There are many steps involved in creating a good project below are just
a few suggestions.
Team Work
It is very important that your team has an understanding of everyone's
contribution to the project and that everyone has some important role
to play in the project. Your team may decide to work on separate tasks
on different computers, or you may decide that it is best to work together
on one computer. Also remember this is not a competition amongst teams,
some of the best teaching and learning occurs when your team asks another
team for help or some suggestion on how to perform a certain task. Further,
at times the instructor may not know how to get the software to perform
in a certain way, but another team may have already figured it out!
Thus, we should all be ready to ask questions of everyone in the class.
The Model
When scientists begin study on a phenomenon they begin with certain
known facts or theories, then create a model based upon what they know
which in several cases is very little. Once they have a model of the
phenomenon a good scientist asks questions that then use the model to
demonstrate or obtain solutions to their questions. If the model does
not provide satisifactory solutions, that is solutions that are physically
reasonable, then the model is thrown away and a new model is developed
and the scientist starts the process again. Therefore one must always
be asking questions, or using your model to demonstrate a physical law,
relationship or concept.
In designing your model you should keep in mind what astronomical concepts
you wish to model. For example, you may decide that you want to know
what the the Sun's path across the sky looks like from the north pole.
Then you would want to place a viewpoint at the north
pole on your Earth. You can think of a viewpoint as looking out through
a camera. In fact, viewpoints are represented by a camera.
Animation
Before you animate something make sure you have all the viewpoints and
objects where you want them. After you animate an object you can no
longer add viewpoints (though in VRcreator there are some ways around
this, there are no ways around this problem in CosmoWorlds) and have
them included in the animation.
Suggestions for the Celestial Sphere
You should decided on some important astronomical concepts that you
want to model (i.e. what does the Sun look like from the equator, what
is the ecliptic, how long is a day if you stand on the south pole on
the first day of spring?, etc...). Some ideas can be found on the on-line
resouces.
You should decide on a plan and maybe a timeline on how to finish the
project. If you run into a technical problem that you can't solve ask
your neighbors and your instructor. It is important not to get bogged
down on computer related issues when you are working on your model.
Also don't get frustrated when the computer just won't do what you want
it to do. We are on the cutting edge of new technology (great resume
addition) and at times we will have situations when the software just
will not coperate.
When constructing your model it is best to try to get everything lined
up before your begin rotating and animating. Another excellent thing
to do is to change your view from front view to top view or back view.
This gives you a different perspective on the problem and can often
led to new solutions that are not obvious from your current view.
Of, course during the course of the project the instructor will be
questioning each team on what concepts they are attempting to model,
and each team will be expected to ask questions of the instructor and
each other to construct a good project.
