes! While not the topic of our lesson today, this is a very important concept that I want you all to keep in mind." And no, we were not talking about aliens. "Many wonder just why even bother to study astronomy. Why is it important and how can is possibly relate to me seeing as all those stars and planets are billions of miles away. Well, this is why." And he pointed back at the Hufflepuff. "Those words just now. Humans being part of a peaceful Galactic community. As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, the atoms that comprise life on Earth are traceable to the very stars that you and I look up at every night. To quote the man, when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. Excellent reference! Take 5 points for that one."

After giving Miss Basthowe some applause, the astronomer nodded his head a little at her analysis. Yes yes, very good - although again a rather abstract use of the word star, but by no means any less relevant. "Another fine example of how stars have been romanticized by humankind, thank you Miss Basthowe. Some very nice connections you drew as well to show other aspects of astronomy, such as mapping out constellations." Very good.
[

SPOILER!!: Nigel

Space Oddity. Heh. Sounded like a nickname that Airey would have received as a student. Heheh.

But the song's lyrics themselves brought Airey back to his astronaut training and the....accident. Stepping off of the platform with a bit of a somber undertone in his step, he nodded at the Ravenclaw boy. "Thank you, Mr. Barrington."

Sorry for not giving more insight there kid.

Ah yes, here we go. "Thank you for that Mr....." Whatever this kid's last name was because he hadn't included it in his response. "Those lyrics bring up many things connected to astronomy besides the sun and stars. There is a reference to the Milky Way which is the galaxy that contains our Solar System." And was also a rather delicious muggle chocolate bar. "The Milky Way is something else that has been romanticized by humanity over the centuries and plays an important role in many myths and legends." But he would not be going into details on all that now. Perhaps a future lesson though.

These kids were giving him so many ideas!

THIS CONCEPT AGAIN! "YES! Brilliant!" Airey man!squealed as his energy came back to him tenfold. In fact, he was SO excited that instead of leaping back up onto the platform he leaped onto the girl's desk. "Miss Hudson has an even clearer example of what I was saying earlier with Mr. Stonewall's choice of song. While not starlight but atoms, we are just that. We are all made of the same bits that stars are. Take 5 points as well."

Oh! Airey liked this song and it was one that he was not familiar with. Still on the Miss Hudson's desk, Airey looked at Mr. Gunter and gave an approving nod. "A excellent choice, Mr. Gunter. Very education - much like Mr. Odessa's song. Keep that bit about hydrogen and helium in your mind, yes?" Actually EVERYONE should keep that bit in their minds because it was going to be important later. "And for the record, it is said that 1.3 million Earth volumes would fit into the Sun's volume."

Just a little fun fact for everyone since it had been brought up.

"Very good, Miss Nessie," he said with a nod. Although he did know that her last name was Dixon as he had made it his business to know the first and last names of the student leaders as they were ready available. "Another fine example of how humankind views the stars. Some say that they are diamonds in the sky, like you said just now and how they are referred to in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, while other notions include dead kings of the past and there is even one Native American tribe that described the stars as being holes poked into night's canvas by a hummingbird." Did they see how humans had a tendency to use their imaginations a bit when it came to space? Not that there was anything wrong with this, per say.

"Thank you, Miss Edwards," Airey grinned. Another educational song to add to his stash of music. "Nothing childish about something that is educational and helpful." OWL and NEWT students, should probably write that one down and memorize it. Could be very useful. Yep.

Airey couldn't help but chuckle a little under his breath. He was wondering when someone would bring up this particular song and there was a particular quote that he had been dying to use in response. "Thank you, Miss Potter. Here we see another example of how stars have been romanticized and perhaps the clearest example thus far of the idea of wishing upon a star." He paused here and finally jumped off of Miss Hundson's desk so he could walk around a bit. "There is just one problem with wishing on a star. According to astronomy when you wish upon a star you're actually a few million years late. That star is dead, just like your dreams," he said in a rather deadpan tone laced with sarcasm.

He waited a little bit more to let that thought sink in and for any possible reactions before slooooowly moving on to the next student.

