The course was quite a wide selection of introductory things relating to the arctic; there were lectures on the impacts of climate change, how snowflakes form, how aurora are created, how avalanches happen, and an exercise in digging in the snow to identify layers.
The homeworks weren't trivial but weren't designed to trip you up either, especially if you'd read the recommended shortish texts. The hardest assignment for me was the exercise where each student had to pick a published paper from a big folder and summarise the findings in it -- I unwittingly picked one that was particularly heavy on the physics of magnetic storms, but there were some that looked more towards the social science side of things, and ones that were probably still physics-based but less buried under equations :)
There was also a tour around the space campus, showing us how various bits of equipment work or were created, which was neat. We nearly got to see a rocket launch that day, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to snowy weather (I at least got to try out my magnifier for snowflake observing instead as a result).
I've added a link to the course website at the top of the blog post; I think it's past the submissions deadline for next year's course but they did accept some late applications last year and Carol's very friendly if you wanted to ask about that.
As for why I did the course; Emily did it last year with a friend; I didn't feel like I had the time/energy to deal with university coursework in addition to work at the time. But they both enjoyed it so much I figured I should give it a go too! The fact that the course is currently free made it difficult to argue against, really.
no subject
The course was quite a wide selection of introductory things relating to the arctic; there were lectures on the impacts of climate change, how snowflakes form, how aurora are created, how avalanches happen, and an exercise in digging in the snow to identify layers.
The homeworks weren't trivial but weren't designed to trip you up either, especially if you'd read the recommended shortish texts. The hardest assignment for me was the exercise where each student had to pick a published paper from a big folder and summarise the findings in it -- I unwittingly picked one that was particularly heavy on the physics of magnetic storms, but there were some that looked more towards the social science side of things, and ones that were probably still physics-based but less buried under equations :)
There was also a tour around the space campus, showing us how various bits of equipment work or were created, which was neat. We nearly got to see a rocket launch that day, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to snowy weather (I at least got to try out my magnifier for snowflake observing instead as a result).
I've added a link to the course website at the top of the blog post; I think it's past the submissions deadline for next year's course but they did accept some late applications last year and Carol's very friendly if you wanted to ask about that.
As for why I did the course; Emily did it last year with a friend; I didn't feel like I had the time/energy to deal with university coursework in addition to work at the time. But they both enjoyed it so much I figured I should give it a go too! The fact that the course is currently free made it difficult to argue against, really.