Dr. Kelly Slater Cline

Spring 2008

• AS 102: Astronomy
• MA 334: Differential Equations and Linear Algebra II
• PHYS 206 Engineering Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism

Public Astronomy Lectures

As an astrophysicist, it is my pleasure to give an ongoing series of public astronomy lectures here at Carroll College, approximately once a month while classes are in session. These are open to anyone who wants to learn a little bit more about this thrilling science. Astronomy is a wonderfully visual subject with lots of exciting pictures taken by ground telescopes, space probes, and of course the Hubble Space Telescope, so I try to include lots of these images in my talks. I give these lectures in Simperman Hall room 101/202, (building #10 on this campus map). Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need directions.

Upcoming Presentations:

• "Studying the Size and Shape of our Universe"
• "The Secrets of Our Spinning Sun"
• "The Search for Dark Matter"

Past lectures have been:

• "The Big Bang: How did it all begin?" Thursday, April 24, 2008
• "The Secrets of Saturn's Rings and Moons," Thursday, February 28, 2008
• "Beyond the Space Shuttle: The Future of Human Space Exploration," Thursday, February 7, 2008
• "Pluto: King of the Kuiper Belt," Thursday, November 29, 2007
• "Gamma Ray Bursts: When Black Holes Are Born," Thursday, October 25, 2007
• "Mars: The Mystery of the Methane" Thursday, September 13, 2007
• "Cosmic Rays: Particles From Space" Wednesday, March 14, 2007
• "Chaos in the Solar System" Thurday, February 1, 2007
• "Studying Dead Stars" Thursday, November 30, 2006
• "Mysteries of the Moon" Thursday, October 19, 2006
• "Beyond the Hubble Space Telescope" Thursday, September 28, 2006
• "Exploring the Moons of Jupiter" Saturday, April 22, 2006
• "Quasars and Supermassive Black Holes" Thursday, March 16, 2006
• "The Mystery of the Hot Jupiters" Thursday, February 23, 2006
• "Discovering How Galaxies Evolve," Thursday, October 27, 2005
• "Unifying the Four Forces of Nature," Thursday, September 29, 2005
• "Did an Asteroid Kill the Dinosaurs?" Thursday, September 1, 2005
• "Dark Energy and the Fate of Our Universe," Thursday, April 21, 2005
• "Exploring the Atom with the Quantum Theory," Thursday, March 17, 2005
• "The Mysteries of the Stars," Thursday, February 24, 2005
• "Mars and Venus: Exploring Alien Worlds," Tuesday, December 7, 2004
• "The Mystery of the Sun's Spots," Tuesday, November 2, 2004
• "Relativity: Testing Einstein's Speed Limit," Tuesday, October 12, 2004
• "Supernova: When Giant Stars Explode," Tuesday, September 14, 2004
• "Black Holes: Monsters of the Universe," Saturday, April 17, 2004
• "The Mystery of Saturn's Rings," Tuesday, March 23, 2004
• "Are We Alone? Astrobiology and the Science of Extraterrestrial Life," Tuesday, February 24, 2004
• "Dark Matter: The Mystery of the Phantom Mass," Thursday, January 29, 2004
• "The Big Bang: Science at the Beginning of Time," Thursday, November 13, 2003

Classroom Visits:

I also love visiting schools and talking to kids of all ages about astronomy, physics, or mathematics. I have a variety of presentations I can give, and several sets of hands-on toys that I can bring. I am quite comfortable talking about everything from the cause of the seasons and the phases of the Moon to black holes, the big bang, and the possibilities of alien life. So if you are a teacher in the Helena area and you might be interested in inviting me into your classroom, please don't hesitate to give me a call.

Why Be a Math Major?

Here is a link to the presentation Dr. Zullo, Dr. Parker, and I put together to show all the cool things you can do with a math degree. There are links to some useful websites on the last slide.

In this department we have lots of fun student activities. Another really exciting thing you get to do is to compete in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

A career possibility for math majors: Be an Actuary.

