Does the universe go on forever?
Could it have an “edge?” What would be
on the other side?
Is there other intelligent life out
there in the universe?
On planets orbiting other stars….
You are interested
in astronomy
questions, but
don’t like
science….
A paradox!
You need a
different kind
of science
class!
Scientific questions affect your life…
Is global warming a serious problem?
Will there still be skiing in Colorado when
you’re my age?
Do Americans your age die because of our
dependence on oil?
Are there viable alternatives to oil?
The most important scientific questions many
people deal with involve medicine, life, and
death.
This class will improve your judgment to make
good decisions.
Let’s start by visiting the class website.
In a lecture class with an interesting, clear,
engaging teacher, what fraction of the material
presented during the semester does a student
typically learn?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
90%
70%
50%
25%
15%
In a traditional lecture class, students learn about 25%
of the concepts (that they don’t already know).
Force Concept Inventory
traditional lecture
<g> = post-pre
100-pre
R. Hake, ”…A six-thousand-student survey…” AJP 66, 64-74 (‘98).
What difference does interactive engagement
make?
red = trad, blue = interactive engagement
<g> = post-pre
100-pre
Finkelstein and Pollock (2005). Physical Review, ST:PER, 1,1
The Monotillation of Traxoline
It is very important that you learn about traxoline.
Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It is monotilled in
Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristerlate large
amounts of fevon and then bracter it to quasel
traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most
lukized snezlaus in the future because of our zionter
lescelidge.
DIRECTIONS: Answer the following sentences in complete
sentences. Be sure to use your best handwriting
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is traxoline?
Where is traxoline monotilled?
How is traxoline quaselled?
Why is it important to know about traxoline?
Traditional Model of Education
Individual
Instruction via
transmission
Content
If you don’t plan to paddle,
don’t get in the boat.
What happens when this gas hits the earth?!
Scale of the galaxy…If we made a scale model of the solar
system with the sun as a grapefruit, the planets would be
various small objects (pea, grape) scattered at distances from
feet to tens of yards. On the same scale, where would the
next star (next grapefruit) be?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Across campus
At the edge of Boulder
Near Denver
Across the USA
You are here
I know a place where the Sun never sets.
It’s a mountain, and it’s on the Moon. It sticks up so high that even as the Moon spins, it’s in perpetual daylight. Radiation
from the Sun pours down there day and night, 24 hours a day—well, the Moon’s day is actually about 4 weeks long, so the
sunlight pours down there 708 hours a day.
I know a place where the Sun never shines. It’s at the bottom of the ocean. A crack in the crust there exudes nasty
chemicals and heats the water to the boiling point. This would kill a human instantly, but there are creatures there,
bacteria, that thrive. They eat the sulfur from the vent, and excrete sulfuric acid.
I know a place where the temperature is 15 million degrees, and the pressure would crush you to a microscopic dot. That
place is the core of the Sun.
I know a place where the magnetic fields would rip you apart, atom by atom: the surface of a neutron star, a magnetar.
I know a place where life began billions of years ago. That place is here, the Earth.
I know these places because I’m a scientist.
Science is a way of finding things out. It’s a way of testing what’s real. It’s what Richard Feynman called “A way of not
fooling ourselves.” No astrologer ever predicted the existence of Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. No modern astrologer had a
clue about Sedna, a ball of ice half the size of Pluto that orbits even farther out. No astrologer predicted the more than 150
planets now known to orbit other suns.
But scientists did.
No psychic, despite their claims, has ever helped the police solve a crime. But forensic scientists have, all the time.
It wasn’t someone who practices homeopathy who found a cure for smallpox, or polio. Scientists did, medical scientists.
No creationist ever cracked the genetic code. Chemists did. Molecular biologists did.
They used physics. They used math. They used chemistry, biology, engineering. They used science.
Computers? Cell phones? Rockets to Saturn, probes to the ocean floor, PSP, gamecubes, gameboys, X-boxes?
All by scientists.
Those places I talked about before—you can get to know them too. You can experience the wonder of seeing them for the
first time, the thrill of discovery, the incredible, visceral feeling of doing something no one has ever done before, seen
things no one has seen before, know something no one else has ever known.
No crystal balls, no tarot cards, no horoscopes. Just you, your brain, and your ability to think.
Welcome to science….