CCOG for PHY 123 Spring 2024
- Course Number:
- PHY 123
- Course Title:
- Galaxies and Cosmology
- Credit Hours:
- 4
- Lecture Hours:
- 30
- Lecture/Lab Hours:
- 0
- Lab Hours:
- 30
Course Description
Addendum to Course Description
This course will utilize as many of the following components as possible: lecture, discussion, lab activities, telescope viewing session, videos, slides, CD’s, and computer aided instruction. It is necessary to successfully complete the lab part of the course in order to pass the class.
The text and materials for this class have been chosen by the faculty, and the viewpoint shall be that of the author(s). This includes the topics of relativity, the geologic time scale, and the evolution of the Earth, our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe.
Students are expected to be able to read and comprehend college level science texts and perform basic mathematical operations in order to successfully complete this course.
Intended Outcomes for the course
Upon completion of the course students should be able to:
- Use an understanding of our galaxy to contrast and compare it with other galaxies as to type, contents, age, luminosity, motion, and size.
- Use cosmological models to analyze the size, age, structure, and motion of the universe overall.
- Access space science information from a variety of sources, evaluate the quality of this information, and compare this information with current models of astronomical processes identifying areas of congruence and discrepancy.
- Make field-based observations and measurements of astronomical phenomena, use scientific reasoning to interpret these observations and measurements, and compare the results with current astronomical models identifying areas of congruence and discrepancy.
- Assess the contributions of astronomy to our evolving understanding of global change and sustainability while placing the development of astronomy in its historical and cultural context.
Quantitative Reasoning
Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to analyze questions or problems that impact the community and/or environment using quantitative information.
General education philosophy statement
PHY 123 delves into the conceptual understanding of the cosmos by acknowledging the role of historical societies in the development of modern science and astronomy, organically discovering our place in the vast cosmos, introducing students to the advancements in technology that made astronomical discoveries possible, adapting the learner toward quantitative reasoning through manipulating mathematical formulas, adapts the learner toward qualitative reasoning through piecing together scientific laws, developing the skill to conceptually organize theoretical knowledge and experiential observation to formulate scientific truths, and appreciating aesthetic properties of celestial events and bodies.
Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)
(note: topics may be chosen in any order by the instructor)
- telescopes of various types and designs.
- open and globular clusters of stars and main-sequence fitting.
- the contents of our galaxy and the local group of galaxies.
- the dark matter issue and possible solutions and implications.
- clusters of galaxies and large scale structure of the universe, and active galaxies (AGN’s)
- Cosmological models, the universal expansion, and parameters including distances and ages.
- elementary particle physics and relativity.
- Topics in the history of astronomy may be included by the instructor.