General Astronomy

Today I’m thinking about a simple question: Which “modern physics achievements” are actually in massive everyday demand—yet are still only lightly covered in algebra-based General Physics?

If we want General Physics to feel connected to the real world (and real jobs), we should stop treating modern technology as an occasional “application” and instead add short, targeted modern inserts that connect directly to the classical topics we already teach.

Here are the biggest gaps that students encounter immediately in life and in industry:

✅ Semiconductors & devices (diodes, LEDs, solar cells, transistors) — the physics of how electronics truly work
✅ Power electronics & electrification (chargers, inverters, EV powertrains, grid issues) — the “electricity of civilization”
✅ Wireless/RF basics (antennas, propagation, interference, noise/SNR) — why Wi-Fi works… and why it fails
✅ Photonics & lasers (sources, detectors, fiber optics) — the backbone of telecom, imaging, and sensing
✅ Sensors everywhere (MEMS, inertial sensing, calibration, drift, noise, sampling) — turning the world into data
✅ Medical physics as systems (CT/MRI/ultrasound tradeoffs: resolution, dose, time, safety)
✅ Quantum technologies (lite but real) — qubits as fragile systems, decoherence, sensing, and what “quantum advantage” really means
✅ Physics of computation/AI — heat, energy limits, and why data centers are becoming an infrastructure story

The best part: these don’t require a new course. Many can be taught as 20–40 minute inserts exactly where they belong (after Gauss’s law → MOS/ESD; after EM waves → antennas & link budget; after optics → lasers & fiber; after energy/thermo → computing heat & efficiency).

If you teach General Physics: Which one “modern insert” would you add first—and where in the syllabus would you place it?

Find the rule for constructing the row elements for each row and insert the missing elements instead of the “?” signs
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bm_oers/62/

Find the rule for constructing the row elements for each row and insert the missing elements instead of the “?” signs This document presents a set of sequences with missing elements, each governed by a unique underlying rule. The task involves identifying the rule that dictates the arrangement of elements within each sequence and determining the missing items indicated by question marks ("?"). The sequences vary wi...

Pattern Discovery Exercises: Fill-in-the-Blank Sequence Tasks
https://zenodo.org/records/15252816

403 Forbidden

doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15252816 Pattern Discovery Exercises: Fill-in-the-Blank Sequence Tasks
doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15271654 Charging and Discharging Capacitors: Brightspace Package of an Arithmetic Quiz
doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15255416 Trying to Get the ChatGPT AI to Generate Educational Quizzes in a Specific Format Designed for Upload to Blackboard
doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28719704.V1 Molecular AI on Base of Hydrogen Bonds: Attempts of Simulation
doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15586565 Some Interesting Features of Water in Extreme Space Conditions: Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Quantum Mechanical Calculations
doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29247533 Measurement Lab Quiz – Exported as Brightspace Package
doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15555802 Artificial Intelligence and Astronomy: Lab Manual for Generative AI-Based Learning Activities
doi.org/10.5121/ijci.2025.140302 Integrating Universal Generative AI Platforms in Educational Labs to Foster Critical Thinking and Digital Literacy

ijcionline.com

https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/artificial-intelligence-in-education/forum/topic/artificial-intelligence-and-astronomy-lab-manual-for-generative-ai-based-learni/

Forum | Artificial Intelligence in Education | Artificial Intelligence and Astronomy: Lab Manual | CUNY Academic Commons The CUNY Academic Commons is an academic social network created by and for the City University of New York.

Dear Student,
If in one of the previous semesters at BMCC, you participated in the learning activity (lab work) in the General Astronomy course, where you used generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms to create video-textual AI responses to topics of General Astronomy.

We invite you to share your impressions and feedback by completing a short survey. Your responses will help us understand your experience with this learning activity, identify what worked well, and improve future versions of this activity.
The survey will ask about your experience working with AI chat platforms, image generators, video creation tools, and how this learning activity (lab work) influenced your learning, critical thinking, and creativity. It should take no more than 5–7 minutes to complete.
Your feedback is very important to us and will help enhance future students' learning experiences.
We encourage students, instructors, observers, and anyone with an interest in this topic to share their perspectives through this survey.
Please click the link below to begin the survey:
https://forms.gle/z8cMQEGfpD8U991u8
Participation is voluntary, and your answers will remain confidential.
Thank you for your time, your insights, and for helping us make this learning activity (lab work) even better!
Sincerely,
The Artificial Intelligence and Astronomy Lab Team
[email protected]

Artificial Intelligence and Astronomy - Lab Work or Thematic Activity in Class: Impression Survey

Dear Astronomy Professor,
I would like to propose conducting a special lab session or classroom activity at the end of this semester, based on the given manual: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zVHaAWcS2MeZIZRj6sk6sRsx43AhkQVa3Faeu0sL1Tk/edit?usp=sharing , Artificial Intelligence and Astronomy. The lab combines the astronomy topic with practical work using free, popular public generative AI platforms for data and context analysis, image generation, and video creation.

This interdisciplinary lab work would give students hands-on experience with technologies that are becoming essential in the modern world, while encouraging critical thinking and creativity. It fits within the Academic Freedom of Professors to introduce timely and relevant material.

If you are interested, I would be happy to assist with its organization.

Lab Manual: Artificial Intelligence and Astronomy. Corrected Artificial Intelligence and Astronomy Lab Manual Introduction Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems designed to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks typically include the following: learning from experience understanding language recognizing pat...