St. John's College, with its unique approach to education, has been particularly successful at integrating the sciences into a liberal arts curriculum. Because a working knowledge of observational astronomy is fundamental to understanding many of the readings of the St. John's program, in music and literature as well as in mathematics and physics, St. John's College is upgrading its capabilities with the purchase of a 14" telescope, equipped for photometric applications, installed in a permanently mounted dome on the Annapolis campus. A faculty study group is developing manuals and collecting original papers to guide the use of astronomical telescopes in a liberal arts setting.The addition of this telescope and laboratory manuals materially enhances the science portion of the curriculum and also benefits all other parts of the St. John's program. This project may be a model for other liberal arts colleges and a growing number of secondary schools who have expressed interest in the program.