"Very good, Mr. Kinsley!" Airey applauded. "Class, as you see in this example a star is being used as a metaphor for a girl, a girl that is so bright - or beautiful - that she is blinding. This is directly connected to the whole idea of wishing on a star. You see, in ancient times when people looked up at the night sky the planet Venus, named after the Roman goddess of love, was and is the brightest point in the sky and mistaken for an actual star by ancient peoples. The Romans built temples to Venus, and since it was the first "star" that could be seen in the sky for much of the year, and always the brightest whether seen in the morning or the evening, it was an easy way to remember it as a prayer point." He paused here to allow students to catch up with note taking. Mr. Kinsley didn't mind him going into all this detail, right? It was just a song after all. "You can probably all guess what the number one thing people prayed for was. That's right, love. The prayer evolved into a wish as people forgot completely about the Goddess of Love and her origins - as is something that humans tend to do with such things - and the wish expanded into realms well outside the cosmic sphere of love. 5 points to you as well, Mr. Kinsley. Excellent reference."

Good...but not quite what he meant with his question. Her reasoning that is. And oh? He wasn't allowed to use Miss with this one? Well then... "Thank you, Lady Pevensie." Was that alright? He would soon find out. "I think you have focused on the wrong aspects of the lyrics in terms of my question - although you are correct in your reasoning about it showing just how influential a person's life can be on another. Care to venture another try? Focusing more on the lyrics and how they relate to Astronomy that is." Because she had some good examples in there about the nature of how things worked.

Frank Sinatra! Another student that earned several ~~billion~~ awesome points for knowing such a legend. "Thank you for that, Mr. Rush. A classic song that is one of my personal favorites. Yet again showing us all the romanticized vision of astronomy, but also holds some truth. There are indeed seasons on Jupiter and Mars. Mars' spring, just to give some details, is obviously quite different from spring on Earth because Mars has not just permanent ice caps, but also seasonal polar caps of carbon dioxide. Are you familiar with dry ice? Same thing."

Board of Governors, right. Those people were here in the school...and some were slotted to come and visit his this lesson as well. Ug. He had completely forgotten about that until just now and the astronomy professor nearly let out a small man!wibble at the thought. First year at Hogwarts. First lesson of the year. First everything and people were coming here to judge him. SO not fair!

"Good choice, Miss Carter-Hope," he nodded. Black holes. Heh. Where all bad students went.

Just kidding.

"Black holes are another fascinating subject, but not something we will be discussing today unfortunately. Although, it is interesting to note that astronomers believe that many galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers." Something to think about.

Oh! Foreign music! Airey was certainly not familiar with this song, but it had several nice connections nonetheless. "Very good, Mr. Katharos. Cassiopeia is indeed one of the 48 constellations documented by Greek astronomer Ptolemy and remains among the 88 modern constellations." He would have to ask Mr. Katharos for some more of this music later. "It doesn't have to rhyme as long as it has melody," he added with a wink.

No stain on the suit? Hmmm? Airey raised an eyebrow at Miss Fischer and was tempted to march right over to her and take 5 points from Gryffindor for LYING and TEASING a professor about something that ought NOT to be joked around with, but he refrained.

For now. We are keeping a close EYE on you though, captain.

Oh yes, Owl City. He was familiar with this particular group and found himself humming along as the Hufflepuff prefect shared. "Thank you for that, Miss Lecium. It is nice to see other constellations referenced in songs, don't you think?" All constellations deserved some love, not just those associated with the zodiac ~~and that rubbish subject~~. "Hercules is sometimes hard to spot with the naked eye due to the high magnitude of the stars included in it, but should not be overlooked as it is the fifth largest of the modern constellations."

YELLOW! It was like this boy was a Seer or something! Airey's face lit up ~~like a star~~ and he grinned at the boy. "Very good, Mr. Keller. Keep in mind the color yellow as we move through the lesson, yes?"

Oh yes! He knew this song well too. Drops of Jupiter, brought him back to his school days and the one time he had tried to serenade a girl and...well...never mind. A very tragic a beautiful song to be sure. "Thank you, Miss Ella," he smiled. Since he was allowed to call her Miss Ella and all. "Another fine example of how astronomy is used metaphorically in everyday speech."

The Beatles! Airey knew that he like this Hufflepuff - even if she was sort of giving him weird looks right now about something. Was it the bumblebee comment? Oops. It WAS true though. "One of my personal favorites," he said with a quick wink. "Although one should technically say that the sun does not come as it is the Earth that is rotating around it and not the other way around so in fact it is we that come to it."

Yeah...that thought earlier about how everyone can sing despite ability? It was still true...but didn't mean that everyone should sing. Miss Skylar fell into the category of shouldn't, although he still applauded her efforts and smiled through the twitching vein in his forehead. Sadly, he hadn't been able to make out single thing the young lady had said, so he stood there just smiling and nodding at the Head Girl. "Thank you very much, Miss Skylar."

And we were moving on.

