Presentation

The midterm and final examinations of AST 100 are presentations. Students are divided into 8 groups, and each group has to prepare a single file with all the slides of the presentation, preferably using Google Slides or Canva. The presentation is divided into 5 or 6 parts, each part is presented by an individual student of the group, and the grading is also done individually. Each student should have at least 4 slides including the title slide, and should take 3-4 minutes for the presentation. Each group gets 20 minutes for the presentation in total.

The exams are taken during two regular classes, the even-numbered groups present during one of the classes, and the odd-numbered groups during the other class.

The 5 or 6 parts of the presentation are as follows.

• If there are only 5 members in your group, merge Part 4 and Part 5.
• For online research, use ChatGPT responsibly and the most reliable websites, mainly the websites of the astronomy departments and institutes of well-known universities and the independent research institutions related to astronomy and space science.
• For Part 4, use ChatGPT first to get a table comparing the best 5 telescopes within your assigned frequency range. Then select one of these five, and describe why you chose this one particularly. Explain the details about the location, building year, operation years, and the greatest achievements of this telescope.
• For Part 6, first take the image of your assigned telescope taken by a Durbin small-telescope (links given below in the table), and then compare this image with some of the best images of this galaxy taken by the largest telescopes in the world. Focus on what you can actually see in the images, the shape, the colors, the brightness, the foreground, etc.

For Part 4 and Part 6, the frequency range and the galaxy assigned to each group are given below.

The 5 or 6 parts of the presentation are as follows.

If there are 5 students, combine Part 3 and part 4.

The nebulas assigned to each group and the presentation timeslots for the whole group are given below.

The grading is based on Content (7 marks), Delivery (7 marks) and Interaction (7 marks). The tips for doing well in these three categories are given below.

The 7 marks here will be based on the informativeness, orderliness and organization of the slides.

1. Do not go over everything that were discussed during the classes related to your topic, but select the information that are most interesting for you within your topic and the ones that you can summarize most effectively.
2. Do not skip the most important points discussed during the classes about your topic.
3. The title slide should clearly state your name and the title of your part of the presentation.
4. Do not use long sentences in paragraphs, but only bullet or numbered lists.
5. Be innovative and original in making the slides, but you have to show that you have learned things from the sessions of this course and not from some random websites and ChatGPT.
6. There should not too much or too little information on a single slide.
7. Explanatory images and diagrams should be used, especially following the infographics given in the course webpages. You can directly copy the images from the webpages and paste into your slides.

The 7 marks here will be based on the preparedness, readiness, and conveying of the materials of the slides.

1. The verbal presentation must be in English.
2. Make sure that you practice delivering the information in your slides beforehand so that it does not seem that you are not prepared to speak.
3. While showing a slide, talk about what is on that slide and not about something else.
4. Follow the bullet points or numbered lists shown in your slides.
5. Go over the images on your slides carefully.
6. Do not skip over the slides, keep the slides that you will actually present.
7. Finish within time.

The 7 marks here will be based on your interaction with the screen and the audience and your body language.

1. Pay attention to your slides and to the audience.
2. Do not read from your phone or from a paper, speak spontaneously.
3. Do not stand in one place but move in order to point toward different parts of the screen.
4. If you insist on standing, at least look at the slides and the audience periodically.
5. Move your hands while talking naturally.