Part I: How Did We Get Here? College Students' Preinstructional Ideas on the Topic of Planet Formation, and the Development of the Planet Formation Concept Inventory; Part II: Evidence for Magnetically Driven Protoplanetary Disk Winds Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Simon, Molly Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 19:16:30 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/633176 PART I: HOW DID WE GET HERE? COLLEGE STUDENTS' PREINSTRUCTIONAL IDEAS ON THE TOPIC OF PLANET FORMATION, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLANET FORMATION CONCEPT INVENTORY; PART II: EVIDENCE FOR MAGNETICALLY DRIVEN PROTOPLANETARY DISK WINDS by Molly Nora Simon Copyright c Molly Nora Simon 2019 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF PLANETARY SCIENCES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2019 2 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could not have been completed without the support and guidance of so many amazing people! To my advisor, Chris Impey, thank you for taking a chance on a third-year graduate student looking to shift her focus from astrophysics research to astronomy education research. Your constant support, encouragement, levelheadedness, and humor has kept me grounded and motivated throughout this process. It has been a pleasure to learn from one of the greats! To Ilaria Pascucci, thank you for serving as my mentor for the first half of my studies. It was a true privilege to learn from you. Thank you for your continual support of my research interests throughout my entire time at LPL. To Sanlyn Buxner, it is safe to say I could not have done this without you. Thank you for being the calming voice of wisdom that I have grown so reliant upon. You are a jack of all trades: statistics, science, education, you do it all! Thank you for molding me into the researcher I am today - I appreciate you more than I could ever express in this 1-2 page limit. To Ed Prather, thank you for your wisdom and directness over the past few years. Your encouragement is what ultimately led me to pursue my passion for astronomy education research. Thank you for believing in me. To the rest of the Impey Research Group - Matthew, Martin, and Zander. You have been such wonderful colleagues throughout this process. Thank you for your invaluable feedback on papers, presentations, and most importantly - for your friendship. To the faculty members of LPL and Steward Observatory who allowed me to administer my surveys in your classes - thank you! This work could not have been completed without your willingness to let me pick your students' brains. To the friends I have made during my time in Tucson that have really become more 4 like family: James Keane, Rachel Fernandes, Ali Bramson, Michelle Thompson, Kyle Pearson, John Noonan, Laci Brock, Shane Stone, Jon Bapst, and Margaret Landis. This process has been astronomically more pleasant because of your friendship. Thank you for your Matlab assistance, the dinner dates, and the late night problem set sessions. To Sarah Peacock, how can I even begin to thank you in a few short sentences? You have been my best friend and partner in crime throughout this entire experience. Thank you for being my comfort blanket, a constant source of laughter, and my adventure buddy. I will miss you so very much! To my parents, Pam and Scooter Simon, I could fill an entire book with reasons why I am so grateful for you both. There is zero exaggeration when I say that I truly have the best, most generous, and most loving parents. You have allowed me to pursue this passion for the planets ever since I could speak. Thank you for visiting planetariums with me around the world, for sneaking into my conference talks, and for claiming me as your own even when I carried a picture of the Solar System around with me everywhere I went. This is only possible because you made it so. I love you both so much! To my family and friends near and far who have nurtured and supported my passion. I appreciate your willingness to (begrudgingly) sit through Journey to Infinity more times that you'd like to admit. The love I have for all of you is to infinity and beyond! To Ari - thank you for your unconditional love when I needed it most. This is the just the beginning of our adventure - onward to Chicago! And to our \Perfect Pooch" Tyrion - thank you for the kisses and snuggles. I love you both the mostest! Last but certainly not least, I'd like to thank my grandfather, Sheldon Simon and my great-uncle Norman Simon for instilling in me a love of education. I miss you both everyday, and I hope you would be proud. It takes a village - and mine happens to be the best. 5 DEDICATION To everyone who has taken an unconventional path towards pursuing their dream... \Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference" - Robert Frost To Marilyn Simon, my greatest inspiration 6 Contents List of Figures...................................9 List of Tables.................................... 