Haverford Moodle

ASTR 204 is the Introduction to Astrophysics class required for both astronomy and astrophysics majors and astronomy minors. This course provides a broad physical foundation to astronomy and astrophysics and serves as a prerequisite for the study of advanced topics. We will cover the physics of stars and stellar remnants, nebulae and star formation, as well as an introduction to Galactic and extragalactic astronomy and the basics of observational and theoretical cosmology.

Astro 341 is a laboratory class for observational astrophysics consisting of observing projects using the CCD camera on the 16" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (in the large dome of the Strawbridge Observatory), and/or using small radio telescope(s) during an (optional) trip to the Green Bank Observatory. Data from your observations will be analyzed with either an image processing software package (AstroImageJ) or Python. A detailed observing log will be kept (and submitted) along with one sets of results written up as formal reports in the style of scientific paper and presented at the end of the semester. Various scaffolding assignments across themes related to observational astrophysics will be done by all students, used to support project work.

In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of star formation, from gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud to formation of a nuclear burning core. You will gain experience solving physical problems and developing physical insights. You will learn about physical processes and order-of-magnitude estimation techniques. This class will fill in the size scales between ISM and stars, and will have some overlap with each.

Astro 352 is a 0.5 credit upper level astronomy/astrophysics elective. We will cover the basics of modern extragalactic science (a review of our knowledge of the Milky Way and external galaxies) alongside hands on projects in python involving data science/statistical techniques used to investigate them. Assessment will be project based, with regular coding assignments (in python) done during class time, and guided reading of both current, and classic astrophysical literature. Students will leave with an understanding of extragalactic astrophysics as a modern data focused science.

Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes that drive life. In this course, we will delve into the molecular world of cells, exploring the structures and functions of the four major macromolecules: nucleic acids, amino acids, carbohydrates, and lipids. We will investigate how enzymes catalyze reactions, how cells generate and utilize energy, and how some of these processes are regulated. Through lectures, discussions, case studies, and assessments, you will develop a strong foundation in biochemistry, preparing you for advanced studies in biology and related fields.

Introduction: When you look around in your everyday life it is possible to find a vast array of different kinds of animals, from ants to humans to squirrels and everything in between! All the more incredible is the fact that this is just a small subset of the entire variety of animals – there are many more animals no longer alive and many living animals that you can’t even see by just looking around. Despite this impressive diversity we are all related to one another by a shared genetic code. There has been long-standing curiosity about the origins of animal diversity and more recently about how changes to the genetic code may lead to changes in animal form. However, to begin to understand these types of questions we first need to examine another, equally incredible process: how a single fertilized egg transforms into a whole organism. This process is what we term “developmental biology” and at its core again is the genetic code. The genetic code contains information needed to build an organism and during development that genetic information is translated into physical form. But if the cells of an organism all contain basically identical genetic information how is this used to make the many different cells of the body and to direct the assembly of those cells into a functional unit such as ourselves? Once we begin to understand this process of building individual organisms we can then ask how changes in developmental mechanisms lead to differences we see between organisms. In this upper-level biology course we therefore explore some of the basic principles of developmental biology and how they relate to questions of evolution and animal diversity.

Goals:
• In the first half of this course we will review the basic mechanisms and principles of developmental biology with a specific emphasis on the use of “model systems” in modern research.
• Throughout the course we will continue to develop skills of critical thinking in evaluating the techniques and experiments that provide the basis for our knowledge in this field.
• In the second half of the course we will become familiar with some principles of evolutionary biology as they relate to developmental biology.
• The second half of the course will also involve reading and assessing primary literature for specific example case studies.

This course covers an understanding of the biochemical pathways that are essential for metabolic processes, and extending this to appreciate select biochemical pathways responsible for metabolism in the central nervous system. A two-pronged approach will be applied, studying: (1) the creation of biomolecules and their role in metabolism; and (2) structure/function relationships in enzymes. A complementary goal is to appreciate the importance of mutation in metabolic proteins and their impact on human metabolic disease. The central metabolic roles of glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation will be reviewed at the start of this course, building on learning goals in Bio201.

Welcome to Immunology! I am excited to meet you all and talk about the beauty macrophages, B-cells, T-cells and more in the coming weeks!

Biological research depends on collecting, analyzing, and presenting data. This course will introduce the art of working with data at all stages of the scientific process, including data organization, analysis, and visualization. By analyzing real datasets, we will discuss the logic behind several foundational statistical tests and consider their strengths and limitations. Along the way, we will learn to detect misleading uses of statistics and graphs, and develop proficiency in Excel and R.