Exploring Mars" and "Flight and Floating" are new courses that have been integrated into the Ripon College curriculum. "Exploring Mars" was developed for non-science major students to increase their general scientific interest through topics of space exploration and space science. "Flight and Floating" was designed for students with physics, math, and engineering interests, combining experimental design and mathematical modeling to study drag, lift, thrust, and buoyancy. Overview The goal of

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... s two-year project was to develop new undergraduate courses for a diverse audience of students, in topics of space exploration and aerospace studies. The first course, "Exploring Mars," introduced first-year students to the science of space exploration through topics such as space travel and energy technology, terraforming and colonizing Mars, and current events in space discoveries. One objective of this course was to increase general scientific interest in students who were not planning to major in the natural sciences. The second, two-part course sequence, "Introduction to Flight" and "Flight and Floating," combined mathematical modeling with experiments to observe and analyze floating and flying objects. The flight course sequence was intended for students with experience in physics and mathematics, and was especially suited for students planning to pursue further studies and/or careers in engineering and aerospace science. Each new course has been offered twice at Ripon College. With some revisions in course activities and content, "Exploring Mars" will be offered for a third time in the fall of 2011, and "Flight and Floating" will likely be offered on a two or three-year rotation in the future. This paper describes several course activities and provides examples of the course development that has occurred over the past two years. Exploring Mars: Course Design and Development Through labs, field trips, lecture, and other activities, first-year students in "Exploring Mars" covered a wide variety of topics in space science. The course largely focused on Mars (climate, weather, geography, rover and orbiter missions, life and water, terraforming and colonization), but also engaged students in broader topics such as energy technology (solar cells, fuel cells), space travel (rockets, magnetic sails), space ethics (space garbage, animals in space, terraforming), and current events in space exploration. The course was first taught in the fall of 2009 with an enrollment of twenty students, clustered with another first-year course entitled "Plants in Space." A detailed description of the original course curriculum, goals, and activities