\u201cHumans are just not that important,\u201d says Dr. Randall Milstein, NASA Astronomer-in-Residence and instructor of HC 407: Comparative Planetology.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s a humbling statement, but one fitting when viewing Earth and humanity from a universal context. That\u2019s exactly what students in the spring section of HC 407: Comparative Planetology will spend 2 hours per week discussing and discovering as Dr. Milstein guides them on a journey exploring our Solar System and beyond.<\/p>\n
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Dr. Milstein teaches a number of colloquia in the Honors College, ranging from Comparative Planetology<\/em> to Science of Art\/The Art of Science<\/a><\/em> to Sacred Places and Astronomy<\/em>. His classes incorporate his own personal background \u2013 Dr. Milstein holds an Associate of Fine Arts in Photography, along with three other degrees (including his Ph.D.) in Earth Science and Geology, having completed his doctoral research in astrogeology.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Milstein values what he calls a \u201cRenaissance perspective\u201d in himself and in students. In order to be the best scientist or engineer one can be, he thinks, one must also indulge their creative tendencies from time to time. Research by leaders in creativity studies supports this notion; in one study<\/a>, scientists with diverse interests in both their scientific field and the humanities were found to be more successful than colleagues engaging in fewer, less integrated nonscientific activities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [aesop_image img=”http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/files\/2019\/03\/Art-of-Planetary-Motion-Body.jpg” panorama=”off” align=”center” lightbox=”off” caption=”Dr. Milstein presenting on Oregon State University’s involvement in science and the arts” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When he isn\u2019t teaching, researching or serving as Astronomer-in-Residence for the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium, Dr. Milstein enjoys reading, spending time outdoors, participating in an annual talk on Star Wars and Star Trek<\/a>, attending comic and pop culture conventions<\/a> and photographing dancers<\/a>, further blending his passions for science and the arts. It\u2019s these passions Dr. Milstein sees reflected in honors students who are actively engaged in their learning, constantly asking questions and teaching their instructor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI take the \u2018honor\u2019 in \u2018Honors College\u2019 to mean it\u2019s an honor I get to teach there,\u201d Dr. Milstein says. He values the interaction with highly motivated students in an atmosphere where they can share their thoughts and truly engage with both the material and each other. \u201cI consider students my colleagues in learning,\u201d he says. In honors courses, \u201cstudents can actually put in their two cents.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEvery day, I learn something new,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Randall Milstein instructs five honors colloquia classes: Comparative Planetology, Crises, Catastrophes, and Cataclysms in Earth\u2019s History, Science of Art\/The Art of Science, The Science of Science Fiction and Sacred Places and Astronomy. Be sure to register for one of these colloquia next term!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n By Christopher McCracken: Student Media Writer, Honors College<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cHumans are just not that important,\u201d says Dr. Randall Milstein, NASA Astronomer-in-Residence and instructor of HC 407: Comparative Planetology. It\u2019s a humbling statement, but one fitting when viewing Earth and humanity from a universal context. That\u2019s exactly what students in the spring section of HC 407: Comparative Planetology will spend 2 hours per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9319,"featured_media":7438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,1163399,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-courses-faculty","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3562"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8050,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions\/8050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}