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Scroll down and click on the thumbnail images for a full-size picture.
Check out the MP3s as well!
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 It's all about understanding relationships and scale. How large is one object relative to another, and what does that really look like? How far away is one object from another, and what does that look like? How fast does one object travel relative to another and what does that look like? These are the questions that Dr. Brant Nelson's Pre-Calculus class took on in a project that transformed our campus - and the students themselves - into a scale model of our solar system.
Over the past few days, wooden stakes have been popping up around campus, conspicuously positioned along the path between Weld Dining Hall and the Hagerman Science Center. Glued on to those posts were pebbles (some almost too small to see) or styrofoam balls emblazed with letters. On Weld itself was a small chalk circle, just to the right of the main entrance.
What was going on?
We didn't have to wait too long to find out. In assembly today, Dr. Nelson filled us in on the project. The stakes were carefully positioned in proportion to their relative distance from the sun (i.e., the chalk circle on Weld). To build a model to scale, Pluto ended up by the front stairs of Hagerman; Neptune outside Hoit; Uranus on the Quad side of Schoolhouse; Saturn outside Niles; Jupiter across the street from Weld; and the four inner planets - Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury - in a line up the walkway to Weld.
But there was more. The sun and the planets themselves (pebbles and styrofoam balls) were also in proportion. Given the size of the sun on Weld, Pluto becomes almost a speck in a pool of glue on top of a stake across campus.
It's learning by doing. It's seeing proportions in real life. It's translating abstract concepts into something concrete. And it makes an impression on everyone, whether they're measuring out the distances themselves or just walking by the wooden stakes (the planets) on the way to class.
The next part of the project involved the relative velocity of the planets themselves, and for this a live demonstration - performance art, if you will - was in order. After lunch on the Quad today, surrounded by a number of interested faculty and friends, each of Dr. Nelson's Pre-Calculus students showed up with a sign pinned to their chest and an iPod in their hands. The signs helped us tell the student-planets apart, and the iPods were tuned to a musical track, giving each student-planet a cue to take a step. Each planet had its own "beat" as it were, and the performance demonstrated the dramatic difference in relative velocity between the planets.
And everyone - whether involved with the performance or not - enjoyed the show. "Hey, Ur-anus!" quipped a few folks, laughing at Jack Dings '09, who did an admirable job in his role. "Go, Carter!" yelled the faculty, as Carter White '10 spent the six minutes of the demonstration literally running around the Quad as Mercury, the winged messenger of the gods.
Again, it was learning by doing. And having a great time while doing it.
Check out the "beat" of a few planets with a short MP3 (constructed by Dr. Nelson on a Mac using GarageBand):
The "Ensemble" of the heavens
Venus
Earth
Mars
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