# Foreword

The purest goals of science are to understand more about ourselves, about the things around us, about our origins. Achieving this is perhaps not as practical as inventing a machine to do things more efficiently, or as critical as developing a drug to fight a disease. Such goals however are meaningful in shaping the way we think, and help us to find optimal solutions to coexist and connect with the world we live in.

# Learning Objectives

At the end of this lesson, you should be familiar with the terminologies, history and early models of our Universe. You will also begin to understand astronomy as a scientific discipline based on observational evidence. Finally, you will be introduced with the basics of telescopes and use one to look at celestial objects.

# Learning Flow

Before the lecture, you will self-learn some astronomy through Section 1.1. During the lecture in week 1, we will go through parts (not all) of the content in Sections 1.2 and 1.3 as well as in-class Activities 1 and 2. During tutorial in week 2, mentors will facilitate the discussion of question in Section 1.5 and perform Activity 3. Please attempt the discussion questions before the tutorial.