Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21922706r&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #227.06
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We present a study of a new approach to teaching non-science students concepts of sustainable energy using astronomy, real life and fictional scenarios. Teaching non-science majors about energy is important because of the challenge that scientific (il)literacy poses for tangible and political problems like energy.
We have established a course in which students are involved in critical thinking and the process of scientific reasoning while discovering the nature of energy and its role in our lives and its presentation in the fiction genre. In the course, students construct and apply their knowledge of transformation of energy to understanding of the concepts of the formation of the sun and the planets. Along with these concepts, students learn about ways of harnessing energy for sustaining life on Earth. During the course students transform their "Why do I care?” to "What can I do?” We are achieving this change by starting with a broad introduction of the concepts and physical laws involved in understanding of the Solar Nebular hypothesis during which we discuss the role of different forms of energy involved in the process. In the next step we narrow down the discussion to importance and use of energy on Earth and then we discuss the role of different forms of energy in maintaining our individual lives. Thus students go from intangible notions about energy to making informed decisions on what type of sustainable energy makes sense to use in their houses and how many burgers they want to eat per day.
Moving towards sustainable energy technologies requires a public who understands the science behind the issues. The work presented here is aimed at providing a mechanism for increase literacy regarding these issues and testing this mechanism's success.
Ruzhitskaya Lanika
Speck Angela
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