Enroll in Introduction to Astronomy with Dolphin STEM Academy

Course Overview

This one-semester course is intended to introduce you to the concepts of astronomy. This
course has 17 lessons and 6 Course Activities. Each lesson contains one or more Lesson
Activities.

In Introduction to Astronomy, you will learn about the history of astronomy from ancient times to
modern times. You will identify the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars across the
sky. You will describe the formation of the solar system, and the role of the Sun and Moon in the
solar system. You will describe the causes of seasons on Earth and the reasons for life on
Earth. You will learn about stars, galaxies, and the Milky Way. You will explain various theories
of cosmology, and advantages and disadvantages of space exploration.

Your teacher will grade your work on the Course Activities, and you will grade your work on the
Lesson Activities by comparing them with the given sample responses. The Course Activities
(submitted to the teacher) and the Lesson Activities (self-checked) are major components of this
course. There are other assessment components, namely the mastery test questions that
feature along with the lesson; and an end-of-semester test. All of these tests are a combination
of simple multiple-choice questions and technology-enhanced (TE) questions.

Course Goals

This course will help you meet the following goals:
Describe the history of astronomy and contributions of famous scientists from ancient to modern times.
Describe and identify the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars across the sky.
Describe the formation of inner rocky planets and outer gas giant planets, and their unique features.
Explain Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and Newton’s law of universal gravitation.
Describe the properties of the Sun and the importance of sunspots.
Describe and observe lunar phases.
Describe the composition of Earth and the causes of seasons on Earth.
Identify different types tools used in astronomy, such as telescopes, observatories,
electromagnetic spectrum, and astronomical spectroscopy.
Describe the properties of stars and measure their distances using the parallax method.
Describe the formation, components, and characteristics of the Milky Way.
Describe the usefulness of studying space and the advantages of various manned and
unmanned missions to space.