Proposed at the AAPT workshop, Syracuse University, July 20-21, 2006

Your answers to each of these questions should have a major effect on how you structure your course and the goals you set for it.  But there are many more questions to be asked and much to be said about different answers to these questions.  A copy of this set of decisions questions has been placed on the DecisionQuestion page of  AAPT's TGRU wiki.  Go there to contribute your own thoughts and to add to or modify this set.  When the list and comments becomes more perfect, we can put it here on the main web page.

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DECISION QUESTIONS 

You and Your Department 

· How much time is available?  10 wks, 15 wks, 30 wks?

· Is this an ongoing course or a one-shot special topics course?

· What is your background in general relativity?

· What part of the subject is of the most interest to you?
 

The Students

· What is the physics background of your students?  Major or non-major?  Had Mechanics?  Had E&M?  Had some astrophysics?  Had beginning string theory?

· What is the math background of your students?  Had advanced calculus?  Had differential geometry?

·  What are the likely motivations of the students?  General interest?  For use in astrophysics? For use in gravitational wave physics?  As an introduction to string theory?  Always wanted to know what a tensor was?
 

The Content 

·  Is your course a prerequisite for later courses in your department?

·  What purpose does the course serve for your class?

·  What do students need or want to hear about?  Solving the Einstein equation? Some particular application?

·  What are you a master of?

· Is there a focus?  Gravitational waves, black holes, cosmology, formalism?

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