Now that I’ve transitioned from teaching high schoolers during my PhD research years to working in industry, I’ve decided to make my lecture videos public.
My course is from my perspective as a Catholic scientist and is divided in two halves:
• The History of Astronomy
• Modern Astronomy from our own Earth to the most distant objects in the Universe
Here is the general link to the course playlist.
I taught this course initially for Kepler Education in Fall 2020, and then again in Fall 2021. I also offered it as a crash course via Thinkific in April-May 2021.
I had two textbooks accompany this course: Arny & Schneider’s Explorations: Introduction to Astronomy and Danielson’s Book of the Cosmos, with certain excerpts from each book that I recommended for each week.
This was intended to be a first iteration of videos. If I ever go back to teaching, I may produce another one.
I dedicated a lot of time to this course and am happy with the result, although perhaps only 20 people will ever watch them.
Besides supplementing my income a little during hard times, this project also helped me refine my knowledge and develop my skills.
Instead of continuing to lead small cohorts through this course, my priority now is to spend more time with my family.
If there’s something you’re working on, it doesn’t have to be perfect for you to get it out there.