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Teaching Observational Astronomy as a Laboratory Course for Non-Majors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Yong H. Kim
Yong H. Kim*
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, Geosciences & Physics, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, California 92692, U.S.A.

Extract

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Since antiquity, doing astronomy means basically stepping outside, looking upward, and considering the widest environment. Thus any undergraduate astronomy program, no matter how diverse its course offering, is incomplete without observational astronomy. For example, some California community colleges offer several courses including such titles as “Man and the Cosmos,” “Final Stellar States,” “Astronomy Enrichment,” and “Astronomical Myths, Mysteries & Fallacies,” but do not offer “Observational Astronomy.” As a teaching astronomer, I question the wisdom and honesty of such practice of proliferation solely based on sensationalism. An introductory lecture course and an observational lab course must be the core of lower-division undergraduate astronomy education. Anything else, in my opinion, is peripheral.

Type
4. Student Projects
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 105: The Teaching of Astronomy , 1990 , pp. 154 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

References

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