Astronomy has instant appeal. Most people have looked up at the night sky and marvelled at the beauty of the stars. Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.... This is the course where you can find out!
Astronomy asks some profound questions. How does the Sun shine ? Is there life on other planets ? How did the Universe begin, and how will it end ?
That there can be answers to such questions is one of the highpoints of human culture. We are all familiar with highpoints of other aspects of human culture - the writings of Shakespeare, the buildings of the Pyramids. Yet science can seem less accessible because it is written in a specialist language - maths! But other subjects also have their own specialist languages - I don't need to be able to read Old English to appreciate Beowulf, or Hebrew and Greek to read the Bible. I can read them in translation, and science is just the same. On this course I will act as the translator, to give you an appreciation of some of the immense beauty of the Universe in which we live.
Much of the material can be found in a highly recommended web site by Nick Strobel, Astronomy Notes . The PROVISIONAL title of each lecture is given below. After the lecture I will link my lectures notes to this page - they include links to on-line resources. This page will get added to as term progresses, so keep checking to see what is here (and hit reload to make sure you are getting the most up to date version!).
The lectures alone make up less than a quarter of the time allocated for the Astronomy for All module. The remaining time is meant to be taken up with private study. To help you do this I have set up multiple choice quizzes! After each lecture, I want you to review the lecture notes and associated material on the web, and then take the quiz. I keep a record of your quiz marks, and these make up the formative assessment for the course. These quizes are set on Monday, after my lecture, and are set to have a DEADLINE of 1 week (ie by the next mondays lecture).
The summative assessment is an ESSAY which will be given out in second term worth 30 per cent of the total mark for the module. The rest of the summative assessment (70 per cent) is on the final exam.