Cosmochemistry

EES

77350

Cosmochemistry

This course has as its focus: origin of elements, nuclides, and organic compounds; nature of planetary materials; condensation and protoplanetary disks; cosmic and solar system elemental and isotopic abundances; cosmochemical and geochemical fractionation and formation of volatiles, ices and cometary materials; carbon and planetary materials; origin and evolution of planetary materials; planet formation; and prebiotic compounds and their relation to the origin of life. Heavy emphasis will be placed on individual student research on subjects relevant to the course, and on analysis and critical review by all course participants.Learning Goals:To understand:1) the origin of elements, nuclides, and organic materials out of which the Solar System and life are made.2) the processes by which the components of the Solar System, and the Earth in particular, were created.3) the origin of pre-biotic compounds and the relationship of these compounds to the origin of life.4) the origin of volatile compounds, inorganic ices, origin of comets and their relation to the nature of the Earth's surface environment, and the origin of life.Outcomes:1) Understand the nature of science and the philosophy of scientific investigation.2) Develop a working knowledge and integrated understanding of the origin and evolution of planetary materials within the Solar System and the Cosmos.3) Develop a working knowledge of pre-biotic compounds and the relationship of these compounds to the origin of life.4) Develop a critical understanding of key scientific issues within the field of cosmochemistry and clearly express problems with data, data collection, and interpretation.5) Develop logical thinking and clearly express this thinking to refute hypotheses.6) Develop experience in writing scientific proposals worthy of submission to grant-funding agencies and discuss how funding works.Assessment: Students will be required to perform the following tasks throughout the course, and will be graded on their performance:1) Attend all lectures.2) Produce a one-page summary of each journal article we read each week, discussing the critical issues with that paper.3) Research proposal that clearly defines research goals and is the outline for the major class project (we will discuss in class the specifics of how to write a proposal),4) Panel discussion of proposal, where we will review each proposal and discuss the merit or weaknesses before projects are started.5) Produce an original research project with two components, a 10 min presentation and a 5 page paper. We will discuss the details of the paper in class, but it must be original research. It can involve data collection rather than propose data collection, and can be entirely literature based.

Offer as needed

Graduate School Graduate

Yes

030870