ASTR& 100 - Survey of Astronomy

Credits: 5
Variable Credit Course: No

Lecture Hours: 55
Lab Hours: 0
Worksite/Clinical Hours: 0
Other Hours (LIA/Internships): 0

Course Description: Astronomy for non-scientists with topics including birth and death of stars, workings of the solar system, Big Bang, quasars, pulsars, black holes, and the search for extraterrestrial life.

Prerequisite: ENGL 099 with a grade of C or higher (or placement into college-level English); and either placement into OR co-enrollment in OR completion of a college-level Math course with a grade of C or higher.
Distribution Requirements:

Natural Sciences Distribution Requirement

Meets FQE Requirement: No
Integrative Experience Requirement: No

Student Learning Outcomes

Recognize the historic and cultural significance of astronomy, navigation, and celestial events in a variety of cultures and times.
Identify bright stars, planets, and constellations and know how their positions vary as a function of hour, season, and location.
Know the similarities and differences among the Earth, its Moon, and the other planets and moons in the Solar System.
Know the basic models of the evolution of stars, galaxies, and the universe, and recognize the limitations of these models.
Understand some basic ideas on the scientific explanation of the origin and evolution of the universe, and how we can scientifically test these theories.
Identifies the ways in which cultural expectations, assumptions and beliefs define who we are, how others see us, and influence how others and we perform science.

Course Contents

Introduction, History/Cultural Impacts
Calendars, Celestial Motions
Solar System-from Ptolmy through Copernicus to Kepler’s & Newton’s Laws
Terrestrial Planets and the Moon
Jovain Planets, Meteors, Comets
Stars adn Stellar Evolution
Exotics-dwarfs, pulsars, neutron stars, black holes
Galaxies, Quasars, Hubble’s Law
Cosmology-Big Bang Theory
Extras: SETI, relativity, archaeoastronomy

Instructional Units: 5