Astronomy I: Put a Little Swing in Your Step! (The Scientific Method)
 

As you arrive at the Astronomy classroom for the first seminar of the year -- a lesson that students of all years are invited to participate in -- the sky is overcast. Clouds block all the stars, and the moon herself is almost entirely hidden on this October night. A shower of rain in the early morning seems to be in the cards, which inspires hope for those hoping to watch the lunar eclipse the next evening.

It is immediately clear that absolutely no stargazing can be done today, but that does not seem to bother Professor Sandhu, who is sitting on the edge of her desk, legs crossed at the ankle. Humming to herself, she waits for students to arrive.

The classroom is set up normally, with rows of tables and chairs making a semicircle facing the blackboard. What isn't normal is that all the desks, including Professor Sandhu's have on them a metre-rule, string, scissors, pendulum bobs and a stopwatch as well as a retort stand and its clamp on the floor. Take your seats, and quickly! Professor Sandhu is eager to start the lesson.

OOC: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to our first OOC Astronomy lesson of the term. Remember that even though this is our first RPed lesson, that it is now October and students have already had a month of lessons with Professor Sandhu. Please read through the Classroom Rules before posting! Lesson will begin apppproximately 24 hours from the time of this post (1700 GMT+2)The lesson has begun! Please don't post your character arriving if you want to avoid IC consequences!

Lesson Progression:
Greetings + Question 1: What is important to keep in mind, as a scientist?
Answers to Question 1 + Mini Activity: Make a simple pendulum!
Response to Mini Activity + Question 2: What could possibly go wrong in an experiment?
Response to Question 2 + MAIN ACTIVITY: PENDULUM DODGEBALL with the bonus perk of getting 8" off their essay if they're one of the first ten to complete the activity.
CLOSING REMARKS. Thank you all for coming!

Avalon wrapped her fingers around her mug of tea, relishing the warmth radiating from the hot liquid on the chilly October evening. She always remembered to bring tea or coffee with her to astronomy lessons -- a caffeinated drink helped her to stay awake during their late-night classes. She was grateful that Professor Sandhu allowed food and beverages in the classroom. Most Hogwarts teachers prohibited them.

"Good evening, Professor," she said as she made her way around the semicircle and chose an aisle seat. Avalon was curious as to what they would be learning tonight -- it didn't seem like great stargazing weather. She glanced at the interesting array of objects on all the desks, pondering what they might be doing with them, as she waited for the lesson to begin.

Albertine was quickly realizing a few helpful things as the school year progressed further into the fall semester. For one, magical school was so much more fun than her classes at her old prep school. For two, magical school was so much more confusing. For three, Albertine would not be stopped regardless, which is where number four (caffeine!) came into play. Alba would be roasted over an open fire (or private letter, but still) for anything except Outstanding marks, no matter if the class in question extended well into her preferred sleeping hours. She had taken to having three packets of instant coffee dissolved in hot milk and plenty of sugar at dinner to combat any sleepiness during Astronomy, and it had worked fabulously so far - the young girl all but skipped up Hogwarts' tallest tower until she arrived to her evening lessons. Required materials and should-be-required snacks bounced around in her knapsack with the force of her enthusiasm.

The first year was pleased to see her teacher already there. She had taken a liking to the woman from the few lessons she'd already had the opportunity to attend. Whether the older professor cared for her at all would have to be learned in time. For now Alba just smiled and worked (with only small success) at keeping her hyperactivity on the down low. "Good evening, Professor Sandhu."

Glancing around the classroom, Alba decided to sit next to the girl who'd worn the cute shoes on their first day of term. "And good evening to you, Avalon." Alba remembered the name because she hadn't heard it in person until they met. After greeting the other girl she looked down at all the instruments on their desks. "Any Ravenclaw guesses on what all this equipment is for?"

Entering the Astronomy classroom on this late october evening hour Ellie held back a small yawn as she curiously looked around the desks at the set up and also noting the cloudy night sky. Shoot no stargazing tonight but hopefully it’d be fun anyway. Passing by the elder woman sitting on the edge of her desk Ellie greeted cheerily "Good evening Professor Sandhu!" She really liked her, because she was like the only professor that actually allowed to eat snacks in her class.

