astronomy

Karlie Noon

Karlie Noon is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Karlie Noon rather than just read about it. In short: Karlie Alinta Noon is the first Indigenous Australian woman to graduate with a double degree in maths and physics; she is an astronomer, multiple award winner, 2019 Eureka Prize nominee, and one of the 2017 BBC's 100 Women. She researches astronomy and astrophysics at the Australian National University.

Key takeaways

Karlie Noon belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Karlie Noon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Karlie Noon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Karlie Alinta Noon is the first Indigenous Australian woman to graduate with a double degree in maths and physics; she is an astronomer, multiple award winner, 2019 Eureka Prize nominee, and one of the 2017 BBC's 100 Women. She researches astronomy and astrophysics at the Australian National University.

Early life Noon was raised in Coledale, a suburb of Tamworth, the country music centre of Australia, with a significant disparity between people of different economic classes. She describes herself as being "a poor, Aboriginal kid; this definitely influenced my experience of the education system and just not being seen in it." She describes her "terrible attendance rate" at high school, and succeeding in science due to tutoring and the help of a mentor. Support and encouragement from her close family, and in particular her grandmother, allowed her to have the confidence to seek a career in science.

Education and career Noon found traditional schooling and education in high school to be not suited to her, and received much of her early maths training from a mentor who came to her house. She then obtained her double degree from the University of Newcastle and then moved to studying at ANU, Canberra. Noon then worked for CSIRO’s Indigenous STEM program. Her research has involved understanding the sophisticated astronomic knowledge deeply embedded within Indigenous culture as well as sifting through European and Indigenous accounts of moon haloes.

Awards, honours and recognition 2023 — Astronomy: Sky Country winner, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards People's Choice Award and shortlisted, Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing 2022 — Astronomy: Sky Country shortlisted for the 2022 nonfiction Age Book of the Year. 2019 — She was a finalist at the Eureka Prizes for 3M ‘Emerging Leader in Science’. 2019 — Noon made the honour roll for Australian of the Year. 2018 — contributor to the "Made Beautiful by Nature" series of stories. 2017 — voted one of BBC's 100 Women. 2017 — STEM Professional Early Career Award finalist. 2017 — Women of the Future Finalist.

Media and science communications Noon has a history of science communication, hoping to open the door to STEM for people from minorities. She was reported in the Northern Daily Leader as saying "I want to push the idea that anybody can achieve a career in STEM, everyone has the right to equal opportunities, including young women, including young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people". Noon has worked with the CSIRO to find candidates for the Indigenous STEM awards. Noon has worked to inspire other young children to engage in STEM, including Indigenous people and people from lower socioeconomic groups. She has also advocated that women and girls are capable in science and encourages diversity in STEM. "Girls can absolutely do it and they can smash it just as well as any other person can." Noon's work has involved encouraging Indigenous people to study and work in STEM careers. In August 2020 the Sydney Observatory appointed Noon their inaugural astronomy ambassador.

Noon’s work on Indigenous astronomy was featured on SBS. Her work on Indigenous science, discovery and equity was described on Australia’s Science Channel. Her biography and work on astronomy was described in the Indigenous Science Network Bulletin. In 2016 the ABC described her work in Indigenous physics as "reaching for the stars".

Publications ——; De Napoli, Krystal (2022). Astronomy: Sky Country. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9781760762162.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Karlie Noon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Karlie Noon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Karlie Noon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Karlie Noon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Karlie Noon

In research: Karlie Noon appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Karlie Noon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Karlie Noon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century Australian astronomers, Academic staff of the Australian National University, Australian science communicators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Karlie Noon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Karlie Noon” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Karlie Noon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Karlie Noon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Karlie Noon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Karlie Noon in simple terms?

Why does Karlie Noon matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Karlie Noon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Karlie Noon.