Exploring Our Solar System

Lecturer (Instructor of Record), Dartmouth College, Physics & Astronomy, 2024

Introductory astronomy course covering the fundamentals of astronomy and planetary science.

Topics Covered

Observational astronomy, navigating the night sky, planetary formation, terrestrial and giant planets, Sun & stars, exoplanets.

Course structure

  • Lecture-focused classroom sessions with weekly practice exercise assignments.
  • Weekly quizzes to solidify topics learned in the prior week.
  • A short paper focused on exploring the potential and limitations of using generative AI to support reading and summarizing scientific literature.
  • Midterm project: create a zine to communicate a topic of planetary science to a non-specialist audience.
  • Final project: a creative project that communicates planetary science topics covered in the course or a citizen science research paper.