MUSICALS! Another one billion awesome points to this student! Airey just adored musicals - and perhaps should have included that in his little self introduction...oh well. "Nicely done, Miss Le Veela," he applauded, noting the tears but not commenting on them. "A good example of how stars and other celestial bodies are compared to more earthly things. Very good."

"Lovely, Miss Sung!" Airey applauded. At least there was one Gryffindor who could carry a tune. No offense, Miss Skylar. "While not something I will be going into detail, your song of choice brings up another aspect of astronomy and its connection to religion and mythology. Astronomical phenomena were often described as being the acts of gods and spirits by ancient peoples. For example, thunder and lightening were said to be cause by Zeus by the ancient Greeks. Comets were considered bad omens of deaths of kings or noble men, or coming catastrophes. Sometimes they were even interpreted as attacks by heavenly beings."

Ah yes, this song again. He should probably go back and explain things a bit more so that he didn't really look like a dream crusher - because that wasn't his intention at all! ~~Even if his dream of becoming an astronaut had been crushed and he was still very bitter about it~~. "Thank you, Miss Greingoth," Airey said with a small smirk as he looked back and forth between the Slytherin prefect and Miss Potter. "As I said to Miss Potter earlier, wishing on stars is somewhat laughable from a scientific standpoint because the star you are wishing on may very well not be there anymore. While the quote says late, you should not get confused with it being a measurement of time because it is not." Just to clarify that. "It is a unit of length, the distance that light will travel in one year, and when you see a star in the night sky you are looking at its light and not literally THE star. If the star is one thousand light years away then the light has been traveling one thousand years to reach your eyes. Therefore, you are seeing the star as it appeared one thousand years ago." Were they all getting the picture here? One thousand years was a LONG time ago and Merlin knew what all could have happened between that time and the present. Black hole. Supernova. Cosmic dust. So many possibilities. "Most stars last far longer than one thousand years so it is probably still there."

So keep wishing and dreaming kids.

Branxton. Just his luck that this one was related to the PRESIDENT of the Board of Governors and he had just taken points away from the kid. Don't go crying to mommy about it, okay? He assumed that the woman was his mother at least. Older sister? Aunt? Didn't matter, they had the same last name - a rare one at that - so they had to be related. Still...it was the boy's fault for rolling the lint roller in his hair.

Oh yes! A very interesting topic as well! "Very good, Mr. Branxton!" Airey applauded. "The universe is indeed always expanding and the explanation for this is rather complicated and requires that we all reevaluate how we look at such words as space and universe. The notion of an expanding universe comes from the Big Bang cosmological model, referenced in your song as well, where, in summary, the hot and dense components that evolved to create the universe was followed by a continuous expansion, cooling, and thinning out of these same components. Cosmology, the study of the universe as a whole, is a fascinating field to study." But not what they were discussing today. Another lesson idea!

What was with some of these Gryffindors and being nervous about singing? Oh, wait...cue a nervous glance at Miss Skylar. Never mind. "Flaming flowers, yes, very good Miss Cambridge," Airey applauded. "More good examples of how humans view the stars from a more creative angle. Thank you for that."

More nodding and another approving smile towards this Gryffinor. "Very good, Miss Hardwicke. While presented in a somewhat metaphorical way, there is still some scientific connections in this song. Stars being different distances away from us for example. The star closest to us is actually the sun," for those who didn't know. "The second closest is Alpha Centauri, which is 4.2 light years away." Some more fun facts for everyone!

Sailor Moon? Airey was not familiar with...whoever that was. A superhero? Hmmm...he would have to check his superhero books back in his office and see if she was listed there. BUT, from what he gathered in the lyrics themselves...there was mythological connections. Not so much straight up astronomy, but one could not study the subject without diving into the mythology a little. Something he had planned for future lessons. "Thank you, Miss Baltazar. I am afraid I am not familiar with this particular superhero, but I gather there is some Greek and Roman mythology about the planets and the moon involved?" Was this Sailor Moon's name Selene?

"Yes yes, shooting stars! I will be getting to those in just a moment," he nodded. As for that whole wishing thing, well, he had gone into that in great and gory detail already.

SPOILER!!: Dylan

MORE AWESOME POINTS BEING AWARDED HERE! Airey piratically beamed at the Quidditch captain and his choice in music. Very good taste. Yes yes. "Excellent choice, Mr. Montmorency," Airey nodded. "A few concepts came up in those lyrics that we have not yet discussed and ---" he glanced down at his sundial again. Merlin! He needed to get a move!

