CCOG for PHY 122 archive revision 202104
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- Effective Term:
- Fall 2021 through Winter 2025
- Course Number:
- PHY 122
- Course Title:
- Stars and Stellar Evolution
- Credit Hours:
- 4
- Lecture Hours:
- 30
- Lecture/Lab Hours:
- 0
- Lab Hours:
- 30
Course Description
Addendum to Course Description
This course will have as many of the following components as possible: lectures, discussions, 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 course.
The text and materials for this course 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, 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:
- Analyze the formation of our sun and other stars, their properties, and how to interpret the information received from radiation from the stars.
- Use the process of stellar evolution to explain red giants, neutron stars, black holes, and white dwarf stars.
- 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 122 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)
COURSE CONTENT: (note: the topics may be selected in any order by the instructor)
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Star names, magnitude scales, and topics in the history of astronomy, at the discretion of the instructor.
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Our sun , its properties and features, and its history and future.
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The electromagnetic spectrum, Doppler effect, and stellar spectra.
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Stars and their properties.
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The interstellar medium and stellar formation, and brown dwarf objects.
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Methods of determining distances to stars.
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Color-magnitude diagrams. (including “H-R diagrams”)
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Stellar evolution, including: red giants, planetary nebulae, neutron stars, black holes, and white dwarf stars.