General Education Goal

Course Goal

Part One:

Intellectual Abilities and Dispositions

A. Conceptual and Practical Understanding of Modes of Learning, Problem-Solving and Creative Inquiry

B. Information-Gathering, Reasoning, and Synthesizing Abilities

1. Skill in formulating questions and in setting goals for inquiry.

To develop the skill of objective examination of astronomical data.

2. Knowing how and when to make generalizations and value judgments.

To ensure that students know the steps involved in the scientific method and how to recognize the use of the scientific method in the solution of astronomical problems.

3. Skill in generating and evaluating observations and evidence.

This is stressed in the laboratory component.

To instill the ability to make objective observations of celestial objects both with and without optical aid.

To develop the process of interpretation of astronomical observations and data.

4. Skill in making deductive inferences.

To determine the meaning of astronomical observations and the implications concerning the nature of celestial objects.

5. Ability to use relevant quantitative methods.

To teach how to use simple equations to calculate astronomical quantities from relevant measurements.

C. Reflective, Creative, and Critical Dispositions

1. Striving to be well informed and open-minded.

To inform students of the various media sources for current information and discoveries in astronomy.

2. Looking for multiple possibilities and being able to deal with ambiguity.

To stress that astronomical theories are the current best descriptions of the behavior of nature.

To be able to discern the differences among competing theories.

3. Striving to achieve one’s best with persistence and imagination.

4. Willingness to make choices and to evaluate those choices.

5. Intellectual self-awareness: being conscious of one’s own thinking process, including the cultural and social contexts of that thinking.

D. Communication Skills

1. Writing and speaking with clarity and precision for diverse audiences.

To have students write reports summarizing assignments in lecture or laboratory.

2. Making use of computers and other technological tools

To make use of computers in the laboratory component as an aid to calculation and display of data.

3. Interpreting and communicating visual information

Same as B.3. above.

Part Two:

Knowledge and Understanding

A. Understanding the Natural World

1. Knowledge of the physical Universe, including its origin and the physical laws governing it.

To survey the contents of the solar system, the Galaxy, and the universe.

To examine current explanations of the origin of the Earth, the Sun, and the entire universe.

To learn the basic laws of motion, gravity, light, and energy.

2. Knowledge of living systems, including their nature, organization, and evolution.

To acknowledge the wide variety of life on the Earth and how that affects the interpretation of conditions on other planets and the possibility of life existing there.

3. Understanding the history and methods of scientific inquiry and alternative explanations of the natural world.

To study the contributions of prominent scientists to the development of physics and astronomy.

4. Understanding the multiple influences on scientific inquiry and the consequences of science and technology.

To study the Earth as a planet in order to establish a basis for comparative planetology.

To emphasize the changing conditions in the Earth's atmosphere and the causes.

To study global warming on other planets in order to learn the possible effects on Earth.

5. Understanding the ways human choices affect the earth and living systems and the responsibilities of individual citizens and communities to preserve global resources.

Same as A.4. above.

To acknowledge the vast supply of energy available from the Sun and the possibility of redirecting our energy consumption habits to solar energy.

B. Understanding of Culture and Society

1. Knowledge of the many expressions of culture, including

• 1 Understanding the unique shared ways of thinking, believing, and acting, developed by a people who live together over a long period of time.

• 2 Ability to conceptualize and trace the influences of community, institutions, and other constructions such as class, gender, and race

• 3 Familiarity with the ways in which culture is expressed artistically, through literature, performance, and artifact

• 4 Awareness of and appreciation for the ways in which culture and society influence and are influenced by work and leisure.

2. Understanding the sources and expression of diverse values throughout the world, including ethical, religious, aesthetic, political, and economic values as well as social and cultural priorities.

3. Ability to trace the impact of technology on societies and cultures for diverse audiences.

4. Understanding the ways human choices affect communities, from local to global, and responsibilities of individuals to assume the duties of citizenship.

5. Understanding the role of government regulation and of legal requirements, political processes, and financial and economic influences on decisions of individuals and society.

C. Self-Understanding

1. Understanding the nature of our humanness and how human beings are like and different from the other beings with whom they share the planet.

2. Knowledge of individual physical, emotional, intellectual, social and creative development as well as ability to use such knowledge to improve personal well-being.

3. Knowledge of individual physical, emotional, intellectual, social, historical, spatial, and cultural matrices into which the individual is born; and the influence of the unique set of experiences which the individual encounters.

4. Ability to perceive one’s own being not only from cognitive perspectives but also from those perspectives which come from exposure to and creative vision of the arts – to imagine the possibilities the future holds and to develop responsible goals for interactions with others, modes of personal expression, and roles in improving the world.