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J. Patterson (Columbia University), K. Vanlandingham (Biosphere 2 Center), J. Noel-Storr (Columbia University), S. Airieu (Biosphere 2 Center), J. Kemp (Columbia University), G. Garradd (Biosphere 2 Center)
The Universe Semester is an intensive program in astronomy and astrophysics for college undergraduates at the Biosphere 2 site near Oracle, Arizona. The program is designed for 20-25 students and carries a full semester (16 points) of Columbia University credit. The curriculum is designed both for astronomy majors and for adventurous liberal-arts majors, who are interested in studying astronomy out under the stars and in the immersion experience of the Universe Semester.
Students spend their days attending classes and working on individual research projects, while evenings are spent observing under clear desert skies. On-site telescopes range in aperture from 5" to 24", with the 14" and 24" used for research programs (usually with CCD cameras). Several large professional telescopes (1.3 m, 1.5 m, 2.4 m) in the mountains near Tucson were also used by students during fall 1999 to obtain data for their research projects. Extensive research programs were carried out in astrometry and photometry of asteroids, and photometry of cataclysmic variable stars.
Many of the students also benefit from the concurrent presence of Earth Semester, a similar immersion experience for undergraduates in earth and environmental sciences. Fall 1999 was our inaugural program; in the academic year 2000/01, we will have fall and spring versions of the program.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.astro.bio2.edu. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser. [Previous] | [Session 106] | [Next]