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DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY |
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COURSES |
| ASTRONOMY
301 Introduction to Astronomy |
PROFESSOR: TEACHING ASSISTANT:
TEXTBOOKS AND MATERIALS: Discovering Astronomy, 4th ed. by Shawl, Robbins, and Jefferys. Do not buy the associated Activities Manual. ORGANIZATION AND GRADING OF THIS COURSE: Your grade will come from short quizzes given approximately every two or two and a half weeks during the semester. Six quizzes will be given, each about 30 minutes long at most. The two lowest quiz grades will be dropped, so the remaining 4 each count 25 % of your final grade. There will be no final in the course. The testing procedure is different from the usual methods and deserves mention. The questions will be essay. About 1 or 1.5 weeks before a quiz, I will pass out a set of study questions -- about 15 in all. These study guides summarize the most important points of the reading and lectures and focus your studying. When you come in to take the test, I will designate 3 or 4 questions to be answered. These are the same questions that appear in the Study Guides. So you study all the questions but only have to answer 3 or 4. There are no make-up quizzes), since dropping 2 out of 6 quizzes is more than adequate to allow for normal (occasional) sickness, bad days, and other problems. Unusual circumstances such as severe medical problems causing you to miss more than 2 quizzes will be considered on an individual basis. Bring such matters to my attention as soon as you notice them developing. By the end of the semester, it is generally too late to do anything about it. This quiz-dropping policy has worked quite well in the past, and it gets me out of the business of deciding whether or not you had a "good" or a "bad" reason for missing a quiz. On the evening before the quiz, there will
be a review and help session to help you study (see below). AIDS TO SUCCESS IN THIS CLASS: Notice that every chapter has an overview at the start and a chapter summary at the end. The end-of-chapter materials are particularly useful. The text also contains many questions (Inquiries) interspersed in the body of the text itself. In most textbooks, the "questions to aid in studying" are located at the back of the chapter where they can be conveniently ignored. In this book, the questions occur at the point where they are relevant. When you see one of these inquiries, you should stop and try to answer it. If you can, you are probably understanding the material. If you can't, you should begin finding out why. The inquiries help to change the study process from passive memorization to a more active learning experience. The inquires are answered at the end of the chapter, but if you simply turn to the end and read the answer, you will not learn the material as well as someone who really attempts to answer the questions realistically in a quiz situation. There are also Discovery exercises in many chapters that also stress active learning. They are simple activities that in general you can do on your own that assist you in learning some astronomy by direct observations. A blue box in the text will indicate where a certain Discovery logically fits. The directions themselves are placed at the end of the chapter to avoid disrupting the flow of ideas. You can understand the chapter without doing the Discoveries, but they definitely increase your comprehension. I will hand out a summary indicating which Discoveries I recommend as especially useful. The Discoveries have questions in them to be answered, but the questions are answered at the end of the chapter for your ease of study. There is a very entertaining and useful CD inside the back cover of the tex t . It has sound files, 50 movies and animations, over 300 interesting visuals and other stuf f . Use it as you wish; it will not be required. There are several "planetarium" programs - - simulations of the sky - - The class lectures will basically follow the pattern of the book chapters, except that the material on Ancient Astronomy will be expanded somewhat in connection with chapters 3 and 4. Many of the ilustrations that I have on slide are also found in the book. Deadlines and Drops: Monday Feb. 12 is the last day to drop freely. After this date, University regulations state that you must be working at a C rate in the class to receive a grade of Q (dropped, passing). Up until March 26, you may change between letter-grade and pass-fail status. (Note however that pass-fail registration will not satisfy your science requirement.) To drop after March 26 is even more difficult, since you must also convince the dean of students of your college that you have some "urgent and substantiated nonacademic reason" justifying the drop at such a late date. If you are doing poorly in the class, do take effective action by these deadline days. You invite all sorts of trouble from the administration when you procrastinate past one of them. OBSERVING: The course description was written some time ago and it stated that the course would contain some component of outdoor observing using the 14th level as our observing platform This was before someone decided to tear the roof off of the building. I will keep the building repairs under observation; we may have some favorable opportunities but I cannot promise it. If it does come, it will be in the nature of extra credit.
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