Debating where to sit Ellie gazed around until her eyes fell on Eji that she had heard muttering a curse to himself earlier. Smiling she took a new hold on her backpack as she headed over the snake boy and slumped down in the vacant seat next to him at the front of the class. "Hi Eji!" She pulled out her astro textbook and writing materials placing them on her desk before she pulled out a handful of cheeze crackers that she held out to Eji "Do you want a cheese cracker? They’re yummy or maybe a bertie bott?"

Simran straightened as the first student entered the room. Anahera Webb, a very pretty, very polite one. "Good evening, Miss Webb."

"As good as a day gets, without the sun," she said, pushing herself off the corner of the desk and standing. If students were coming in already, she would have to enter classroom-mode. "How was yours, dear?"



Ah, Miss Fairfield. Never a dull day with this one in the classroom. "Good evening, Miss Fairfield," Simran smiled, and shook her head. "Not a song I would expect you to recognise -- it's as old as I am."

Though if Eloise (or anyone) paid close enough, it did seem that she was singing "I'm gonna swing from the chandelieeeeeeeer" under her breath every so often, and the young Slytherin's disappointment at the apparatus gone entirely unheeded.



Ah, another Slytherin child. "Good evening, Master Kaiser." And he had his supplies out -- wonderful! She did so love it when her students were prepared for the lesson.



Simran smiled as another student walked through the door and took his seat. "Good evening, Master Anderson-Belfort."

"I promise the apparatus won't bite."



Simran watched with mild concern as the next student entered, looking worse for wear. If she had been a fifth year, she would chalk it up to overzealous OWL preparation, but that did not seem to be the case. Perhaps she just had a long day.

"Hello, Miss Bell." Oh goodness, that yawn. She sure hoped the child would not mistake her desk for a pillow.



Unfortunately for Gunnar, he would have absolutely no luck in witnessing a lunar eclipse tonight -- especially as it was only scheduled for tomorrow evening. But even if it had been tonight, the clouds were in the way of such a thing. Pesky little things.

"Good evening, Master McCarthy," she said, smiling to herself as he picked up the pendulum bob. Curiosity was good, always good.



Seeing first years with coffee always made herself feel a little guilty, but her timetable hadn't allowed a better timing for the seminar otherwise. Ignoring the clench of her stomach, she smiled at Miss Sinclair anyway, and returned her greeting. "And to you as well, Miss Sinclair."

At least first years had the earliest lesson slot on non-seminar days.



Easily the most difficult part of moving back to Hogwarts to teach was the knowledge that now she taught a core subject. Back at Oxford, everyone was in her Astronomy lesson because they wanted to be. Tragically, here it was the opposite.

Nevertheless, they were here to learn, and she was there to teach. "Hello, Miss Myles." At least this one was energetic.



"Good evening, Miss Radosevich," she greeted as the next girl entered. It was always lovely to see someone quite so energetic enterting her lesson -- the post-dinner lethargy got to her a little too often.

Her gaze lingered on the girl as she picked up conversation with her deskmate. She wouldn't stop it, of course, the class was not in session, but she did make a mental note to be sure they weren't disruptive when it was.



Watching young Master Dakest enter the classroom and look around with all the curiosity his mind could afford him made Simran's lips twitch upwards in a smile. "Good evening, Master Dakest."

He seemed to be enjoying himself despite the weather. Which made her feel slightly less gloomy too.



Hanna Newton was the next to arrive -- an OWL student. One with another lesson with her tomorrow evening as well. Simran made a mental note to grade the rest of the cohort's papers before the lesson so they'd be able to discuss them.

"Good evening, Miss Newton."

She did hate grading papers, though.



"Good evening to you too, Miss Malari," Simran smiled, smiling as she caught a whiff of coffee as the girl walked past her.

Ah, the NEWT-student life.



As the next student entered, Simran had to make a double take. It was almost difficult to recognise the boy without his blanket.

"Hello, Master Potter," she smiled, still somewhat dazed. "No blanket today?"



Ah, yet another! "Good evening, Miss Dantes," she said, giving the girl a nod in return.

And a curious one too! It always made Simran's heart sing when a student's interest was piqued.



Another student with a mug of coffee! Simran smiled and made her way around the desk, picking up her own mug and holding it out in a mock toast. "Hello, Miss Calrissian."

And as she did, the elder woman caught glance of her watch and gasped. Almost time to begin the lesson!



