Syllabus for ASTR 201 -- The Sun and Its Planets

In this class you will learn how science works by doing it -- learning about the sky and the solar system by making your own observations, and by learning to access the rich body of information available on current research and explorations of our own (and other) solar systems. We will also discuss the place science holds in our culture, and some ethical questions scientists encounter.

In addition to the Fraknoi textbook, we will be making extensive use of the Redshift "desktop planetarium" CD-ROM, spending approximately half our class time in lab-type exercises from this.

Week of Aug 23:
Observing the sky. Making your own measurements -- for example of angles to measure the position of stars and planets. Introduction to Redshift software.

Reading: Fraknoi Chapter 1
Tyson "Universe Down to Earth" Chs 1, 3

Week of Aug 30:
Finding your way around in the sky -- astronomical coordinate systems, constellations and star charts.

Reading: Fraknoi Chapter 3.1
Tyson "Universe Down to Earth" Ch 11

Week of Sept 6:
Seasons and phases of the moon, tides, eclipses.

Reading: Tyson "Universe Down to Earth" Ch 13
Fraknoi Ch 3.2 thru 3.7

Week of Sept 13:
What's so different about science from other methods of learning? What is it good for? How does it work?

Reading: Fraknoi Prologue
Tyson "Universe Down to Earth" Ch 2
Kolb "Blind Watchers of the Sky" Ch 1 (Eyes on the Skies)
Curd and Cover "Philosophy of Science -- the Central Issues: Popper article p3, Kuhn articles pp 86, 102

Week of Sept 20:
Orbits and gravity, space flight.

Reading: Fraknoi Ch 2
Tyson "Universe Down to Earth" Chs 5, 6

Week of Sept 27:
The Solar System -- overview and formation theories.

Reading: Fraknoi Ch 6
Curd and Cover "Philosophy of Science -- the Central Issues: Lakatos article p 20.

Week of Oct 4:
The Sun -- how it shines, what keeps it up, what is it made of?

Reading: Fraknoi Chs 14, 15

Week of Oct 11:
The Earth as a Planet

Reading: Fraknoi Ch 7

Week of Oct 18 and 25 (Fall Break 18/19):
"Hardtop" worlds: the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. Volcanos and how planets cool and maintain an atmosphere. Was there once life on Mars?

Reading: Fraknoi Chs 8, 9
Halpern "The Quest for Alien Planets" Ch 1

Gould "The Flamingo's Smile" Ch 27: SETI and the Wisdom of Casey Stengel

Weeks of Nov 1 and 8:
Giant Planets, rings and moons

Reading: Fraknoi Chs 10, 11

Week of Nov 15:
Comets and Asteroids. How to make a replica of a comet nucleus from simple household ingredients.

Reading: Fraknoi Chs 12, 13.1, 13.2

Gould "The Flamingo's Smile" Ch 28: Sex, Drugs, Disasters and the Extinction of the Dinousaurs

Curd and Cover "Philosophy of Science -- the Central Issues: Longino article p 170.

Week of Nov 22:
Other Worlds --- the Discovery of Planets around other Stars

Reading: Tyson "Universe Down to Earth" Ch 5
Halpern "The Quest for Alien Planets" Ch 3, 5

Week of Nov 29:
Origins -- how can we put it all together to infer how the solar system formed and evolved (even though we werent there)?

Reading: Fraknoi 13.3, 13.4