Professional Teaching Presentations & Papers

• Project Math QUEST, is a three year project (2006-2009) to write and test classroom voting questions (also known as ConcepTests for Peer Instruction) for use in differential equations and linear algebra courses. This project is being run here at Carroll College's, Department of Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science and is funded by a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (DUE-0536077).
• Teaching Scientific Logic: Theories and Observations: A paper published in Astronomy Education Review, discussing a simple set of assignments that I give in my introductory astronomy class to teach scientific thinking. Students are presented with a list of ideas that have been studied earlier in the course. The students must first classify each idea as being either an observation or a theory. Then the students must match them up in pairs: In each pair, the theory explains the observation, and the observation is evidence supporting the theory.
• Using Classroom Voting in Mathematics Courses: A paper submitted for publication in Proc. 19th Annual International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics by Holly Zullo, Mark Parker, and me.
• Teaching with Classroom Voting: A paper published in FOCUS (vol 27 #5, May/June 2007, pp.22-23), discussing how to use classroom voting most effectively, by Holly Zullo, Mark Parker, and me.
• A Writing Intensive Statistics Course: A paper accepted for publication in PRIMUS, describing how I designed an upper division applied statistics course to satisfy our college’s writing intensive requirements within the mathematics major. In this course, students complete two projects, performing both a statistical survey and a controlled experiment, and then write up their work on each project in a formal paper. After each paper, the students read a group of papers written by their peers and then critique and rank these papers. Next, the students meet in groups, having read the same papers, and together they must form a consensus about their group rankings. Finally, after analyzing and discussing several papers from their peers, the students revise their own papers. Here is a talk that I presented on this topic at the National MAA-AMS Joint Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona on January 7, 2004.
• Classroom Voting in Mathematics: A paper published in Mathematics Teacher (vol 100, #2, Sept 2006, p100-104), describing my experience using electronic classroom voting in calculus and multivariable calculus.
• How to Help Your Students Get the Most Out of the MCM and ICM: A paper published in FOCUS (vol 26 #6, August/September 2006, pp.22-23), by Holly Zullo, Mark Parker and me.
• Numerical Methods Through Open-Ended Projects: A paper published in PRIMUS (vol XV, #3 Sept 2005, p274), describing how I designed a numerical methods course around a series of five open-ended projects in applied mathematics and the positive results that I had. Here is a talk that I presented on this topic at the Pacific Northwest section of the MAA's conference in Anchorage, Alaska on June 26, 2004.
• Worksheets and Lots of Jokes: I gave this presentation at the MAA-AMS Joint Meetings in Atlanta, Georgia on January 6, 2005 in a session on dealing with math-phobic students. This presentation talks about how I have used worksheets and humor to create a more comfortable learning environment.
• Creating Discussions with Classroom Voting: From the MAA-AMS Joint Meetings in Atlanta, Georgia on January 6, 2005: This presentation explains how I have used classroom voting in my calculus class to motivate students to discuss math.
• Better Than Lectures: I used this presentation to begin a session that I organized at the NeXT meeting during the Pacific Northwest section of the MAA's conference in Anchorage, Alaska on June 24, 2004. First we discuss why we need better and more effective teaching methods than simply lectures in the modern undergraduate classroom, and then I present electronic classroom voting as a specific example of one non-lecture method of using class time.
• Classroom Voting: A presentation to a group of faculty here at Carroll College on May 12, 2004. In this presentation I discuss my use of the EduCue electronic classroom voting system with my Spring 2004 PHYS 206 Engineering Physics II class, and the idea of classroom voting in general.

My Education

• From 1994 to 1998 I was an undergraduate at Eastern Oregon University where I majored in Physics and Mathematics, participated in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling, edited the Eastern Oregon Science Journal, sang in the Chamber Choir, and wrote a couple of science fiction plays that were produced by the Theater Department.
• From 1998 to 2003 I attended graduate school at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. I worked in the Solar Physics and Computational Fluid Dynamics research group with Nic Brummell. My graduate research was focused on mathematical modeling magnetohydrodnamics and turbulence within our sun, trying to understand how the sun produces sunspots and other magnetic phenomena. Scientists believe that sunspots and other magnetized active regions on the sun's surface are the result of powerful magnetic structures which are generated deep within the sun, at the base of the sun's convective zone (which consumes the outer 30% of the sun). Here, these tube like magnetic structures are created by a powerful shear flow which stretches and amplifies magnetic field lines. The pressure of this magnetic field causes these structures to expand, become buoyant, and rise through the Sun's entire convection zone to emerge at the surface. Further there must be some process down here which twists the magnetic field in a helical manner, generating the 11 year sunspot cycle. To develop an understanding of these mysterious processes, we performed numerical simulations of a three-dimensional, magnetized, gravitationally stratified plasma -- the material that the sun is made of. We studied several problems including:
  • Can a forced shear flow can generate buoyant magnetic structures by stretching field lines?

    In this simulation we began with a weak magnetic field in the y direction, and forced a shear flow in the x direction (u ~ cosine 2 pi y), that was confined to a narrow layer in the vertical z direction. This would cause the magnetic field to be stretched out into two magnetic structures one with positive field B_x > 0 and one with negative field B_x < 0. We found that if magnetic diffusion was strong (low magnetic Reynolds number) then these two structures would find an equilibrium state within the layer (MPG Movie of magnetic pressure B²). However if we tried a less diffusive simulation then this equilibrium would become unstable and these structures would alternately rise (MPG Movie). If we pushed the magnetic diffusivity even lower, then this rising process became much more irregular (MPG Movie). We also discovered that if we decreased the viscosity in these simulations (increasing the Reynolds number) then the action of buoyant rising would occasionally trigger a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability which would briefly twist a magnetic structure into a helical shape (MPG Movie). (Brummell, Cline, & Cattaneo 2002, MNRAS, 329, L73; Cline, Brummell, & Cattaneo 2003, ApJ, 588, 630)

  • Can shear and magnetic buoyancy can drive nonlinear dynamo activity?

