Announcements Archive
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: | Course grades have been submitted. We wish everyone a wonderful Winter Break! |
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Events coming up next week: We will have a one-time special Help Session on Mon., Dec. 5 from 5:30-6:30 PM in RLM 15.216B, the usual help session room. Note the different time from the Wed. help session. This is a chance to get some help before the optional, comprehensive final exam on Thurs., Dec. 8, 9:00 AM - noon in our usual classroom. You can also pick up graded quizzes, glossaries, and lecture write-ups at the help session, and turn in Star Party slips, although the Star Party slips may also be turned in at the final exam. Your semester grade will be calculated as described in class on Nov. 15 and explained in the Syllabus. To estimate your total, add up all the points, not percentages, from the first 3 exams, the total participation points (but no more than 15), the total quiz points (but no more than 10), plus any extra credit points. This will be on a scale of 0-100. Now look up that semester total on the Grade Table on the Exams page, and you will find your expected semester letter grade. This is your grade if you do no further work for the class. Once the Exam 4 scores are posted, you can do the same calculation as above using the best 3 out of 4 exam scores, which may be different than the sum of Exams 1, 2, and 3. This is your revised course total. It is still provisional, because if you take the final exam and get a higher score than any one of the previous exams, you can substitute the final exam for the previous one. In some cases this will improve your course letter grade. Best of luck, and a good winter break to all! |
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We had our last quiz on Nov. 22, and also another credit-earning activity. On Tues., Nov. 29 we will finish the story of how our Solar System's planets, including Earth, formed. That will be the final due date for write-ups from the Moon lecture last week. Participation in the Course Instructor Survey that day will also earn a point of credit. Exam 4 will be on Thurs., Dec. 1, and unlike the previous exams, it will start at 12:30 PM. The Study Guide for Exam 4 was distributed in class on Nov. 22, and is posted. Note that Glossaries for Unit 4 are due at the beginning of the Exam and count as yet one more participation credit. There will be a Help Session on Wed., Nov. 30 in the usual place and time (see right, below the picture). Events the following week: We will have a one-time special Help Session on Mon., Dec. 5 from 5:30-6:30 PM in RLM 15.216B, the usual help session room. Note the different time from the Wed. help session. This is a chance to get some help before the optional, comprehensive final exam on Thurs., Dec. 8, 9:00 AM - noon in our usual classroom. Your semester grade will be calculated as described in class on Nov. 15 and explained in the Syllabus. To estimate your total, add up all the points, not percentages, from the first 3 exams, the total participation points (but no more than 15), the total quiz points (but no more than 10), plus any extra credit points. This will be on a scale of 0-100. Now look up that semester total on the Grade Table on the Exams page, and you will find your expected semester letter grade. This is your grade if you do no further work for the class. |
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There are two unexpected new opportunities to earn credit! First, there will be a special lecture about the Moon and why it looks the way it does (the "maria" or seas, which are really ancient lava fields), on Thurs., Nov. 17 from 4-5 PM in JGB, across the street from Welch Hall. See the Out of Class Activities page for more details (scroll down). Like the earlier Public Lectures, a write-up is required. In addition, we will accept Glossaries for credit for Unit 4, after all, but these must be turned in at the beginning of Exam 4 on Dec. 1. Our final topic is the formation of the Sun and its planetary system, including the Earth. This is addressed in ch. 8 of King, so we will finish the book at the same time that we finish the semester. Your semester grade will be calculated as described in class on Nov. 15 and explained in the Syllabus. To estimate your total, add up all the points, not percentages, from the first 3 exams, the total participation points (but no more than 15), the total quiz points (but no more than 10), plus any extra credit points. This will be on a scale of 0-100. Now look up that semester total on the Grade Table on the Exams page, and you will find your expected semester letter grade. This is your grade if you do no further work for the class. As of Wed., Nov. 16, we will still have one or more quizzes, one or more participation points, Exam 4, and the optional final exam. There will be Help Sessions on Wed., Nov. 30 for Exam 4, and Mon., Dec. 5, 5:30-6:30 PM (note special time!) for the Final Exam. |
