Observational Astronomy "Across the Curriculum"

随着世纪的临近，天文学正处于一个突飞猛进的时期，有可能彻底改变我们对物理宇宙的理解。为了让Trinity大学的学生在这段非凡的时期内获得天文学方面的密集实践经验，我们希望为Marrs姆克林科学中心获得一套现代望远镜和相关设备，包括一台计算机控制的16”施密特-卡塞格伦望远镜，六台计算机控制的8”施密特-卡塞格伦望远镜和两台CCD相机。这种新设备将比我们现有的设施有很大的改进，我们将能够在“整个课程”中实施一种定义明确的双层方法来教授观测天文学-主要是在入门物理实验室课程和天文学课程中，但范围从一年级的研讨课程到我们最先进的专业实验物理课程-可作为类似本科院校的有用模式。首先，学生将发现他们可以通过自己的观察和估计在望远镜的目镜人类力量了解宇宙多少。其次，他们将获得天体的CCD图像，并进行严格的、定量的、研究质量的测量。这一收购的相对温和的成本将使Trinity的学生用望远镜做天文学就像他们用显微镜做生物学一样普遍。主要受益者将是每年约250名Trinity本科生（占总入学人数的10%），其中50%为女性，20%为少数民族学生。

As the twenty-first century approaches, astronomy is enjoying a time of extraordinary advances that hold the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the physical universe. To offer students at Trinity University intensive hands-on experiences in astronomy during this remarkable period, we wish to acquire a set of modern telescopes and related equipment for the Marrs McLean Science Center, including a single computer-controlled, 16" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, six computer-controlled, 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, and two CCD cameras. This new equipment will be such a dramatic improvement over our present facilities that we will be able to implement a well-defined, two-tier approach to the teaching of observational astronomy "across the curriculum" - primarily in introductory physics laboratory courses and astronomy classes, but ranging from first-year seminar courses to our most advanced experimental physics courses for majors - that may serve as a useful model for similar undergraduate institutions. First, students will discover how much they can learn about the universe by their own human powers of observation and estimation at the eyepiece of a telescope. Second, they will obtain CCD images of celestial objects and make rigorous, quantitative, research-quality measurements. The relatively modest cost of this acquisition would make it as common for Trinity students to do astronomy with telescopes as it already is for them to do biology with microscopes. The principal beneficiaries will be approximately 250 Trinity undergraduates (10% of total enrollment) per year, of whom 50% are women and 20% minoritv students.