What is the place of astronomy at a liberal arts college?
By Megan Pickett Associate professor of physics Lawrence Today magazine, Summer 2007 I arrived at Lawrence University in the fall of 2006 and during that term I taught our introduction to astronomy course, Physics 110. As an astrophysicist, I have always enjoyed this class, because it offers a chance for students without a science background to learn about and appreciate their home in the universe. The course covers a lot of material not even dreamt of at the dawn of astronomy, and these discoveries help make the class an exciting time of learning. Yet, my favorite memories of the course will always be those moments in which students did what astronomers have always done: look, and learn. When the students were outside measuring angles with homemade cross-staffs, or using meter-sticks to measure the height of the Sun during the term, or looking through a telescope at the Andromeda Galaxy, or even creating simulated digital messages to be sent into space, each was taking her or his plac