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Exam 3 will be on Nov. 10, in the last 40 minutes of class. The format and policies will be the same as for the previous two exams. The Study Guide for this exam was distributed last Thursday, and we will hold Office Hours and a Wednesday afternoon Help Session this week. In studying for this exam we recommend that you look over the feedback files for the In-Class Participation Activities and Quizzes. The Feedback File for the Nov. 1 activitity includes a particularly broad review of important material on this exam. Also note that there are several transcripts of the excellent videos we've viewed in the last two weeks, which may also be useful in providing explanations. Glossaries for Unit 3 are due at the beginning of class on Tues., Nov. 15, or you may turn it in at the exam. On that date, we should reach the full set of available participation credits, 15. However, we will have several additional in-class activities after that, which you can use to make up for missed points earlier in the semester. The final topics in the class will be the evolution of close binary star systems, where the two stars affect each other's aging; finding neutron stars and black holes in binary systems; and formation of our Sun and its planets. You will find relevant reading in the King book, from the end of ch. 5 and chs. 6, 7, and 8. |
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We have now had two midterm exams in the course, at least one of which must count towards your course grade. If you are considering dropping the class, Nov. 1 is the deadline. Please Note: Do not pay attention to the columns on Canvas that give your quiz and participation totals in percentages. These are calculated in Canvas using rules that DO NOT apply to our class. See the course Syllabus for a detailed explanation of how the course grade will be computed. We are now really discussing the lives and deaths of the stars, addressed in chapters 3 - 6 of the King book, although we are covering many topics in more depth than the book. I continue to post not only the class slides, but transcripts of some of the lengthier and more fundamental videos, and feedback on quizzes, exams, and participation activities. Exam 3, to be given on Nov. 10, will cover this core material (ha, ha) of the course. The Study Guide for Exam 3 will be available online no later than Friday, Nov. 4 afternoon. It may be available sooner, but there is no guarantee of that. There will be a Help Session on Wed., Nov. 9 but we are discontinuing the help sessions on no-exam weeks due to lack of demand. |
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Exam 2 is coming up on Thursday, Oct. 20. The Study Guide for it has been available since last week. We will hold regular office hours and a help session for it this week. In preparing for this exam, don't neglect to review the feedback files on recent quizzes and in-class activities. I have also posted several additional video transcripts that are worth reviewing. Having brought us up to the epoch when stars began forming and transforming the composition of the universe, we will now delve into the lives of the stars and the elements they make in more detail, as well as the final states of the stellar cores. There will be considerable reading in King's book on this topic. The next glossary will be due the Tuesday after Exam 2, Oct. 25, at the beginning of class. It should include terms and concepts discussed in the period between Exam 1 and now. This can count as Participation Credit (towards the 15 available points). |
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After finishing the topic of the formation of stars and galaxies in the early universe, we turn to stars. First we review material that should have been covered in your Ast 301 course, but you might not recall in detail. It's recommended to read the rest of ch. 1, if you haven't already done so. The goal is not only to know what the basic properties of stars are, but how they are determined from observations. Often the hardest property to determine is age; this is best learned from studying groups of stars, such as star clusters, that formed together. Prof. Dinerstein will be on professional travel for most of the next week and a half. In her absence, the class will be led by Prof. Chris Sneden. Astronomy questions can be addressed to him, but record-keeping (scores on Canvas), grading of quizzes, etc. questions should be addressed to the TAs. Prof. Dinerstein will be back the week of Oct. 17, in time for Exam 2 on Oct. 20. The Study Guide for Exam 2 will be available about a week before the exam. Office hours and help session will be held at the usual times the week of Oct. 17-21. |
