INTEGRATIVE STUDIES: PHYSICAL SCIENCE 205

VISIONS OF THE UNIVERSE


COURSE INFORMATION: Section 3, Spring 97, Hufnagel & Stein

GOALS

ISP 205 is an astronomy course designed for non-science majors. Its goal is to open your eyes to the Universe beyond your immediate surroundings.

We show you how astronomers formulate and solve problems so that you can use such problem-solving methods yourself in other situations. We aim to acquaint you with the night sky: the apparent motions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. Using our current knowledge of our solar system and other solar systems gathered from various Earth and spacecraft-based observations, you will understand how these new observations continuously change the theoretical models. An understanding of the structure and evolution of our Sun and other stars and how this affects mankind will give you a new perspective of how seemingly arcane theories can affect mankind. The organization of the universe into galaxies and clusters of galaxies, the beginning of the universe, and possible ends to the universe are explored to give you a new sense of timescales and your place in the Universe.


FREQUENTLY-ASKED QUESTIONS

We maintain a list of answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the course. These are items of general interest and the anonymity of the person asking the question is maintained. It will be updated throughout the course in reverse chronological order, with the new questions at the top of the file.


SYLLABI and OBJECTIVES


OUTLINES


EXAMS with ANSWERS


HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS and IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES


LINKS to ASTRONOMY RESOURCES

 * Astronomy Links from SEDS at University of Arizona
 * Nick Strobel's Astronomy Lecture Notes
 * Hubble Space Telescope
 * The Nine Planets, A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
 * Views of the Solar System
 * Life on Mars?
 * Planets Around Other Stars
 * Women in Science

This page will be continually updated as the course progresses.
{ Updated: 1997.05.06 (Tuesday) 21:02:07 EDT }

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Beth Hufnagel's home page, email: hufnage4@pilot.msu.edu
Bob Stein's home page, email: steinr@pilot.msu.edu