Gone Are Enrollments of Cosmic Scope

Three days a week, the students in Science A-47, “Cosmic Connections,” descend on Science Center B—the building’s largest lecture hall—for class.

Just a few years ago, the course would have almost filled the lecture hall’s nearly 500 seats. But while other perennially popular Core classes—like Social Analysis 10 and Moral Reasoning 22, “Justice”—have kept their enrollments steadily in the hundreds for years, Cosmic Connections has dwindled to just 72 students this semester.

After earning a 4.1 overall score (out of five) on the Committee of Undergraduate Education (CUE) Guide and just a 2.2 for difficulty—well below the mean that semester—from the 149 students enrolled in Cosmic Connections in 2003, the course’s enrollment jumped to 410 in 2004.

But starting in 2005, a new professor began teaching the course, and enrollment has been on the decline ever since.

Difficulty rose to 2.7 in 2005. And after earning a 3.5 for difficulty in 2006—above that semester’s mean—this year’s enrollment has dropped to the lowest level since 2000, the first year the course was offered.

Astronomy professor David Charbonneau, who began teaching the course in 2005 and earned a high 4.3 overall score for the class that year, admits that he has trouble explaining the perceived increase in the course’s difficulty or the drop in enrollment.

“I was kind of puzzled by it,” Charbonneau says. “I’ve been teaching it three years and it didn’t change between the first and second year. I didn’t change the readings or level of difficulty or amount of assignments or exams.”

‘THE WAY SCIENCE WORKS’

In 2000, Professor of Astronomy Lars E. Hernquist developed and launched Cosmic Connections for a small crowd of 57. He designed the course as an introductory astronomy class for students with little background in the field.

“I wanted a course that would give students an introduction to the basic concepts of astronomy but to connect it to other disciplines,” Hernquist says.

He adds that he also wanted to focus on “the way science works and how scientists approach the work they do.”

The size of the course more than doubled each time Hernquist repeated the course, in 2003 and 2004. By the fall of 2004, the course’s enrollment had risen above 400; it was that year’s largest science core.

After his third time teaching Cosmic Connections, Hernquist became chair of the Astronomy Department and stopped teaching the course.

“I found that teaching a big core class like that was time consuming, and with all my duties I wasn’t able to devote as much concentration as I would have liked,” Hernquist says.

Charbonneau, who first arrived at Harvard in 2004, succeeded Hernquist at the height of the course’s popularity.

“I really enjoy introducing science to nonscientists,” Charbonneau says, “and trying to get their enthusiasm up by telling them that there are a lot of exciting things going on.”

Charbonneau taught a class of 336 in 2005 and earned impressive ratings in the annual CUE Guide, including the 4.3 overall score for the class and a 4.8 personal score.

But Charbonneau’s high CUE scores don’t seem to have been enough to outweigh the rising difficulty ratings.

According to Sarah E. Wick ’10—who is currently enrolled in Cosmic Connections—the course’s rumored difficulty discouraged some students looking for an easier way to complete their Core requirement.

“I know people who didn’t take it because they thought it was so hard,” she says.

“I heard that they made the finals last year a lot harder, and that it used to be a much easier science alternative for people who aren’t scientists,” she adds.

SMALL CLASS PERKS

Although the drop in enrollment has been a surprise for Charbonneau, it has not necessarily been an unpleasant one. He says that the effects of the decreased enrollment have been mostly positive.

“I’m kind of enjoying the fact that it’s a smaller class,” he says. “I can see everyone’s face and see if they are understanding the course...In an ideal world, all the classes here would be smaller.”

Since teaching fellows were hired before course enrollment was determined, the lower enrollment means a more favorable teaching fellow-to-student ratio.

Charbonneau had originally estimated that there would be at least 15 students to each teaching fellow; currently, there are only seven.

“I think that makes it much more attractive for the enrolled students,” Charbonneau says.

And the reported increase in difficulty has not necessarily prevented students from enjoying the course.

Yuriy Shteinbuk ’10 says that he has never regretted his decision to take Cosmic Connections.

“I think it’s a great class, I’m really excited to come here every day,” he says. “There’s a demo every day—it’s never just pure lecture. One day [Charbonneau] got into a rocket chair and zoomed across the room to demonstrate one of Newton’s laws. Another time he froze a grapefruit in liquid nitrogen and broke it on the floor.”

Shteinbuk adds that the class, which is not curved, “isn’t too difficult. It’s fair.”

Charbonneau says he plans to teach the course until the Core Curriculum is replaced by General Education.

“I’d love to teach it until the time the new requirements are implemented,” he sais. “Then we’ll come up with new courses.”

Even then, Hernquist suggests, the switch to Gen Ed may not be the end of Cosmic Connections.

“It’s hard to predict, but I think there will be a place for courses similar to Cosmic Connections in the new program,” Hernquist says.

As for student enrollment in Cosmic Connections, Charbonneau remains positive.

“Who knows, maybe next year it’ll be up again...I certainly expect to teach it next year, and I’m looking forward to it,” he says.

—Staff writer Sue Lin can be reached at suelin@fas.harvard.edu.