HELP
The TA and I will do everything we can to help you do well in
the course. Help will be available outside of class several times
every week. We will announce times and places of the help sessions
about one week after the class begins. Extra help sessions will
be held before exams. Since we will be going over the problems
in the homework assignments, we ask you not to be late to the
help session if you want to hear a discussion of the first problem
in the assignment. Endless repeating of the first problem discussion
for the benefit of latecomers bores the students who were on
time and drives the instructor crazy.
OBSERVING
If you wish, there is a 9-inch telescope available for observing
planets and stars, operated by an astronomy graduate student.
It is available to you each clear Friday night 9:00 -
10:00 p.m. and each clear Saturday night 8:00 - 10:00
p.m. If you would like to learn how to operate the telescope
so that you can use it by yourself, see me.
LEVEL OF THE COURSE
AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS
This is a course for non-science majors. If you are one of these
people, you should have no trouble. If you are a math major with
several college math and physics courses, you are in the wrong
course.
The course introduces students to modern
astronomy with a special focus on how stars work. The course
uses some mathematics on homework, for which lots of help is
available, and no mathematics on exams.
HELP SESSIONS, GENERAL
REQUIREMENTS, AND DISCIPLINE
The help sessions are extremely important and very helpful. You
are urged to plan to attend at least one of them each week. You may attend as many as you wish. We will work through each assigned problem and go over any problems which students have with the lecture material. Please see the Help Sessions page for scheduled times. The rooms will be announced in a week or so after we are given the room assignments. Your schedule should allow you to attend at least one session each week. Again, I urge you to attend a help session.
We understand that people do their homework
together. Nevertheless,
we will not accept homework which is a direct copy of another
paper. Both papers will get a grade
of zero.
Cheating on exams will not be tolerated!
On both exams and homework we require complete
answers which include the method you used to get the answer.
Answers without an explanation of the method used will get no
credit.
I also expect your answers to be expressed
in legible, lucid, correctly spelled English sentences. If not,
you will have points deducted from your homework score.
Because this class is large we must have
your homework papers turned in by the time they are due and in
the correct place. Late homework papers or papers left in
the wrong place will not be graded. If you ask a friend to
turn in your paper, make certain that he/she knows where to leave
it. The time each homework set is due will be posted (usually
Fridays by 5:00 p.m.).
Turn in your homework in class before 5pm on the due date or leave it in the box, labeled for this class, on the 13th floor of RLM. The turn-in box is the one with a slot in its top near the floor. (See the drawing below.) But there are turn-in boxes for all astronomy classes. Be sure to find the one for our class. Papers will be picked up at 5pm sharp on the due date.
Here is a map to help you find the homework
boxes. The boxes are on the 13th floor of the RLM building (26th
and Speedway streets).
