I vividly remember how my best teachers captivated my attention when I was a student, and one of my goals in teaching is to present astronomy (and science in general) in exciting, understandable terms. In my Astronomy 10 class, for example, I try to make astronomy "come alive" to students who may be taking the course primarily to satisfy a breadth requirement, while still challenging and inspiring the more interested students. I want all of them to enjoy learning about the subject and pondering its profound implications.

Although the material presented in Astronomy 10 is largely qualitative, it is my firm belief that a quantitative appreciation of the physical sciences is an important component of a general undergraduate education. Often, my graduate student instructors (GSIs) and I devise problems in which students actually end up deriving or calculating something of real astrophysical interest, like the lifetime of the Sun. We make such a complex problem accessible to students by decomposing it into a series of simple steps. In order to decrease the impersonal mood created by the huge lecture room, I strongly encourage questions in class, and often spend a substantial fraction of lecture time answering them. Whenever possible, I try to clarify difficult concepts by doing visual demonstrations with familiar objects such as balls and balloons. Finally, I give students many opportunities to look through telescopes at astronomical objects such as the Sun, stars, galaxies, nebulae, and planets. My GSIs and I take small groups of students to nearby observatories, including the Lick Observatory, where I obtain data with the 3-meter and 1-meter reflecting telescopes. In this way, my students get a close and personal view of science being conducted at a major research facility.

One of the great benefits of undergraduate education at Berkeley is that students can, in principle, be exposed to the top-notch research being done here and elsewhere. When something particularly exciting arises, I mention it in my lecture and show how it relates to what I have been teaching. I also explain the most recent results of my own research endeavors. Since I believe that excellent teaching and excellent research go hand-in-hand, I devote much of my time to the graduate students who are working with me. During the past few years, undergraduates have also become involved in my projects. This gives them invaluable training, and allows them to directly experience the thrill of discovery early in their careers.

It is especially important to get non-science students interested in science, to help rid them of their fears of science and mathematics, and to arouse their scientific curiosity. There are so many beautiful and fascinating things in the universe, and I am amazed at how easy it is to understand them in physical terms. I want my students to go outside, notice that the sky is blue, realize that there must be a logical physical explanation, and then deduce it by applying what they have learned. In this way, they enrich their lives by gaining a much deeper understanding of the universe and of our place within it.