Simran had just put her mug down and headed towards the door when Eiji Rasting walked through. Not the most talkative, this one. Or perhaps it was different in his other lessons, or he required time to warm up to her. It had only been a month, after all. Either way, she gave him a nod back. "And a good evening to you as well, Master Rasting."

She would simply pretend not to have heard his displeasure at her lesson plan. Hmph.

And on that note, she shut the door behind him.



Or, well, she would have if the next student hadn't managed to slip past the door. "Just in time, Miss Smethwyck!" she said, finally shutting the door firmly behind the girl.

And, well, best to keep the conversation to a minimum. Simran had eyes on you, dear.

Now turning to the class, she cleared her throat to get their attention. Once she had it, or at least some semblance of it, she took her place in the centre of the semicircle of desks -- not quite at her own desk, but about a foot away from it.

"As you all know, Astronomy is a natural science. More specifically, it's a physical science." As opposed to a life science, like Biology, for example, or a social science. "It concerns celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. We learn not only about the hard science of the matter, but also how celestial events influence magic as a whole."

But of course, they knew that. Especially the first and sixth years, who had just completed the chapters An Introduction to Astronomy and A Re-Introduction to Astronomy respectively.

"We ask questions, even though we may not now be able to answer them, in the hope that someday, someone will. Or sometimes for the sake of asking them." The scientific world was still trying to prove and interpret Ramanujan's writings as well, and nobody was quite sure when it would be done. "So now I have a question for you, because you are all as much scientists as I am."

"What is important to keep in mind, as a scientist?" she asked, as a piece of chalk wrote on the board in a tidy cursive the same question. "What values and procedures does the scientific community hold particularly dear?

OOC Note: Hello everyone, and welcome again to the lesson! We've already begun, so please no longer post your character arriving or there will be IC consequences. You'll have approximately 24-36 hours to answer this question before the lesson progresses!

That was...incredibly relatable.

Smiling at the professor, Anahera leaned back in her seat a little. "I'd say the same, really." Her eyes briefly darted to some of the other students filing in before landing on Professor Sandhu again. "I'm not particularly fond of the rainy weather here." PLUS how cold it got in winter. That was also something she wasn't fond of. At all.

Other than that, she did quite like Scotland. It was beautiful.

She'd been looking around the classroom, watching as more and more students joined them. Yet hardly any of them had caught her attention. Anahera had sent a small smile in Kaiser's general direction but other than it was mostly people she didn't really interact with so far.

Which was why she found herself a little surprised when one of them decided to sit next to her.

Not that she minded. "Hello." She gave the boy a genuine smile and shifted a little to make sure he had enough room. "Max, right?" He was a few years younger than she was AND he wasn't a Gryffindor so she wasn't completely sure she'd got his name right. Hopefully, though.



....oh.

Maybe she'd been wrong in her assumption of this being a more hands-on kind of lesson. This seemed very theoretical. Not really something she cared for, to be honest. Hopefully they'd be doing something with the items on their desks soon after all.

"Reliability." Anahera replied after raising her hand. She might not have been particularly interested in this part of the lesson but she could speak from experience anyway. "It's important to have reliable results and that they aren't just something you observed one time. You have to make sure it wasn't just a coincidence."

Avalon glanced around the room as more of her classmates filed in for the lesson. Her eyes brightened when she saw a fellow first year, Alba. "Hi, Alba! It's good to see you," Avalon said with a smile. She was glad that there'd be another friendly face in this lesson. Seminar classes made her nervous - it was sometimes difficult to be surrounded by so many older students. Looking down at the equipment on their desks, Avalon shrugged. She pointed at the scissors and string. "Perhaps we're making crafts?" she said sarcastically.



Avalon's eyes wandered to the front of the classroom as the last student filed in and Professor Sandhu began the lesson. What was important to scientists? Avalon wasn't too familiar with science, other than what she had learned so far in Astronomy. But she assumed that herbology and potions could sort of be considered sciences as well. And some things that were important for those subjects were curiosity, open-mindedness, and perseverance, among others. She heard a few of those words being offered up by her classmates before she raised her own hand. "Objectivity is important. Science is very much fact-based, so you can't let your own judgment get in the way too often. Not to say that creativity or personal interpretation is never warranted, but it's important to be unbiased."