199Y and 299Y. The two sections of the 199Y seminar courses fill quickly. We propose to offer an additional section. We currently have five 299Y students and would double that to ten without difficulty. Our 299Y students have the attractive opportunity to undertake an observing project with the St. George telescopes or at DDO.
Experiential Learning. Our efforts here include: research courses (AST299Y, AST425H, PLN425H), laboratory and observing activities (AST325H and components of introductory-level courses), and a summer research assistant program for top undergraduates.
Writing Committee Recommendations. Our upper year major, specialist, and Planetary Science students already write reports in courses, laboratories, and independent study (the latter often leading to publication). DA can provide readily the Faculty writing component requirements in the lower level courses given proper TA support, which would more than double (§ 4.3).
Scientific Literacy. Scientific literacy has always been a primary objective in introductory astronomy courses. An advantage of Astronomy is that many of the concepts can be readily illustrated through simply having students look up at the night sky. We offer a popular history of astronomy course that emphasizes how the scientific method works as an approach to problem solving. The proposed new introductory course Life in the Universe will have scientific literacy as a central theme, an issue even for science students. Courses at the 200 level and above already normally have a significant component of graded written work.
As noted in § 2.2.2 we already include optional laboratory activities in our introductory science breadth courses. We propose to offer additional activities which will depend on data bases that are accessible on the Web (such as recent Hubble Space Telescope data). The Educational Technologist will help to develop these exercises which will give students practical experience in interpreting data and making statistical inferences.
Early Teacher Project. The participation of DA in the Astronomy and Physics stream of ETP (§ 2.2.4) will mean our students will be eligible for automatic entry to the B.Ed. program at OISE/UT, a significant enhancement for the Faculty.
Curriculum Renewal through Selective Programs. Our specialist program already identifies a tightly knitted cadre of students, as envisioned in model II of the Rolph report, and 4th year students become familiar with graduate student culture. There is an enriched upper year research program which could be expanded to include visits to use major observatories were funding available for a few elite students. Selective entry of students is anticipated for the Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Computation (``the new MPC'') program with which we collaborate (see appendix to Physics plan).
Computational Science. Our new faculty position and attendant courses will provide a unique perspective on high-end use of computers to solve real problems (§ 2.2.1, § 2.5.3).