CURRENT CLASSROOM COURSES
SCHC 115 is an undergraduate course for Honors College students that serves as a foundation for those with an interest in astronomy, with the goal of giving students a basic conceptual overview of astronomical objects and phenomena, allowing for hands-on experience with astronomical observation using telescopes, and encouraging the development of an appreciation for stars, galaxies, and the distant universe.
PHYS 546 is an upper-level undergraduate course for Physics majors and Astronomy minors, aimed at providing an overview of basic astrophysics, focusing on the structure and evolution stars.
PHYS 731 is a graduate-level course that seeks to allow for discussion, interpretation, and description of observations of the Milky Way and beyond, ranging from stellar kinematics to supermassive black holes. PHYS 731 also seeks to allow students to effectively describe basic cosmological models and their constraints, and provide observational evidence for these models. This class utilizes software programs to identify and quantify galaxy morphologies.
PHYS 746 is a graduate course for Physics students aimed at a more in-depth view of the foundations of astrophysics, especially stellar interiors, atmospheres, formation, and evolution.
CURRENT EXPERIENTIAL COURSES
ASTR 499
ASTR 499 is an undergraduate course for physics majors or astronomy minors, that gives students an introduction to conducting research, generally through obtaining and/or analyzing data on professional telescopes.
ASTR 533, 534 are upper-level undergraduate courses for Physics majors or Astronomy minors that involve either analyzing observational data obtained with large research-class telescopes, or obtaining and analyzing observations with the Melton Memorial Observatory.
ASTR 599 involves reading and presenting about current astronomical literature from research publications in the weekly Astronomy Journal Club meetings.
PAST CLASSROOM COURSES
PHYS 755A is a graduate level course with the goal of granting students knowledge in key concepts of astrophysics, with a focus in interstellar and intergalactic matter. Students will learn quantitative and qualitative aspects of IGM and ISM, and become acquainted with the physics and chemistry of interstellar dust and molecules. Some topics focused on in PHYS 755A include radiative transfer, curve of growth, and absorption line analysis. This class uses special software programs for line-profile fitting and photo-ionization modeling, among other things.
PHYS 755G is a graduate level course with the goal of giving students an overview of some of the key concepts in the astrophysics of galaxies.
PAST ONLINE COURSES
ASTR 111, 111L, 211, 211L, 311, 311L
ASTR 111, 211, 311 were self-paced courses (developed originally by the late Dr. Safko) that involved online lessons and assessments, along with in-person laboratories. Dr. Kulkarni managed/taught these courses for many years.