Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introducing steps to astronomy
- Part II The Solar System
- Part III Introducing stars
- Part IV Introducing galaxies and the Universe
- Epilog
- Appendix I The small-angle formula
- Appendix II Exponential notation
- Appendix III The Solar System
- Appendix IV The closest and brightest stars
- Appendix V Physical and astronomical constants
- Appendix VI Conversion factors
- Appendix VII Constellation maps
- Glossary
- Figure Credits
- Index
- Plate section
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introducing steps to astronomy
- Part II The Solar System
- Part III Introducing stars
- Part IV Introducing galaxies and the Universe
- Epilog
- Appendix I The small-angle formula
- Appendix II Exponential notation
- Appendix III The Solar System
- Appendix IV The closest and brightest stars
- Appendix V Physical and astronomical constants
- Appendix VI Conversion factors
- Appendix VII Constellation maps
- Glossary
- Figure Credits
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
To the instructor
The philosophy behind this book
When I was in college studying science, I found the experience fundamentally unsatisfying. I was continually oppressed by the feeling that my only role was to “shut up and learn.” I felt there was nothing I could say to my instructors that they would find interesting. Nor did I feel that there was anything I could tell my fellow-students that they would find interesting. As I sat in the science lecture hall, I was utterly silent. That's not a good state to be in when you are 19 years old.
Doubly galling was the fact that at the same time my roommate was taking a history course. One day he came back to our dorm room filled with excitement over a class discussion. (The question was whether President Truman was right to have dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima.) Another friend at the time was taking a literature course, and he mentioned to me that, during a class discussion, he had made a point the instructor himself had found striking.
Meanwhile, I was busy with Ampère’s law. We never had any fascinating class discussions about this law. No one, teacher or student, ever asked me what I thought about it.
We professors have a tendency to think that independent, creative thinking cannot be done by non-science students, and that only advanced science majors have learned enough of the material to think critically about it. I believe this attitude is false. This book is designed to move beyond a “shut up and learn” format, and to challenge students to think for themselves – even at the beginning level. It asks students to use their native intelligence to actually confront subtle scientific issues.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Understanding the UniverseAn Inquiry Approach to Astronomy and the Nature of Scientific Research, pp. ix - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013