Courses Taught
Geology (Physics 160)
Geology is the study of how the Earth works, and the history of the Earth. I teach the class in two major sections. In the first section, we will learn how to listen to what the rocks are trying to tell us. This involves learning how rocks are made, learning how to recognize different types of rocks, and understanding how they relate to each other in the field. Much of this work is done outside around campus and on a few field trips to scenic places like the Blue Hills near Boston, Beavertail Point on Conanicut Island, or the loading dock behind Babies 'R' Us in Attleboro. The second part of the course deals with processes that are currently shaping the Earth, like landslides, rivers, or earthquakes, and how humans affect (and are affected by) these processes. This class is connected to the introductory International Relations class, in a connection called "Politics and Global Change." I teach geology every fall, and the enrollment is limited to the number of students who can fit on the field trips.
Solar System (Astronomy 140)
Studying the other planets and moons in our solar system helps us to put our own planet into context and to appreciate our place in the universe. In our journey through the solar system, we will see the radically different evolutionary paths taken by different planetary interiors, surfaces, and atmospheres. Planetary science is a rapidly changing field, and we will examine current debates and even look at new data "hot off the spacecraft," allowing you to participate in the cutting edge of space exploration. The course culminates with a creative group engineering project, based on NASA’s Discovery program, where students work in teams to propose missions that will address compelling scientific questions in our solar system.
First-Year Seminar: Next Stop Mars
When will we send people to Mars? Do living organisms already reside on the red planet? If so, what does that mean? Can we exploit the resources of other worlds to preserve the environment here on Earth? Should we do it? Is it our destiny to colonize other planets? Should we modify the environments of other worlds to make them more hospitable to life? Who gets to make these decisions, anyway? Students in this course will actively explore the next planet out from the Sun, through essays, scientific articles, science fiction, and hands-on analysis of data currently being sent to Earth by robotic spacecraft. We will engage in past, current, and future controversies in Martian science and exploration, and consider humanity's role in the future of terrestrial life.
Frontiers of Astronomy (Astronomy 202)
I run Frontiers as a "hot topics" seminar, where you can pursue your own interests and explore the latest developments in astronomy and planetary science. This is a writing and oral presentation intensive course in which we will focus on improving your communication of scientific concepts to non-scientists, and on communication with scientific colleagues. At the end of the semester we produce a peer-reviewed scientific journal full of interesting papers about new developments in our understanding of the universe.
Remote Sensing (Physics 227)
Remote sensing is basically like astronomy, but with the telescopes turned around to learn about the surface of the Earth. This course covers the theory, collection, processing, and interpretation of image and spectral data from visible to radio wavelengths. We gain hands-on experience working with images from Earth-orbiting satellites, and with our own visible and infrared remote sensing equipment. I encourage students to come to this class from many different majors, as remotely sensed data can play an important role in understanding ecological, environmental, and even economic problems. The entire class cooperates on a final project where we use remotely sensed data to address a local environmental and economic development problem, such as forest fragmentation around Norton, or urbanization and water quality in the Blackstone Valley of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Geophysics (Physics 360)
This upper-level course exposes physics majors to Earth science, and covers areas of physics not covered in other upper-level courses, such as gravity, elasticity, brittle failure, rheology, and fluid dynamics. We talk about the physics of everything from freezing ponds to hurricanes, and from mountain ranges to planets. The class is a mixture of theoretical discussion, solving mathematical problems, and playing with real materials to see if the equations correctly model their behavior and to derive basic material parameters (such as the temperature dependence of viscosity in silly putty).