UGS 303, Popular Astronomy
Fall 2016
Unique numbers: 63280,63285,63290,63295,63300,63305
CLASS MEETS: TTH 11-12:30 in CLA 0.130
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Karl Gebhardt
Office: RLM 15.224
Phone: 512-471-1473
email: gebhardt@astro.as.utexas.edu
Office Hours: M 2-3, W 5-6, other times by appointment or stop by anytime
URL: http://www.as.utexas.edu/~gebhardt/u303f16/u303.html

TEACHING ASSISTANTS: Sydney Sherman, