Setting up an Astrobiology Course
Setting up an Astrobiology Course
|
|
Arizona State University: senior/grad level astrobiology class UC Berkeley AB117: introductory level astrobiology class Syllabus for UC Berkeley AB117: introductory level astrobiology class Drake University: sophomore level web course Durham: sophomore level course George Mason University: sophomore level astrobiology class Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Freshman Astrobiology Seminar Penn State University: Senior level astrobiology course Sonoma State University: sophomore level astrobiology course Stanford U (AB 107): introductory level astrobiology course UCLA: small part of a Paleontology course Wesleyan University: junior level astrobiology course Wisconsin: Introductory level astrobiology course Curriculum/Teaching Links
Astrobiology: The Living Universe Access Excellence Activities Exchange The Astrobiology Curriculum Calhoun Community College RESA Net NASA The University of Washington has just begun a new astrobiology course for undergraduates. Here they share their experiences in setting up this course, including a small amount of procedural information that bears on the pedagogy. This course is the culmination of a long planning and development process. Initially, the course content was tested in several versions of Astronomy 190 'Topics in Astronomy', a course for non-majors which has no set curriculum. In several incarnations, this course has covered life in the Universe, SETI, and space exploration. But not until recently have we begun to include truly interdisciplinary content on, for example, the evolution of life on Earth. Introduction to Astrobiology is a sophomore level course intended for non-science majors, although science majors are welcome and make up a significant fraction of the class. There is a laboratory/recitation component, which is used differently depending upon the current needs of the course. Currently, enrollment is limited to 75, due to TA staffing shortages. Introduction to Astrobiology has as its pre-requisite one 100-level science course. This pre-requisite serves several purposes, among them is that the students come to the course with varying backgrounds, but with at least a minimum comprehension of the scientific enterprise. The new course is separate from prior astronomy courses, and has its own course number. It is cross-listed among several departments (e.g. astronomy, oceanography, geology, etc.). The content varies somewhat with instructional expertise and interest, but always covers a core group of subjects, including units on Mars, Europa, evolution, SETI, interstellar chemistry, and so on. At the moment, activities in the course are limited by available lab space and the expertise of the individual instructor. For example, when an astronomer teaches the course, there is a distinct astronomy flavor, and the labs and activities reflect this bias. When a paleontologist teaches the course, there is a distinct emphasis on evolution, with labs tending more towards understanding the fossil record. Eventually, as we gather expertise in teaching the course, we will develop a full set of labs and activities, and each instructor will be able to present a more balanced view of the subject. Requiring an introductory science pre-req helps balance the viewpoints among the students, which forces the instructors to explore areas of astrobiology that they might otherwise unintentionally avoid. Because the course is taught by people from several departments, it is essential that there be a mechanism for 'institutional memory'. At UW, this is accomplished through a member of the Astrobiology Program, who keeps an archive of the syllabus, labs and activities for the benefit of the next person teaching the course. She contacts them before they teach the course to remind them that the resource is available. This function could be performed by anyone with an interest in the course who is a long-term employee. The course is tremendously popular. Even in its Astronomy 190 incarnation, more students wished to enroll than could be accommodated. Aside from this issue, the largest problem has been matching student expectations with the actual content of the course. It is not surprising that the title 'Introduction to Astrobiology' attracts students who expect something completely different from an actual science course, including math and scientific thought. We have found that the best way to handle this mis-match is to be extremely explicit about the content at the beginning of the course. We expect that this course will eventually become nearly as popular as Astronomy 101 for fulfilling core University requirements. As we prove the popularity and utility of this course for inspiring interdisciplinary thinking among not only students, but also professors and graduate students, we anticipate increasing enrollment, either by adding a second section, or by enlarging the current one, or both. The natural impediments to the course, such as its interdisciplinary nature, have proven surmountable with a sufficiently enthusiastic group of teachers, who support one another in the endeavor. For more information about the University of Washington's Astrobiology course, contact Stacy Palen at: |