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Re: Nicely written



I asked a question such as Rick suggested a few years back at the start
of one intro astronomy class. The actual question was "What question(s)
about astronomy would you like to have answered in this class this
quarter?" (We were on quarters at that timed, but have since changed to
semesters.) Students were invited to email me their questions.

The responses were many and varied. Some were predictable, others
along the lines of both discussions in this thread in recent days. For
what it's worth, here are their questions:

1. Why do stars shine?
2. What are shooting stars? How do they differ from stars?
3. What is the asteroid belt?
4. What are the constellations? I would like to learn how to identify
them in the sky.
5. What are comets? How are they alike or different from stars?
6. Do other planets rotate? What are they like?
7. What effects does the moon have on humans?
8. How are things on earth affected by the sun, moon, and planets?
9. What are some new discoveries in astronomy?
10. What about UV rays from the sun?
11. Why is there a leap year?
12. Can we tell the temperature of stars? Can we touch them?
13. What are black holes, nubulae, and quasars?
14.How far away are the stars? Are some closer than others?
15. How was the solar system formed?
16. What is a light year?
17. What is the Milky Way?
18. How do you choose which telescope to buy?
19.. How far does space extend?
20. How close can we get to the sun?
21. Have there been changes to the lunar surface?

Neither the phases of the moon nor solar neutrinos were mentioned
explicitly, but there are some things that one might argue should have
been learned in earlier education. I think it shows the need for
covering pretty basic things, even in a college class.

Rondo Jeffery
Weber State University
Ogden, UT 84408-2508
rjeffery@weber.edu



rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU 11/14/01 12:02PM >>>
Just one quick comment--no vote. :-)

It seems to me that both sides in this debate have unilaterally
determined
what students SHOULD learn in an intro astronomy course. Perhaps
someone
should ask what they WANT to learn in such a course (which is usually
OPTIONAL). I doubt that the answers will be 'the phases of the moon'
or the
'solar neutrino experiment'. While it may well require one or both
of
these topics to get to what the students want, I would think that
astronomy
courses should be driven foremost by student curiosity.

Rick

**********************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
rtarara@saintmarys.edu



----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Bellina" <jbellina@saintmarys.edu>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 1:09 PM
Subject: Nicely written


I just read the letters in the latest TPT, and wanted to says thanks
to
Paul and lurking Dewey for that wonder response to Pasachoff's
article and
to Phil for his response as well. Nicely done.

Shall we vote here as well, since we are being democratic,

1) Paul, Dewey, and Phil

2) Jay Pasachoff

Please, I'm kidding...lets not vote and save alot of bandwidth!!!!!

joe

Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. 219-284-4662
Associate Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556