Two-Year Community. Life In The Universe: An Interdisciplinary Seminar Course

An investigation of the possibility of life in the universe, or astrobiology, is an ideal topic for an interdisciplinary seminar course. Answering the topic's inherent questions--whether life exists elsewhere in the universe and, if it does indeed exist, whether we on Earth could contact such life--requires an interdisciplinary approach and multiple perspectives from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Described are several highlights of a community college's 15-week seminar course, Life in the Universe, including students' perceptions of the course elements as ascertained from an end-of-course survey. (Contains 4 tables.)