Scaling the Universe

This blog is primarily a place for me to record my reflections on teaching the history of astronomy. I teach two college-level astronomy courses for non-science majors. Both of my courses look at the historical development of astronomy. The Copernican Revolution focuses on the development of planetary astronomy from Aristotle to Newton. The Scale of the Universe examines the development of ideas about galaxies and cosmology from Aristotle to the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. Both courses emphasize active inquiry (often mediation by computer simulations) and an understanding of the nature of science.

This semester I am teaching The Copernican Revolution, and I will try to post a reflection here after each class meeting. We'll see if I can stick to it!

For anyone interested in my courses, or the curricular materials I have developed, you can visit my web pages:

The Copernican Revolution

and

The Scale of the Universe.

You can also find many of the computer simulations I have developed for these courses in the Open Source Physics Collection.