The Beginner’s Guide to the Universe is a 2-unit course at UC Berkeley that I founded in 2019 along with Shashank and Shishir Dholakia. It aims to introduce physics/astrophysics non-majors to overarching themes and discoveries in physics, with each week covering a different field of physics.
Basically, my vision for the class was that, one day, our student will pick up a newspaper and see a popular science headline about a new discovery, and have a broad idea of what it is, why it’s important, and what to be skeptical about.
Yonna Kim and Orion Ning, who joined the team during the Spring and Fall 2020 semesters, contributed heavily to the course’s continued development. This course is registered under the course number Astronomy 98. The Beginner’s Guide to the Universe is affiliated with Democratic Education at Cal (DeCal). The syllabus for the first time that I ever taught this course can be found here.
Funny attendance form answers:
Nicholas Rui 