{"id":1888,"date":"2011-09-20T11:39:59","date_gmt":"2011-09-20T18:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studentlife\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2011-09-20T11:39:59","modified_gmt":"2011-09-20T18:39:59","slug":"saturn-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/2011\/09\/20\/saturn-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturn and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just got out of my Connections class, which is the interdisciplinary seminar all upperclassmen are required to take. The class is \u201cMars Exploration\u201d. Other than the fact that I get to hang out in Thompson more often (most of my classes are in Wyatt now since both my majors are in the humanities) this\u00a0 is exactly why I\u2019m so glad I came to a liberal arts school: I can take a class about astronomy, just because I\u2019ve ALWAYS\u00a0 wanted to, and not only is it about astronomy, it\u2019s about how planetary exploration relates to history, economics, and politics\u2026so it\u2019s perfect for a student like me who never even took a basic physics course in high school. I get to look at giant images of Mars and Venus in class and my homework is to take pictures of the moon with a telescope I make myself. It\u2019s a little overwhelming to sit in a classroom and realize consciously that the entire universe is reeling and spinning lightyears above my head. But I love that my education here, the classes I\u2019m required to take, broaden my horizons instead of narrowing them. With each class discussion, the universe becomes larger and more complex, but it also becomes more accessible. I am given the tools to explore it for myself. Tonight, I fully intend to spend an hour messing around with the Microsoft\u2019s World Wide Telescope, tracking constellations and looking at Saturn\u2019s rings up close. And after that, I need to write an essay about Shakespeare\u2019s Henry V…for\u00a0 a course that counts for my French major.\u00a0 Liberal arts education at its best! The world and its infinite intricacies opens itself up to me. Nothing is irrelevant. Nothing is off-limits.<\/p>\n

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Saturn<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just got out of my Connections class, which is the interdisciplinary seminar all upperclassmen are required to take. The class is \u201cMars Exploration\u201d. Other than the fact that I get to hang out in Thompson more often (most of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[94,103,128,206],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-helen-shears-12","tag-classes","tag-connections","tag-exploration","tag-liberal-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studentlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}