The relative merits of a sample of recent introductory astronomy textbooks: One teacher's viewpoint
✍ Scribed by Raymond E. White
- Book ID
- 104332719
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1978
- Weight
- 730 KB
- Volume
- 2
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0364-9229
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Nearly one year ago, two of us at Steward Observatory, Dave Dearborn and tnyself, embarked upon a reading project concerning the introductory textbooks about Astronomy which were then on the market. We had a wide variety of textbooks available to us, which was all to the good as the Astronomy faculty at the University of Arizona offers a variety of introductory undergraduate courses.
Our most populous course is a two-semester (totalling eight. semester-hours) survey course which is taken mainly by College of Liberal Arts and College of B~siness and Public Administration majors in order to satisfy their colleges' SCIence requirements. The next most populous course is a one-semester, three semester-hour, survey in which any mathematical details are severely toned d~wn; it is a very popular course among the College of Education majors. Our third course is currently a joint-offering between the Geosciences Department ;nd the Astronomy Department. It too is an eight semester-hour, two semester ong, survey course satisfying Liberal Arts Science requirements. The course presents evolution as a process in the formation of the Universe through galaxies stars, solar system(s), planets, planetary surfaces, and surface life-forms.
Obviously, the three courses require widely different styles of textbooks and/or primary source material. In our self-imposed labor, Dearborn and I reviewed the available material with a view towards which would be useful in our ?wn Department's stable of courses. Both of us jotted down our overall Itnpressions of each book, specific objections, if any, to it, as well as its unique and/or positive features; a positive or negative recommendation for adoption in a specific Course was also made on the basis of the overall critique, plus our own