*blink blink*

Well...he had said that no reference was too obscure...but he was pretty sure that this song was more about pizza than it was the stars. However! "Interesting example Miss Phillips. For centuries humans often blamed behaviors and other things on the phases of the moon and other astronomical phenomena." Like comets as he had mentioned earlier.

EYEING YOU SO HARD RIGHT NOW MISS FISCHER!!

"That would be Monty Python," he corrected calmly as he gave an approving nod towards the girl. "A fine wizard who I believe was a Gryffindor." As for her song, well, the connections were obvious.

Giving the girl an approving nod - although wincing a little at a certain part in the song where something rather dire was mispronounced, the astronmer gave her a quick round of applause. "Thank you, Miss Fletcher. Plenty of good examples of astronomy in there." Many of which had already been discussed which is why he was going to move on now to the main topic of today's lesson.

Oh, hold on there. When had this man arrived?! Had he seen him jump on a student's desk? Oops? Hopefully the man had a sense of humor. Although, he had been expecting someone else to be observing him today. A Mr. Sherman - who he had been surprised had opted to come all the way up to the Astronomy Tower given his, erm, age and all.

Airey gave the man a quick nod and awkward smiling before turning his attention back to the students. Yes. He should be moving things along.

"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?"

OOC: it is alright to repeat answers here. Your student character doesn't have to answer either if IC it would make more sense for them not to know which Airey is talking about. Points are not awarded for correct answers only This lesson will continue in hopefully 15 hours.

Catch up posts are allowed if you missed a question, but PLEASE put it under a spoiler tag or else you will not receive credit for your efforts.

[/QUOTE]

Dylan just watched everyone as they named song names and some of them even sang! Like seriously? What was up with this professor, first he lays there in their runes class where they didnt even get to test spells on him by the way! Now! he was getting them to name songs linked to astronomy, did Dylan look like the kind of guy that listened to songs? No.. right? exactly he steered away from those if he could cause he was too busy planning things and the songs? they would just break his focus and concentration when he was 'working' So songs were never on his list of things to do, he just watched as some sang and some just named songs. When would they be over already..

Oh finally! He was getting bored of it all and nearly opted to leave class, now they were talking about things falling from the sky. Now they were talking! "Professor I have no idea of the name, but they look really cool. Its like rocks on fire falling from the sky, cant go wrong there! Those rocks never get effected by the fire! unless you are one of the smaller rocks that just cant take the heat" how did Dylan know all this? well lets just say that he has some experience in trying to see what fire does to rocks, and has found that some smaller ones cant take contact with fire..whereas others just... dont break or melt or even pop or anything! Oo he was now wondering what else he could set on fire.. some balls?.. they could call them.. fireballs! He was great right? .. oh yeah.. Ooo or maybe the professor's suits.. maybe? He had heard that the professor loved those.. that would be fun to see. A professor freaking out over some clothes.. mmm.. Dylan took out his parchment to add this one to the to-do list too!

OOC: NOT our fault! Maybe.. Ted told us to do it, after Barney ~~Lovely Astronomy professor~~ set his coat on fire lol! You know.. payback kind of thing! Now the professor freaking out over his suits that would be legen~~wait for it, no still wait for it.. and some more..NOW~~dary to see! XD ... yes I know.. I wanted to say that just once.. wont say it anymore

Rosa Chispa Princessa · 01-19-2013, 01:28 PM

Oichi was glad she managed to come up with something for last question. However this academic Question was one she knew the answer to, she is in her owl year afterall. She raised her hand and responded, "A shooting stars technical name is a meteor, if and when it hits the Wrath it becomes a meteorite.".

Weasley174 · 01-19-2013, 01:38 PM

Laura looked at the Professor, singing they had to sing, well she could sing but she really didn't want to and she couldn't think of a song that no one has said. "How about Dancing in the Moonlight." Laura thought she would have a guess.

Anna Banana · 01-19-2013, 04:16 PM

Text Cut: sweetpinkpixie

Sierra blinked.

Dear Merlin, this man could TALK. She nodded along, pretending to be really interested in what he was saying. Ehh...who cared if stars could really be wished upon or not? "It's okay, Professor. I don't actually wish upon stars anyway," she said.

That sort of thing was for the PUFFERS.

She was just trying to get house points.

Text Cut: sweetpinkpixie

Nope. She wasn't familiar with that song.

...and this guy was weird. Just weird. Yup.

Sierra nodded nce in the direction of the student just to the side of her then raised her hand. "I agree. It's called a meteor." She didn't know any specifics, though. That's what she was in class for. To get the specifics.

emjay · 01-19-2013, 05:42 PM

SPOILER!!: catching up

Quote:

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."

