[mesa-users] using MESA for education

[J. Patrick Harrington]

   I taught "Stellar Evolution" for senior astronomy and physics majors
here at U Md last semester, and I had my class run the MESA code as
a class assignment. Since all of the students had either windows machines
(or a really old Mac), they couldn't compile the code. I compiled it on
my office linux desktop (and my MacBool Pro). I copied the compiled code
to one of our lab machines, where we set up accounts for each student.
Each had a personal copy of the tutorial directory so they could modify
the inlist files. They either ran the program on the lab machine, or
could run it from home if they had ssh (using ssh -Y so they could see
the plots).
   This was a pretty minimal use of mesa, as I myself just discovered it
at the start of the semester, but I thought it was a really important
addition to the course. I think most students found it pretty exciting
to evolve a massive star up to the edge of core collapse! There is so
much to be learned looking at the T-rho and Kipp plots.
   If I should do this course again, mesa will play a major role.

                                                 Patrick Harrington

On Fri, 6 Jun 2014, Ed Brown wrote:
> Dear MESA-Users,
> The MESA council would like to know about how MESA is used for education.  If you have ever used MESA for this purpose, we would greatly appreciate you answering the following questions; send your reply to ebrown at pa.msu.edu .
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Ed
> (for the MESA council)
>
>
> 1. For which level have you used MESA? e.g., high school, undergraduate, graduate.
>
> 2. How did you use MESA? e.g., used plots or movies in lectures; had students use MESA in assignments; had students use MESA for course projects.
>
> 3. If students used MESA, what were the main difficulties they encountered (e.g., obtaining the code, compiling/installation, constructing inlists, etc.)
>
> 4. The site mesastar.org has a section on teaching materials. Are there changes to the site that would make you more likely to upload your materials? If you could simply send (via Dropbox or email) your material to someone who would take care of posting them to mesastar.org, would this make you more likely to contribute?
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book
> "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their
> applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field,
> this first edition is now available. Download your free book today!
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/NeoTech
> _______________________________________________
> mesa-users mailing list
> mesa-users at lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mesa-users
>