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We are now talking about some of the more exotic aspects of gravity, including dark matter, gravitational lensing, and gravitational waves (detected by LIGO). Dark matter is the key to our current picture of how galaxies form. This will lead us on to the story of how the first stars formed and what their properties are, so you'll want to review this topic from your introductory course, or at least read the rest of ch. 1 in King (pages 6-13). The numerical scores for Exam 1 can now be looked up on Canvas. See the table on the Exams page to understand how your score compares with the overall class distribution. See the "Frequently Missed Questions" file for common misunderstandings. If you want to go over your own individual exam, we do not return these but will be happy go over what you missed during office hours, if you make an appointment in advance (we have to locate your exam to do this!). Thanks to one of your classmates, I have learned that the public lecture on Pluto will soon be available in the archives of the ESI website. Once it is posted I will announce a deadline for write-ups that will be a couple of weeks after the initial posting. |
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In the coming week we will review some properties of gravity and dark matter that should have been covered in your introductory class, but are necessary for understanding our current picture of the formation of stars and galaxies in the early universe. This general topic is not covered by King, but there are a few pages about basics of gravity, pages 6-7 and 15-17. We will also touch on the recent stunning first direct detection of gravitational waves with the LIGO experiment (described in the public lecture last Wednesday). Exam 1 is being graded. Scores will be posted once the letter grade to numerical score correspondence has been determined, and adjustments arising from the "argued" questions have been made. (Several students earned an extra point this way, and one student earned two points!) We will not be returning the exam booklets, but if you want to look over your argued or missed questions you can do so during office hours, as long as you make an appointment in advance. (This is necessary, to find your exam among the other 190 papers.) There will be a "feedback" file for the Exam covering and explaining the most commonly missed questions, posted on the Exams page. The first round of glossaries is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, Sep. 27. This is an optional assignment, but earns participation credit which can take the place of a missed in-class participation exercise. A description of a glossary can be found on Slide 2 from Aug. 30. They must be turned in as hard copy, on 8 x 10 (or 8.5 x 11) sized sheets of paper. No emailed glossaries will be accepted. We will treat these in a similar spirit as the in-class activities: 1 credit is given for any good-faith effort. The number of entries can be between 12 and 25 terms. No late glossaries will be accepted; however, we will repeat this exercise later in the semester, for terms and concepts introduced later on. |
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Exam 1 will be given during the second half of class on Thursday, September 22. Bring pencils for filling out scantron sheets. We will supply the scantrons. This will be a closed-book, closed-notes exam of 25 multiple-choice questions. The Study Guide was distributed in class and is posted on the Exams page. There will be a Help Session on Wed., Sep. 21, at the usual time and place, and also several office hours this week. Time and place are listed below the image at right. Quiz 3 was returned on Tues., Sep. 20. Although we did not have time on Tuesday to go over the quiz in detail, you can look at the feedback for it on the Quizzes page, which also has feedback files for the earlier quizzes. Similarly, feedback for the in-class participation activities can be found on that class page. The secure interface for course materials including Class Slides, feedback files on Quizzes and Activities, etc., is now in place. The credentials needed to access these were announced at the last four classes. If you were absent, you can get them only in person, by attending class, help sessions, or office hours. |
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The secure interface for course materials including Class Slides, feedback files on Quizzes and Activities, etc., is now in place. The credentials needed to access these were announced at the last three classes, so if you don't have them you are probably building up excessive absences, which is a poor strategy for success in this course (see Syllabus). As announced repeatedly, we will not email or post the username and password; you must get them in person by attending class, help sessions, or office hours. Reminder: Monday's office hour has been moved to 2-3 PM (instead of 1-2 PM) in response to student demand. Exam 1 will be given during the second half of class on Thursday, September 22. Bring pencils for filling out scantron sheets. We will supply the scantrons. This will be a closed-book, closed-notes exam of 25 multiple-choice questions. The Study Guide was distributed Thurs., Sep. 15 and is posted on the Exams page. Quiz 3 is being graded and will be returned on Tues., Sep. 20. A quick scan of the papers showed that many students are shaky on some concepts involving light, especially involving emission and absorption lines. Responses to question 1 of the quiz in particular seemed to confuse the roles of electrons and photons, and did not adequately cover what the question asked: Why are the emission and absorption lines at the same wavelengths for a particular kind of atom, and how is energy being conserved when you see emission lines coming from atoms? We highly recommend that you review the slides about light on September 8 and 13 (also September 15, for the Doppler shift). |
