Advice to make Astro Class Cooler

[Andromeda321]

My astronomy professor has admitted today that our lectures are really boring for my astronomy class. It's through no fault of his own, he's actually an amazing professor and great teacher, it's just that the material we need to get through in the class (the required "Stars and Planets" survey) is stuff most of the people in the class already know with an equation thrown in. Our professor has asked us what he could do to make the class more interesting, but in all honesty I'm drawing a bit of a blank here as there's only so much you can do when the material itself is what's boring if you can't change the material itself that much.
So does anyone have any ideas on how to make an astronomy class more interesting that has a great professor but horrible material? Because I'm feeling a little disappointed right now that my first astronomy class is like this... thanks.

[ngc3314]

My astronomy professor has admitted today that our lectures are really boring for my astronomy class. It's through no fault of his own, he's actually an amazing professor and great teacher, it's just that the material we need to get through in the class (the required "Stars and Planets" survey) is stuff most of the people in the class already know with an equation thrown in. Our professor has asked us what he could do to make the class more interesting, but in all honesty I'm drawing a bit of a blank here as there's only so much you can do when the material itself is what's boring if you can't change the material itself that much.
So does anyone have any ideas on how to make an astronomy class more interesting that has a great professor but horrible material? Because I'm feeling a little disappointed right now that my first astronomy class is like this... thanks.

Ahh, if I but knew this golden answer! Some desperate suggestions:

Have each student pick a topic from a different lecture and find an oddball tangent to add to the discussion. Some examples: relativistic particles --> van Allen belts --> exoatmospheric nuclear tests --> USSR convenes panel on risk posed to its first dual-cosmonaut flight by particles still circulating from US test months before. Relativistic boosting --> gamma-ray bursts --> originally classified detection of GRBs. Keplerian orbits --> approximation by retrograde circular epicycles --> how close would Ptolemy have been had he chosen the sun at the center? Peruse some of Russell's or Eddington's ideas on stellar evolution after the HR diagram was known but before spectroscopic analysis and knowledge of fusion pathways made sense.

When considering astrometry (classwide yawn), point out the ways in which tiny systematic errors fooled van de Kamp into thinking he was seeing reflex motion of Barnard's Star due to a planet. (enough to scare you away from that line of research permanently)

Find a bad science-fiction movie butchering one of the science points of the lecture, and criticize. For extra credit, bundle up the reviews and suggest the BA may want to host them.

Consider the problem of relativistic navigation, and do realistic simulations of what starfarers would have to work with at 0.99c.

Pizza.

[pumpkinpie]

Have various students give the lectures every now and then. I'm sure there would be a few students willing to put in that extra work, (yourself included? ) working with the prof to outline a lecture. Maybe you could arrange a deal for extra credit, or getting out of a lab/quiz/test for doing the extra work. Of course, there are no guarantees that the students would be any less boring than the professor, but at least it would be a different kind of boring!!

[Laminal Cockroach]

I am still in college but i'ld say ask your teacher to make up jokes....

[Gillianren]

how about adding the history of this stuff? I mean, if that's part of what you already know, then never mind, but I personally have always found the history of science to be fascinating.

[Laminal Cockroach]

That is a very good advice, Gillianren. I found that too. I think that often gives motivation to the students and makes astrophysics less boring, by actually involving people and stories in it.

[Andromeda321]

Alright, thanks for what's been offered so far, I'll be looking into it!
Actually the prof does put in a few jokes and we're already going into some historical stuff (I find the history of science interesting too) but alas it's more often than not stuff we all know already. Tho when we mentioned War of the Worlds in relation to Mars we did get to listen to part of the screenplays...

[crosscountry]

good ideas.



at my school, Junior and Senior Physics students TA for the Astronomy labs. They do demonstrations with Liquid nitrogen (show temp on other planets) and the planetarium.


just a couple ideas.