    It is believed that the sun is able to maintain its magnetic fields because of a combination of magnetic field shear stretching (the omega effect) and magnetic field twisting (the alpha effect), which together drive the 11-year sunspot cycle. When we saw these twisting events in our shear simulations, we wondered if these might allow our simulations to maintain a field in a stretch-twist dynamo process. So we tried a new set of simulations: We set the weak initial field so that it was positive in the top half of the domain, and negative in the bottom half. In this way, if there was no dynamo activity, all magnetic fields would diffuse away over time. We also changed the shear so that rather than than having a cosine y profile, instead it was more of a sawtooth function of y, so that it would create one strong magnetic structure in the center (with B_x < 0), surrounded by a weaker magnetic field (with B_x > 0). We found that if magnetic forces were weak, then they were insufficient to create enough buoyant activity to trigger a Kelvin-Helmholtz twisting event, and the system would fail to act as a dynamo, with all magnetic fields slowly diffusing away (MPG Movie of magnetic field B_x, with blue = negative, green=positive). However if magnetic forces were strong enough then they would create a strong buoyant flow, triggering a series of intermittent Kelvin-Helmholtz twisting events, thus causing the system to act as a dynamo. In this dynamo process, the system would produce a series of buoyant magnetic structures of a given polarity (say B_x > 0) which would each rise and twist maintaining the magnetic fields. At irregular intervals, the polarity of the system would reverse and it would then make a series of magnetic structures with the opposite polarity (MPG Movie). This was particularly exciting because the magnetic fields in our sun also reverse polarity at the end of each 11-year sunspot cycle. (Cline, Brummell, & Cattaneo 2003, ApJ, in press)

  • Can buoyant flux tubes coherently rise through a convecting background?

    We put a magnetic flux tube into a background where a convective layer lies on top of a stable layer, in the same way that the sun's convective zone sits above its stable radiative zone. We found that if the magnetic tube was weak, then it would be torn apart by the convection with the remains being pumped down below the convecting layer into the stable zone (MPG Movie of magnetic pressure B²). If the tube is stronger, so that it has a magnetic energy density equal to the kinetic energy density of the convection, then it will almost survive before being shredded (MPG Movie). The only way to hold a tube together is if we make its magnetic energy density larger than the maximum kinetic energy density contained anywhere within the convection. In this case the tube rises successfully until it reaches the upper boundary of our domain, where it slowly diffuses, decreasing in strength until it is weak enough that it can be pulled down into the convection (MPG Movie).

  Great web pages that talk about the sun and the solar dynamo problem:

  • From HAO
  • From Montana State
  • NASA/Marshall
  • The Sunspot Cycle
  • Colorado Research Associates
  • Mt. Wilson Observatory
  • The San Francisco Exploratorium
  • Stanford Solar Center
  • Jean-Claude Thelen
  • Davison Soper
  • SolarViews

Personal

My home town is Homer, Alaska, where moose wander through the front yard, where bald eagles casually drift by, and where our windows look out across the blue expanse of Katchemak Bay to the Kenai Mountains and the glaciers that spill out of each valley reaching toward the green forests of Sitka Spruce. As I tell everyone I meet: Homer is THE most stunningly beautiful place in the world! (More Alaska Pictures.)

My wife is Jamie Katherine Harmon: Originally from La Grande, Oregon, where we met in college, Jamie studied elementary education at Eastern Oregon University and completed a masters degree in library and information management, from Emporia State University. She has worked for the Lyons Depot Library in Lyons, Colorado as well as the Montana State Library here in Helena. She is currently taking care of our wonderful daughter: Alma Fiona Cline, born November 12, 2005.

My sister Erin Cline received her doctorate from the philosophy department at Baylor University, and now teaches at the University of Oregon, where she focuses on Chinese philosophy, Confucian and Daoist thoughts on virtues and moral psychology. Her husband Michael Ryan Slater, received his doctorate in religious studies from Brown University, and teaches in Religious Studies at the University of Oregon. Before moving to Homer, my parents, Mike and Dotty Cline, taught for many years in the Alaska bush. My father earned his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Oregon, studying the effects of the schools in Alaska and authoring the book Tannik school: The impact of education on the Eskimos of Anaktuvuk Pass. My parents, now retired from teaching, are enjoying life in Southcentral Alaska, gardening, fishing, and watching the moose. They both authored essays about life in Alaska that were published in the book Invisible Ink. They are great world travelers, making trips to Peru, South Africa, China, New Zealand, and many other exotic places over the past few years.

Jamie and I have lived in Helena since August 2003: We have a beautiful old brick house (built in 1882) just a few blocks away from the state capitol. Surrounded by magnificent trees (including one of Helena's few oaks), we have Jamie's colors on the walls, and my vegetable garden in the back yard. Although I still pine for Alaska, Jamie and I are loving Montana, which may just be the SECOND best place in the world!

We've ordered the fountain at left from the wall fountains at www.garden-fountains.com.

Teaching Philosophy Thoughts and Statments

A Page of Links