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Important: We will soon be setting up the security portal for class materials, which will be needed in order to access any of the pdf's on the website. The username and password were announced on Thursday, and will be announced again in class on Tuesday. This information will be available only in class, at the help sessions, or by seeing the T.A.s or instructor during office hours: it will NOT be posted or emailed. Make a note of this information as soon you see it, because once it is in place you will no longer be able to download materials without the password. We're glad to announce that the lighting in Welch 3.502 has finally been fixed, so we will do the spectroscopy demonstration on Tuesday (Sep. 13). We will discuss other aspects of light including the Doppler shift (King, pp. 1-5). This will lead into the topic of the expanding universe and cosmology. Although not covered in King's book, you should have had some exposure to it on your introductory astronomy course, most likely at the end of the course. In discussing conditions in the early universe, we will again encounter nuclear reactions and subatomic particles, before moving on to dark matter and its role in the formation of stars and galaxies. Quiz 2 should be graded and returned on Tuesday. The first midterm exam will be given on Thursday, Sep. 22. A Study Guide will be posted on or before Friday, Sep. 16. Reminder: There are two Public Talks this week for which you can earn extra credit. In order to receive this credit, you must submit a hand-written write-up in your own words about what you learned. (No credit will be given for verbatim copies of the slides.) Keep it to half to a full page at most. The write-ups for both talks are to be turned in to the T.A.s before or after class (or during their office hours) no later Thurs., Sep. 29 in class. See the Out of Class Activities page for details. |
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Tuesday's (Sep. 6) class was about the Sun: its inner structure and how energy is carried through it, and details of the fusion reactions in the core and the neutrinos they produce. We watched a fairly long video excerpt (all others in this will be shorter); a transcript is now posted on the Video Transcripts page. (Reminder: Not all videos will have posted transcripts, but most of the longer ones will.) On Thursday, after a few last words about fusion and neutrinos, we will review the basic properties of light. This should be familiar from your introductory course, but the Background Survey revealed some gaps which need to be addressed. Chapter 1, pp. 1-5 of King should be useful. However, from here we will move on to some topics not covered in this book. First, we'll talk about the Big Bang and the fusion reactions that occurred in the first few minutes. Then we'll talk about gravity and dark matter, and how stars and galaxies formed. |
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On Thursday, Sep. 1, we finished reviewing some basic facts about atoms and energy, and began talking about the Sun. If you want to be up to date on the reading, you should finish reading ch. 2 and most of ch. 3 in the King book, which includes pages 14 - 40. For next Thursday, you can also read ch. 1, pages 1 - 5. Our first pop quiz was on Thursday. It will be graded, and returned to class next Tuesday. A feedback file will be posted on the Quizzes page. Summary and feedback files for the in-class exercises are posted on the "In-Class Participation" files. We are also starting to post credits for assignments and quizzes on Canvas. Warning: You should ignore any columns in Canvas with a percent sign. These are generated automatically by Canvas, but have no significance or are downright misleading, for this particular course. The first weekly Help Session will be held on Wednesday, September 7, in RLM 15.216B, which is the Astronomy Classroom. This will give you a chance to ask more questions about the activity and quiz questions, and other things that puzzle you. |
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: | At our first class meeting on August 25, we reviewed the syllabus (see link at left), took a Background Survey (earning participation credit), and reviewed the structure and terminology of atoms and nuclei. See pages 29-34 in the King book for a discussion of the latter topics. On August 30 we will move on to concepts relating to energy, force, and motion, and properties of the Sun (see chapter 2 in King). In-class activities and pop quizzes may start as soon as next week (Aug. 29 - Sep. 2). |
9 December 2016
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