Planetarium Program

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For this assignment you will use a planetarium program to plan an observing session (hint: use your favorite Internet search engine to locate the Stellarium home page).

•Select a future date and time in the evening for an observing activity.

•Use a planetarium to determine what astronomical objects will be available in the night sky on that date.

•Select the Moon, a visible planet, and two constellations as your observation target objects. Record the expected direction of sky that the planetarium program indicates where these four targets will be. If the Moon is not currently visible during the week, you may select another planet or another constellation.

For this assignment you will use a planetarium program to plan an observing session (hint: use your favorite Internet search engine to locate the Stellarium home page).

•Select a future date and time in the evening for an observing activity.

•Use a planetarium to determine what astronomical objects will be available in the night sky on that date.

•Select the Moon, a visible planet, and two constellations as your observation target objects. Record the expected direction of sky that the planetarium program indicates where these four targets will be. If the Moon is not currently visible during the week, you may select another planet or another constellation.

•On the planned date and time, go outside and attempt to observe your four target objects. Are they located where the planetarium program predicted? Record what objects you observe and state the visible phase of the Moon.

•If you were unable to observe any particular observation target, explain why you think you were unable to see those observation targets.

•In a paragraph, discuss the ease or difficulty you had completing this assignment. Did you have a favorite aspect of this assignment?
•If you were unable to observe any particular observation target, explain why you think you were unable to see those observation targets.

•In a paragraph, discuss the ease or difficulty you had completing this assignment. Did you have a favorite aspect of this assignment?

Write A Report About The Ravi Shankar Performance

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800 minimum word count

– All performers and program content as performed in sequence. How does the artist arrange the sequence of the songs so as to build to a final climax and keep the audience with them at all times?

– Details of the performance venue, including venue, arrangement of musicians and instruments, descriptions of instruments,and audience responses.  Does the singer or band perform many new pieces or please the fans by playing mostly the artist’s best-known songs? Does the audience sing along with the musicians? Is there dancing in the aisles or up front, in front of the musicians? If so, this is a sure sign that the performers have done a good job of literally “moving” the listeners. Analysis is yielding to emotion.

– Musical elements for each of the pieces performed (listed below) following the “Guide to Writing a Concert Report” for World Music – use time marks (00:00) as a reference in the narrative. As you may have noticed, most classical music concerts consist of known pieces performed in a traditionally accepted way; spontaneous creativity is kept closely in check. How do the artists at your pop concert demonstrate creativity by doing the unexpected, by suddenly improvising, for example? (40%)

  • Again, show that you’ve learned something in this course. Use your newly developed musical vocabulary. Be specific, such as “The violins convincingly effected a modulation of the theme through different keys from 0:45-1:24 to heighten the anticipation of the ending.”  Use correct vocabulary! Use terminology in the Music Styles Guide.  There is not such thing as ‘upbeat’ in the music elements vocabulary.  If using the term “upbeat,” you must describe specific elements of melody, tempo, rhythm, etc. to receive credit.

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  1. Are the instruments more or less exact counterparts of Western ones (a bamboo flute and a Western metallic one, for example), or do the instruments seem exotic, perhaps unique to the musical culture on display at the concert? Speculate, then, as to which musical instruments might be truly global and which might be unique to the West.
  2. Does the music have a strong component of harmony (as does Western music), or is it far more melodically oriented? Do drones play a role in the harmony? If so, what do drones add to the music?
  3. What is the relationship between performers and audience? Do the performers stop and explain their music from time to time? Does the audience overtly encourage the performers now and then? Is it socially permissible for the audience to get up and walk around during the performance? If so, what might that say about the function of the music in this non-Western context?
  4. Is the concert primarily an event for listening only, or is it participatory? Is it closer to a Western classical music concert or to a pop music performance? If the latter, does a “beat” seem to drive the music, as in so much Western pop music?
  5. What about the attention span of the audience? Does it seem longer than that usually demonstrated at Western concerts? Does the audience seem transported by long spans of music? If the listeners are mainly from the musical culture you are hearing, do they seem to be “getting” the music—communing with the musicians—whereas you are not?
  6. Does the performance of a given piece seem to suspend time? Does it seem to be driving somewhere in a typically Western goal-oriented fashion, or does it just seem to float, with past, present, and future all united as one? Is any hint given, by means of structure or articulation in the music, that you are coming to the end of a piece, or does it just suddenly stop?
  7. Finally, in what ways have you come to see more clearly that the typical Western classical concert is a very strange phenomenon indeed? By listening to the music of “the other world,” what have you learned about yourself?

