Exploratory Project: Development of a Case-Study Based Introductory Undergraduate Course on Life in the Universe

跨学科（99）科学系继续寻找课程，这将有助于捕捉学生的兴趣和想象力，在入门普通教育科学课程。 PI研究所的天体生物学课程就是这样做的。 课程材料涵盖了重要的社会问题，如全球变暖和核武器扩散，它提出了有趣的问题，如“联邦政府是否应该投资于SETI，寻找地外智慧？如果一个外星人有红外线视觉，你能说什么关于外星人的母星？它的“案例研究”方法在天文学和物理学领域是新颖的。这门跨学科的课程，使用天文学，物理学，生物学，化学，行星科学和地质学的材料，帮助学生看到科学的统一和整合。该项目的教学材料通过国家科学案例研究教学中心提供给学术界。

Interdisciplinary (99)Faculty in the sciences continue to seek out courses that will help capture the interest and imagination of students in introductory general education science courses. The course in astrobiology at the PIs institution is doing just this. The course material covers important societal questions like global warming and nuclear weapons proliferation and it poses interesting questions like "Should the federal government invest funds in SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligences?" and "If an alien has infrared vision, what can you say about the alien's home planet?" Its "case study" approach is novel in the fields of astronomy and physics. This interdisciplinary course, using materials from astronomy, physics, biology, chemistry, planetary science and geology, helps students see the unity and integration in science. Instructional materials from the project are available to the academic community through The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science.