Astronomy art research project

Your "Explorer’s Journal"

— to be submitted on this page by 11:59pm, Monday 8 November 2021

Checklist:  

Refer to the Instructions for more-complete descriptions of all of the required items for your "journal."

Your file submission in this assignment must be a single PDF file — a document containing a series of 4 images, each with accompanying written sections as follows:  

Image 1 

Modeled on a real extrasolar planet, selected from the NASA’s Eyes catalog.  

You should use the NASA’s Eyes catalog (available for use online in your browser at this link (Links to an external site.), or as a downloadable program here (Links to an external site.)) to find a real extrasolar planet, according to the instructions.  Then enter the properties of this planet and its star into our "World Builder" tool (either online at this link (Links to an external site.), or downloaded from the links given in Canvas) and hit the "Explore" button.  

Take a screenshot of this world in the program and insert it into your "Explorer’s Journal" document, labeled "Image 1."  

Writing to accompany Image 1 

Based on the real planet from NASA’s Eyes — entered along with Image 1 in the same single file.  You should include:  

• • • • chosen star’s information gathered from NASA’s Eyes:  
        • the Star’s Name, Spectral Type, Distance from Earth, Number of planets, and Mass
      • chosen planet’s information from NASA’s Eyes:  
        • the Planet’s Name, Planet’s Type, Discovery Date, and Method of Detection
        • Planet Mass, Planet Radius, Planet Orbital Distance, Planet Orbital Period
      • From the "World Builder":  
        • Type of surface selected, and why
        • Type of atmosphere chosen, and why
        • the World Builder’s calculated Surface Temperature and Surface Gravity
        • a description the world in Image 1 — i.e., what exploring the planet was like, after you hit the "Explore!" button

Image 2 

An artistically-appealing planet — which need not be realistic

Use the World Builder again to create a different, fully customized, planet that you consider artistically appealing and interesting (by considering colors, surface features, rings, moons, positioning of star in sky, etc.).  

Take a screenshot from an appealing vantage point and insert it into your "Explorer’s Journal" document, labeled "Image 2."

Written Statement for Image 2 

Address all of the following in a statement of at least 100 words:  

• • • • How did you decide on the type of planet, rings, moons, and vantage point in order to make this artwork?  
      • Why do you feel it is appealing and interesting artistically?  
      • In what ways is your planet realistic or not (it is fine if it is not) — you have taken “artistic license” in some way? 

Image 3

The possibly-habitable or habitable planet on which your imagined life form lives

Use the World Builder to make a planet that is either habitable, or that you imagine could be home to some unusual life form.  Use your imagination, supported by the background reading you did for this project.

Take a screenshot while exploring your habitable world in the World Builder, and insert it into your "Explorer’s Journal" document, labeling it "Image 3."

Written Statement for Image 3

This should be at least 100 words for full credit.  It should describe the planet & star, and general appearance in the Explore mode.  It should also address both of the following questions:

• • • • What is the surface temperature of this planet, and could it be habitable by human-like life?
      • Why would this planet be habitable by the imaginary life form that you are going to create for this assignment?  (next image)

Image 4

Your original work of art!

Using whatever medium you choose — crayons, pens, paint, computer design tools, clay, found materials, fabric, or other — create an extraterrestrial life form that lives on the planet in Image 3.  

Use your imagination, but also think about the many ideas in the background readings.   Your creature must not be copied from one you saw in the readings; it must be your own original creation.  There need not be a scene behind or around your creature; it can just by itself, but there can be scenery if you wish.  

If your artwork is in a physical form (e.g., a drawing on paper, or a sculpture of some kind, etc.), then you will need to scan or take a digital photo of it.  Include your digital image in the same Explorer’s Journal document, labeled "Image 4."

Written Statement for Image 4

This statement must be at least 200 words in length overall, and must address all of the following:  

• • • • Describe your imagined creature and tell its story.  What is it called?  
      • How does it compare to life on Earth?  
      • How is it that this type of life can exist on the planet you designed for "Image 3"?  
      • Refer to three or more specific points from the background reading that motivated/inspired the design of your own original creature.

Peer-Reviews  

—  to be completed by 11:59pm, Friday 12 November 2021

NOTE:  This phase of the assignment will not begin until after the submissions period has ended (i.e., starting 9 November 2021 — even if you turned in your own artwork and writing early)

You will again review six (6) of your classmates’ submitted documents — containing images, art & writing.  

To complete this portion of Art Project 3, do the following: 

Upon returning to this assignment page (once the peer-review period has begun, on or after 9 November 2021), in the upper right you should see a number of "Assigned Peer Reviews"; they will show up as "(!) Anonymous User."  Click on one, to begin.

On the next page, you will be able to click links in the central box to see your fellow student’s artwork and writing files.  Click on each of those to open them up to view.

At the top right, click on the "Show Rubric" button — which looks like this:  

A rubric form will fill in on the right side of the window (looking much like the preview at the bottom of this page), which you will need to fill in to complete your "peer review" of the submitted art and writing.  Be sure click on the "view longer description" links in the left column, to read a fuller explanation of each of the "Criteria" and familiarize yourself with the expectations before you begin scoring.

Carefully review your classmate’s "Explorer’s Journal" document, and score points in the right-most column according to the guidelines in the "Criteria" in the left column (out of a total of 100 possible). 

You may add in brief comments to explain the scores you assigned for each criterion — for example, …

"Your drawing of extraterrestrial life is great — a nice original idea!  I can see you spent a lot of time on this. — 20 out of 20" 

or, "0 pts for the planet description, because it appears to be missing"

…  and so on.

Again, remember that in "Astro 7N" we do not expect a substantial amount of prior art experience.  The first three images (screenshots from the "World Builder") may have a certain uniform quality, but the original artwork for imaginary extraterrestrial life ("Image 4") may reflect all kinds of personal styles and skill levels.  Please evaluate the artwork as for whether it adequately addresses the subject matter of this project, and reflects a genuine thoughtful effort.

Remember that while your reviews appear as Anonymous to your fellow students (whose works you are reviewing), your responses will not be anonymous to your course instructors.  As in all portions of the Astro 7N course overall, we expect you to maintain a constructive, fair, and respectful attitude through this process.  Deliberately hurtful, inappropriate, or obscene, etc., responses will not be tolerated.

As before, do not include identifying information about yourself in these comments, as they are meant to be anonymous feedback.  Your instructors can still match your responses to you when they review these submissions for final grading.

Be sure to click the buttons to save both your entered scores (at the bottom, below the rubric table where the button may say "Save Comment") and to save your responses (any additional comments you may have made) at the bottom of the overall review page, when done.

Repeat these steps for each of your Assigned Peer Reviews until you have completed them all.  Back on this page, the "(!)" symbols next to each "Anonymous User" will turn into √√ marks, to show them as complete.

When you have finished all of your assigned Peer Reviews — there should be six (6) of them, in total — then you are done with this portion  of Art Project 3.