Description
Ever wondered what’s up there in the northern night sky? Well, you’re in luck! Join me and my black cat Orion for an awe-inspiring astronomy adventure this summer.
This 8-week online course is modeled on the first half of an introductory astronomy course for non-science majors I taught as an adjunct professor at a community college, so it’s the perfect level for high school students who love science. There is very little math in this course, so anyone with even a basic understanding of geometry/algebra will do just fine. No lectures, no labs, but lots of learning. Twice weekly video calls will be hosted via the class Discord voice channel at 7:00pm on Mondays and 11:00am on Thursdays, beginning June 20th, 2022 through August 11th, 2022. There will also be multiple asynchronous discussion board threads via the class Discord text channels: Homework Help, Study Strategies, Cosmic Cafe, and Aurora Alert.
The first class session will be devoted to identifying constellations, getting to know the students, going over the syllabus, and ensuring everyone has access to the textbook and Mastering Astronomy. In each subsequent week, a chapter of the text will be assigned for reading. Animated tutorials, reading quizzes, and online homework assignments will accompany each chapter. Students should read the relevant chapter and complete the tutorials and reading quizzes before attending the video calls. They should also attempt as many of the homework problems as possible and star the ones they don’t know how to do. During video calls, students will have the opportunity to ask questions about these starred problems as well as bring up additional topics of interest for discussion with the class. To make the most of this course, students should plan to spend 6-10 hours per week on Mastering Astronomy outside of our weekly class video calls. Students are encouraged to engage in optional enriching activities such as visiting a planetarium to look through a telescope or stargazing in a dark sky park with their families.
Book before May 1st, 2022, to take advantage of the early bird enrollment special. Tuition is only refundable for cancellations requested during the early bird enrollment period. Please purchase the textbook package, listed for $64.99, directly through the publisher below.
Textbook: The Cosmic Perspective (with Mastering Astronomy access code), Ninth Edition by Jeffrey Bennett, Megan Donahue, Nicholas Schneider, and Mark Voit; published by Pearson, 2017. ISBN-13: 978-0-136-90449-6
Scientific Calculator: Texas Instruments TI-30XIIS (or any non-graphing equivalent)
Photo by Sylvie Corriveau from ShutterStock
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