Re: Nicely written

[Rick Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

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

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

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----- 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