Some professors really know how to make learning fun and engaging. Take Josh Smith and Jocelyn Read, physics professors at Cal State Fullerton, for example. The two invited students in their introductory astronomy classes, as well as students in the Physics Club, to look at the cosmos and actually see what they have been learning in the classroom.

“Throughout the semester we set up observing nights so that our students can see with their own eyes the objects they are learning about in class,” said Smith. “Over the past few weeks our students have been learning about the motions of the night sky — that stars and planets rise in the east and set in the west, and rotate around a giant wheel with its hub at Polaris, the North Star.”

Telescopes were set up on the Engineering and Computer Science Lawn, and more than 40 people showed up to the informal astronomy class tonight. About a third of them weren’t even part of the astronomy class, Smith said. Some who came were from the Physics Club and others heard about the event through the CSUF sub-Reddit page.

Attendees looked at the moon, constellations, and some even got the opportunity to see Mars set in the west, behind the Pollak Library.

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