India Art 2 Pages Short Essay

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Ardhanarishvara – Concept and Significance

Ardhanarishvara (Ardhanārīśvara), is an androgynous deity composed of Shiva and his consort Shakthi, representing the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies. The Ardhanari form also illustrates how the female principle of God, Shakti, is inseparable from the male principle of God, Shiva. Ardhanari in iconography is depicted as half-male and half-female, split down the middle. The best sculptural depictions of Shiva as Ardhanari are to be seen in the sensuous Chola dynasty bronzes and the sculptures at Ellora and Elephanta.

`Ardhanarishvara` is a combination of three words `Ardha`, `Nari` and `Ishwara` means `half`, `woman` and `lord` respectively, which when combined means the lord whose half is woman. It is believed that the God is Shiva and the woman part is his consort Parvati or Shakti. The Ardhanarishvara represents a constructive and generative power.

image1.png The Chola bronze is from the 11th century Tamil Chola Kingdom depicting Shiva and Shakthi in the form of Ardhanariswara

Recreation Tourism Management

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IV.         Introduction & Background

This section should provide a clear

RTM 470 Group Assignment Instructions

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1. THE BRIEF (Scope of Work):

In keeping with SDSUs commitment to sustainability, your tourism consulting business (3 – 6 team members) has been contracted to design a sustainable tour targeting SDSU students. The tour is to have the central theme of sustainability and principles of sustainable tourism should be reflected at every stage, in each component, and in every management decision made about the tour’s destination, design, and inclusions.

The experience should be a) personally meaningful for students, b) fun, c) an opportunity for students to learn about sustainability, local cultures, and environments, d) safe, and e) financially viable. At least one of your team should lead the students on the trip. This means that the cost of travel (including accommodation & food) for this team member as well as that team member’s pay for each day they are on the trip (you can determine an appropriate pay rate) should be built into the over all cost and passed on to your customers. In addition, the trip should yield at least 15% profit to your business.

These are the only criteria imposed. The remaining components of the tour including (but not limited to) duration, group size, destination(s), activities, and cost are to be determined by your group based on market research. The decisions you make in designing your tour should be based on and linked to the results of market research and the need to reflect the principles of sustainable tourism at every stage.

2. DELIVERABLES:

The deliverables for this assignment consist of two written reports, a presentation in front of the class, and a peer assessment of each member’s contribution to each written report. Your individual grade will be influenced by the peer review of your team members. Reports must be fully referenced using the APA style of referencing. If you don’t know what this is, find out – and APA referencing guide is available on Blackboard and can be very easily googled. Failure to provide adequate referencing will severely impact your grade.

· The first report is the Market Research Report. This involves conducting primary (collecting and analyzing your own data) and secondary market research (reporting on existing research). Based on your review of existing research, and an analysis of the primary data you collect, the report will recommend a destination country/region, group size, trip timing, types of activities to be included, cost etc. This report should not contain specific details of the tour itself or a destination profile – this comes in the final report.

· The second and Final Report provides a profile of the selected destination and details the itinerary of a fully costed tour based on ‘The Brief’ (see section 1. Above) and the recommendations of the market research report.

· The Group Presentation takes the form of your team ‘pitching’ your tour to the class highlighting elements that your market research showed to be important (e.g. Cost? Adventure? Comfort?), explaining how sustainability is a key theme of the tour, and how the tour is costed according to the guidelines in The Brief (see section 1.).

2.1 Team Contract

Once you have formed your group you will work together to construct a ‘Team Contract’. This will help your team set goals, expectations, and policies and procedures. It will also establish consequences for members who do not meet the expectations you set for yourselves. Your team will need to work together to answer the questions in the table below, this will form the team contract. The contract should be signed by all team members and submitted in hard copy. A template is available on Blackboard and I will supply you with a hard copy in class.

GOALS: What are our team goals for this project?

