Kay Miller FEA IT 5600 3/31/10 Fulfills Competency #5 - Development Overview The topic will be A History of Western Astronomy

y from Babylon to Galileo. This course will seek to build an understanding of what ancient people knew about the cosmos and how they knew it, and how we came to our modern understanding of cosmology. The problem addressed by this course is an elementary-level understanding about the history of science that most students have when they enter college. Beginning with ancient Babylon and ending with Galileo, students will learn about how pre-modern people viewed the universe and our place in it through readings including topical overviews and original sources. Students will also make their own astronomical observations and reflect on ancient cosmological theories in light of their observations. Aside from learning a historical progression in astronomy, students will be asked to immerse themselves in the mindset of pre-modern astronomers through the readings and experiential assignments involving recreation of ancient observational tools and proving that ancient astronomers were correct about the earth being the center of the universe. The ultimate purpose of this is to use logic and observation to understand what science is (using astronomy as a basis) and to begin to engage in a discussion about the nature of science itself. The scope of the material covered in this course is really too great to be encompassed in five weekly units. In a full-length university course, several weeks could

be spent on each unit, and more detailed information could be given (and more depth would be expected in students projects). Audience The audience will be college undergraduates, and the course may be in the context of a history of science course. Most students will either be preparing for future coursework in the history or philosophy of science or interested in learning background information on physics or astronomy. Students taking the course are believed to have access to computers and high speed internet, either at home or on campus. Prior to taking the course, most students will have a basic knowledge of world history and geometry and will be familiar with some of the key topics that will be covered in class: Babylon, sundials, solar system, geocentric universe, heliocentric universe, sphere, elliptical orbit, Copernicus, Galileo. Less familiar will be advanced topics such as MUL.APIN, sexagesimal number system, Ptolemys Almagest, Osiander, De Revolutionibus, and the Sidereus Nuncius. Students who do have some knowledge of these advanced topics typically have not read the original sources or considered them in their historical context. The readings and assignments in this course will help students to consider the mindset of pre-modern astronomers of different eras and appreciate various ways of constructing cosmology as we progress chronologically through the course. Objectives This course seeks to engage students in developing an integrative view of science as a cultural and intellectual construct through discussion, analysis and experimentation with different perspectives on scientific and philosophical thought stretching over 30 centuries from Babylon to Galileo.

In this course, students will observe astronomical phenomena without modern tools, analyze source texts and philosophical arguments, discuss the course readings and experiments, solve logic problems, experiment with contemporary observational methods, evaluate logical arguments, defend their arguments and explain how their view of astronomy has changed as a result of this course, its readings, discussions and assignments. Rationale Content chunking is chronological because changes in astronomical and scientific/philosophical thinking built on earlier thought and observations. In this class the students will also progress through history as they learn to observe and analyze as people in earlier eras did. The units for the course will be: 1) Early astronomy in Babylon and Zodiac thinking, 2) Greek astronomy and philosophy, 3) Ptolemy and the Almagest, 4) The Renaissance astronomers: Copernicus, Kepler & Brahe, 5) Galileo and the Sidereus Nuncius. The chronological progression is similar to Behaviorism because information delivery is hierarchical. However, the intent is to create a learner-centered course. Despite the chronological structure, the nature of instruction will be more Cognitivist and Post-Modern in that the focus will be on knowledge acquired by thinking and that the end result of learning is the formation of meaning. The color scheme will be inspired by the astronomical theme, so it will involve dark blue (like the night sky), grey (like the moon) and bronze (like some of the early instruments developed to observe the motions of the celestial bodies. Images will frequently be of historical objects, art and texts. Navigation will give the learners access

to 85% of content in two mouse clicks. Integration of models and video when applicable, and forums for discussion will allow for interactivity. Learning Activities Reading modern and ancient texts Discuss readings with instructor and fellow students Write essays, clearly stating an argument and defending it with course texts and experiments Observe astronomical phenomena using simple tools that the students will create Evaluation of Learning There will be quizzes in each unit to assess whether students are acquiring the information sufficiently to meet the course objectives. However, most of the evaluation will be in less data-driven areas and will focus on student writing. Students will write weekly essays in which they will analyze the readings, and describe what they have observed in the night (or daytime) sky. Students will be evaluated on their understanding of the reading and the depth of their observations and arguments. The criteria that for evaluation are:

Did the student clearly state his or her argument? Did the student clearly cite each of the readings and quote the appropriate

passages when backing up the argument?

Did the student understand the authors argument and the historical context? Did the student record his or her process and observations in sufficient detail

for another to repeat the process with similar results?

Because of the nature of the course, formative assessment will be very important. Each essay graded will be returned with detailed feedback pointing to specific weaknesses in the students understanding, argument, backup, and observational processes. The feedback will also include questions for further consideration. The student will be welcome to revise their essay if they choose to do so after considering the comments and questions provided in the feedback. Evaluation of Impact The course will be available in two sections: one online, the other in a classroom setting. Each section will have the same number of students. The quality of responses and overall grades in both sections will be compared to each other to see if there is a difference in the outcomes. This could be done two or more semesters in a row to see if any pattern emerges in the quality of student performance. Hardships I encountered two main hardships in construction the Instructional Site. First, the content of the course was something that I was familiar with from courses I took at another university, but since I had not reviewed the material in several years, I had to do additional research to fill in the gaps. The research that went into creating the site was rewarding but time consuming, and meant that I had less time to devote to the development of the site itself. The finished product might have been more effective, with richer content, learning media and activities. The other difficulty was in finding media and external websites that met my needs for this course. Ideally, I would like to have created my own media for a more consistent message and design. Highlights

One of the highlights of this project is that the media I incorporated into the lessons were of good quality. For example, one video demonstrates ancient cosmologies with animation, so that students can visualize more clearly how ancient astronomers constructed their world view. Another highlight of developing the Instructional Site is that the Edu20.org content management system was easy to use and helped me to organize the content well. Future improvements To improve my site in the future, I would like to make the media and other learning material myself to ensure greater consistency and coherency, both in the visual design and in the content. It was difficult to find readings and media that reflected exactly the points I wanted to make. The translated texts of The Almagest, On the Revolutions, and Sidereus Nuncicus would still be a central part of the course. I would also improve the site by including more exercises to immerse the students in the ancient cosmological theories. The enhanced activities might include: using their astronomical observations to make mathematical predictions of where a particular star or planet might be at a given time, estimating the circumference of the earth using methods dating back to antiquity, reconstructing ancient tools for determining true north without a compass.