Astronomy Courses in the Planetarium

Outside the Planetarium during the day timeAS101, Introduction to Astronomy (syllabus) at Montgomery College,  Takoma Park/Silver Spring is the only place in the Washington Metro area that you can take a college astronomy course from within a planetarium.  Tuesday & Thursday 6:30-9:10PM  beginning on Thursday, September 4, 2008.
Would you like to explore how stars are formed, know what a black hole is and where one might be located, find out what a neutron star is, find out what the sun is composed of, find out how the elements were formed, find out how and when the earth was formed, or learn the names of some of the constellations and the names of the brightest stars in them?   The tuition is very affordable.  It is the best education bargain around. If you do not need this course as a transferable lab science in your curricula consider auditing it for the knowledge that you will learn, the fun that you will have, and the greater appreciation for the universe that you will acquire.  Senior citizens can register for this course for less than the cost of the text book on a space available basis one week before classes start.  The planetarium also allows  us to see simulated stars with our unaided eyes, like you can see in a dark sky about a 5 hour automobile drive from the campus in a few places in West Virginia or Assateque, the islands off the coast of Maryland, where it is still dark at night.  The planetarium is the only practical way to show you what a dark sky looks like from the Washington Metro area.  It is never really dark around here any more! 
Planetarium at night during the lunar eclipse of October 27, 2004
In the past some students have taken honors modoules.
Honors Students, AS101 and AS102 have honors modules which may be taken under AS101HM or AS102HM; talk to your instructor in the first week of classes to sign up and to formulate your research problem. AS101 and AS102 Honors Modules fall into two related categories
Undergraduate Scientific Research
These are research projects that require that the student add to the knowledge of humanity; this can be done in one semester by undergraduates if the topic is sufficiently limited.  Examples of projects like this are: “Cosmology and the Accelerating Universe, how come in a universe 14 billion years old can we speak of a universe that we are causally connected to which is 46 billion light years in radius” or “Ancient Sky Watchers of Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras, the Maya, a planetarium program script” or “When was the Star Catalog for the Wheeler Astrolabe.” There are many others; the universe is vast.  Some of these topics may become publishable in peer-reviewed journals by the student and the mentoring professor.


Lesson Plans for K-12 Students
Schoolteachers taking AS101 or schoolteachers to be in the Associates of Arts in Teaching, AAT program, develop these lesson plans.  Examples of topics like this are: “Lesson Plans for My 5th Grade Students in Astronomy, Like the Phases of the Moon and How to Tell Time Using the Moon,” “Building Model Rockets in an After-school program with kids and Integrating RHESSI, Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, Spacecraft Astronomical Science.”  Some of these are publishable on line, as schoolteachers are always looking for teacher-tested material that actually works in classrooms to teach science.  Many other topics are obviously possible; as the curricular material in astronomy that we actually understand is vast.

Both types of modules require that the student write substantial papers with references and web links, diagrams, and graphs, and possibly data and pictures.  The student is also required to present an oral presentation at the honors colloquium at the end of the semester and is expected to do a power point presentation.  Directory with past honor modules in AS101 http://montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/planet/M_AS101/honorsModoules/.

Astrobiology, "You are Made of the Dust of Exploded Stars!"  Linked AS101 (Introduction to Astronomy) and BI101 (General Biology) or BI107 (Principles of Biology I) possibly offered sometime in the future.
AstroPhilsophy, "Does the Universe have a Philosophy" we tried for three semmesters, but could never get enough students.  Linked AS101 (Introduction to Astronomy) and PH201 (Introduction to Philosophy) syllabus.

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Last modified 8:41PM Sunday June 8, 2008 by Dr. Harold Williams .