What do we want to accomplish? What skills do we want to develop or refine?
EXPECTATIONS: What do we expect of one another in regard to attendance at meetings, participation, frequency of communication, the quality of work, etc.?
POLICIES & PROCEDURES: What rules can we agree on to help us meet our goals and expectations?
CONSEQUENCES: How will we address non-performance in regard to these goals, expectations, policies and procedures?

 

2.2 Peer Review Process & Group Project Grading

When you submit each written report (one hard copy per group) you will each be provided with a form that will ask you to provide feedback on group dynamics and to grade the performance of each member of your team. Your feedback and peer review will be confidential. You will be asked to rate your peers according to the following six statements on a scale of 1 to 4 (1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=agree; 4=strongly agree).

I. Attended group meetings regularly and arrived on time.

II. Contributed meaningfully to group discussions.

III. Completed allocated tasks on time.

IV. Prepared work in a quality manner.

V. Demonstrated a cooperative and supportive attitude.

VI. Contributed significantly to the success of the project.

Each team member’s peer review will be totaled and divided by the number of team members to give a score out of 24. This score will determine what proportion of the total grade for each report team members will receive. A peer review score of 22-24 means you will receive 100% of the report grade; 20-21 will receive 95%; 18-19 will receive 90%; 16-17 will receive 85%; 14-15 will receive 80%; 12-13 will receive 75%; 10-11 will receive 70%, 8-9 will receive 60%, and below 5 will receive 50% of the total grade for the report.

For example if your team achieves a report grade of 99 out of 110 for the final report and your peers rate your individual contribution at a 3 out of 4 for all six statements, this would give you a peer review total of 18. This means you would receive 90% of the total grade of 99, resulting in an individual grade of 89.1 out of 110.

2.3 Market Research Report

“Market research seeks to establish the scope and nature of the market (the number of people who use or are likely to use the product or service and their characteristics) and consumer requirements and attitudes (the particular requirements or tastes of users or potential users of the product or service)”. (Veal, 2006: 10)

 

Firstly, in class your group will identify the things you need to know (the particular requirements or tastes) about the market (SDSU students like you) to design a successful product. These ‘information needs’ will form the basis of a questionnaire survey that will be completed using the Blackboard platform. You will be provided with a basic analysis of the data through blackboard.

 

The data from the survey will tell you about the market’s requirements and tastes in terms of numbers and proportions. You will be given time in class to attempt to discover the details behind the numbers by developing and conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews (at least 2 per group member) with members of the class.

Your group should coordinate the questions you will ask in your interviews by developing an ‘interview schedule’ which is a list of questions or topics to cover in each interview. Record and then transcribe your interviews – you can use the voice memo app on your smart phone. Read carefully through your transcriptions, what are the key points being made by the research participants? After you have transcribed and analyzed your interviews, come together with your group with your transcriptions and discuss what were the common themes? What were the things that differed greatly depending on who you were talking to? What did you learn from your interviews that provide further insight into the requirements and tastes of the market?

Use the results of the questionnaire survey and the interviews to select a suitable destination country noting why the destination represents a good ‘fit’ for the results of your market research without going into a full destination profile. Your report should follow some of the conventions of ‘standard report format’. A suggested structure for the report is provided below.

I. Title Page

II. Table of Contents

III. Executive Summary

An executive summary is exactly what its name suggests – a summary for executives. Generally executives will not have the time or inclination to read the entire report. They want to be able to glean all the significant details in two minutes by reading the executive summary including actionable detail of key findings and recommendations. This should not exceed one page and should convey all the findings and conclusions that would be important to key executive decision makers. The use of bullet points is acceptable. The language needs to be extremely concise.

IV. Introduction & Background

and concise introduction and background to the report including:

–      Introducing ‘The Brief’ or the scope of work. You introductory paragraph(s) should clearly articulate the aim and objectives of the report i.e. to review topics relevant to the development of a sustainable tour for SDSU students and to understand the particular requirements or tastes of potential users of the product. (2 paragraphs to a page)

–       Conduct a “literature review” of the existing research on key topics related to the study. This involves secondary research (using other people’s research rather than collecting new data yourself) that you have sourced and deemed of a suitable quality (from a reputable source), summarized and synthesized. The following topics should be addressed (1-2 pages per topic).

A broad range of journal articles and newspaper/magazine articles and industry reports should all be accessed and correctly referenced in text and in a separate reference section at the end of your report.