Video killed the writing assignment

Abstract

We move pretty fast in the introductory astronomy class at Albion College (Albion, MI)—13.7 billion years of astronomy in about 15 weeks (one semester). Thus, it is virtually impossible to talk about all of the really interesting things that are happening in our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe, or about the really cool people and instruments that make our observations possible. This may or may not be a problem because students take this course for different reasons—to satisfy a graduation requirement, because it fits in their schedule, and/or because they are interested in astronomy in general.