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L.M. French (Wheelock College)
Most academic institutions offer "introductory" courses in the space sciences. Most often, the offering is either a one-semester astronomy course or one semester each on the solar system and on stellar astronomy. The designation of these courses as "introductory" presumably indicates that students are expected to have had little or no exposure to the subjects before. However, the mathematical sophistication of the students is an important determininant of how well they will perform in the class. Some topics are appropriate and instructive for students with weak preparation in mathematics, while others are not. Examples of both kinds of topics will be given.