11 ABSTRACT.................................... 14 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION.......................... 16 1.1 Part I: Background and Motivation................... 17 1.2 Part II: Background and Motivation................... 19 Chapter 2 A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS' UN- DERSTANDING OF PLANET FORMATION BEFORE INSTRUCTION 24 2.1 Introduction................................ 24 2.2 Review of the Literature......................... 27 2.3 Methods.................................. 30 2.3.1 Setting and Participants..................... 30 2.3.2 Instrument Development..................... 32 2.3.3 Data Acquisition......................... 35 2.3.4 Data Analysis........................... 36 2.4 Results................................... 40 2.4.1 SSR Question 1: General Knowledge of Planet Formation... 40 2.4.2 SSR Question 2: Planetary Composition and the Architecture of our Solar System........................ 42 2.4.3 SSR Question 3: Planetary Motion and Migration....... 44 2.4.4 SSR Question 4: Basic Understanding of a Planet....... 45 2.4.5 SSR Question 5: The Solar System and Exoplanets...... 46 2.4.6 SSR Question 6: Solar System Formation and its Impact on Planetary System Architectures................. 48 2.5 Discussion................................. 50 2.5.1 Summary of Significant Results................. 50 2.5.2 The Impact of Previous Exposure to Astronomy........ 56 2.6 Conclusion................................. 59 7 Contents { Continued Chapter 3 THE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE PLANET FORMATION CONCEPT INVENTORY (PFCI).............. 60 3.1 Introduction................................ 60 3.2 Methods.................................. 62 3.2.1 Concept Domain......................... 62 3.2.2 Test Question/Item Development................ 63 3.2.3 Preliminary Versions of the PFCI................ 63 3.3 Results................................... 70 3.3.1 PFCI Version 3 Sample...................... 70 3.3.2 Item Analysis I: Item Difficulty................. 70 3.3.3 Item Analysis II: Item Discrimination.............. 74 3.3.4 Student Learning Gains..................... 77 3.3.5 Instrument Reliability...................... 81 3.3.6 Instrument Validity........................ 81 3.4 Discussion................................. 83 3.4.1 Items Requiring Justification................... 83 3.4.2 Further Exploration of Learning Gains............. 86 3.5 Conclusions & Future Work....................... 90 Chapter 4 EVIDENCE FOR MAGNETICALLY DRIVEN PROTOPLANE- TARY DISK WINDS.............................. 92 4.1 Introduction................................ 92 4.2 Observations and Data Reduction.................... 96 4.2.1 Sample............................... 96 4.2.2 Observations........................... 99 4.2.3 Corrected Forbidden Line Profiles................ 100 4.2.4 Equivalent Widths........................ 103 4.3 Accretion Luminosities and Disk Accretion Rates........... 104 4.4 Deconstructing Forbidden Line Profiles................. 110 4.4.1 Gaussian Fitting......................... 111 4.4.2 The Low Velocity Component.................. 118 4.4.3 Velocity Shifts Among LVC................... 124 4.5 Results for the Low Velocity Component................ 126 4.5.1 Comparison to HEG....................... 126 4.5.2 Comparison to Recent Studies of Luminosity Relations.... 130 4.5.3 Fractional Contributions of the BC and NC to the LVC.... 131 4.5.4 Velocity Centroids of the BC and NC of the LVC....... 133 4.5.5 FWHM of BC and NC of the LVC: Dependence on Disk In- clination.............................. 135 8 Contents { Continued 4.5.6 Radial Surface Brightness of the Narrow LVC......... 139 4.5.7 Line Ratios............................ 143 4.6 Discussion................................. 146 4.6.1 Role of Winds in the Low Velocity Component......... 148 4.6.2 Comparison with Wind Models................. 150 4.7 Conclusions................................ 152 Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK.............. 155 5.1 Part I: Summary of Significant Results................. 155 5.2 Future Work................................ 156 5.3 Part II: Summary of Significant Results................. 157 5.3.1