At the start of class, Ethan lazily turned his eyes from the weird disturbance over the lint roller to the now singing professor. Hmm.. that was an interesting way to begin things, he supposed.. And now they were supposed to sing? Ethan searched his mind for any songs he knew that could in any way be connected to Astronomy. Of course way back when he was homeschooled, there were plenty of educational songs his mother would sing with him to help him remember things.

Raising his hand, the Ravenclaw answered, "Ethan McCarthy, sir.. There's one I know called "What is a Shooting Star?" by a really old band called They Might Be Giants." Of course it had been years before he realized that it wasn't just a song his mother made up to help him in his studies. Clearing his throat the 16 year old began to sing it..

"A shooting star is not a star
It's not a star at all
A shooting star's a meteor
That's heading for a fall

A shooting star is not a star
Why does it shine so bright?
The friction as it falls through air
Produces heat and light

A shooting star or meteor
Whichever name you like
The minute it comes down to earth
It's called a meteorite"

Of course, it sounded better when sung by two people in a round, but Ethan was sure he got the idea across.

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?"

OOC: it is alright to repeat answers here. Your student character doesn't have to answer either if IC it would make more sense for them not to know which Airey is talking about. Points are not awarded for correct answers only This lesson will continue in hopefully 15 hours.

Catch up posts are allowed if you missed a question, but PLEASE put it under a spoiler tag or else you will not receive credit for your efforts.

Once he finished his song, Ethan turned his attention back to the Professor and what he now had on the board. That song sounded remotely familiar.. like something he might have heard when he was very young. Shooting stars.. yes, he had just recalled a song about them.. Should he sing it again? No? Maybe he'd just answer the question..

Raising his hand, Ethan offered, "I suppose the phenomenon is called a meteor shower.. but it depends on where the object is located in order to give it a name. If it's moving through space it's called a meteoroid, but once it enters the Earth's atmosphere it's called a meteor." And that's where it would be visible enough to be seen. "Then if it actually hits the ground, it's called a meteorite."

Expecto-Penguin · 01-19-2013, 06:13 PM

SPOILER!!: Profesor!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

No stain on the suit? Hmmm? Airey raised an eyebrow at Miss Fischer and was tempted to march right over to her and take 5 points from Gryffindor for LYING and TEASING a professor about something that ought NOT to be joked around with, but he refrained.

For now. We are keeping a close EYE on you though, captain.

Oh yes, Owl City. He was familiar with this particular group and found himself humming along as the Hufflepuff prefect shared. "Thank you for that, Miss Lecium. It is nice to see other constellations referenced in songs, don't you think?" All constellations deserved some love, not just those associated with the zodiac ~~and that rubbish subject~~. "Hercules is sometimes hard to spot with the naked eye due to the high magnitude of the stars included in it, but should not be overlooked as it is the fifth largest of the modern constellations."

"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?"

OOC: it is alright to repeat answers here. Your student character doesn't have to answer either if IC it would make more sense for them not to know which Airey is talking about. Points are not awarded for correct answers only This lesson will continue in hopefully 15 hours.

Catch up posts are allowed if you missed a question, but PLEASE put it under a spoiler tag or else you will not receive credit for your efforts.

As Belle listened to the Professor agreeing with her song choice, she was quite relieved Professor Airey knew about Owl City. "Thanks for liking my song choice Professor. I am glad you knew the band and i think constellations do get forgotten but i do still love them." she smiled. Then he went to talk about Hercules and Belle learned something new today. She was interested. Belle awed at knowing it was the fifth largest.

Then once he was back in the class, no one mentioned his song of choice. Well it would be kind of hard since there are so many out there. Then the professor was talking about shooting stars and falling stars and what they are referred to. Belle had a brain fart and could not think of it. She was struggling but she would let the professor continue to teach the lesson.

oh its Erik ok · 01-19-2013, 08:18 PM

Nigel was still wondering why they had to sing the lyrics. It seemed like the professor with his awesome suit just moved on right along with the lesson to shooting stars.

"It's just a meteoroid on fire when it enters the atmosphere. But if it is big enough it can leave meteorites."

Though Nigel was not familiar with the music he was mentioning. and he seemed to talk about Theo's song for a long time and even gave him five points. Well this new professor was interesting at least.

Latest Site Notices

Latest Harry Potter News

Latest FanFics

Latest Forum Posts

Latest Games

Hogwarts RPG

Wizarding World RPG

Members