ASTRO 376 (UNIQUE 47640)/FALL 2011
           	 A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH
                	  COURSE OUTLINE 

I will try to adhere to the course calendar below as closely as possible, 
but there may be changes as the pace of the in-lab exercises depends on
the students. The most current version of the calendar can be found at 
    http://www.as.utexas.edu/~sj/a376-fa11/a376-fall11-calendar.txt
In-class activities and quizzes can take place at any time in the semester 
and are not always listed on the course calendar. 



====== Week 1+2  (Aug 25, Aug 30, Sep 1, Sep 6)

- Course overview 

- What is scientific research and the scientific method?
- Guidelines for the scientific method of enquiry
- Typical steps in an  observational scientific project
- Difference between theoretical and experimental projects 

- Understanding the different ways to communicate scientific results
   - Posters
   - Unrefereed papers
   - Refereed papers 
   - Oral presentations 

-  How to search for different types of scientific literature
-  How is research funded? How does this impact you?
-  Ethical concerns and responsibilities of research

-  What is a research University? 
   Who are typical members of  a research department?
-  Why  Participate in Undergraduate  Research at UT? 
-  Getting Involved in UG Research at UT : 10 Tips 



====== Week 3 (Sep 8, Sep 13) 
- Hands-on Tutorial on the Linux operating system 
- Homework 1 and Quiz 1

====== Week 4  (Sep 15, Sep 20, Sep 22)
- Hands-on Tutorial on the Emacs text editor  
- In-class exercise/quiz with Linux and Emacs 
Note: Friday Sep 23:Texas Astronomy Undergraduate Research Symposium 

====== Week 5+6+7 (Sep 27, Sep 29, Oct 4, Oct 6, Oct 11, Oct 13)
- How telescopes and CCD work
- Characteristics of imaging data (depth, S/N, PSF, etc)
- Introduction to CCD reduction & photometry
- Hands-on Tutorial on IRAF
- Hands-on IRAF Exercise: Basic CCD Reduction  & Photometry"
- Hands-on IRAF Exercise: Structural Analysis


====== Week 8+9+10  (Oct 18, Oct 20, Oct 21, Oct 25, Oct 27)
- Hands-on Tutorial on IDL
  Array manipulations 
  Reading multi-dimensional catalogs
  Basic statistics
  Producing scatter plots & histograms
- IDL-based exercises


====== Week 11+12 (Nov 1, Nov 3, Nov 8, Nov 10)
--Basic concepts fow hwk3  
  Studying distant astronomical objects
  Cosmological and Doppler Redshift 
  Age of Universe and   Cosmological Redshift
  Why we need Hubble and Spitzer Space Telecopes

====== Week 13 (Nov 15) 
- Giving Effective Oral Presentations


====== Week 13+14  (Nov 17, Nov 22. No class on Nov 24=Thanksgiving)
--Basic concepts for Hwk 4
  Cosmological and Doppler Redshift  
  Bandpass shift
  Angular diameter distance
  Surface brightness dimming
- The Galaxies and Cosmos Explorer Tool
 (GCET; http://www.as.utexas.edu/gcet/)
- Hwk 4: Using IDL and GCET to explore extreme  systems at early epochs 



====== Week 15 (Nov 29 and Dec 1) 
- Using LaTex to Write Scientific Papers 
- Making a Template CV 
- Final lecture: Class Goals, Skills Learnt, Future Steps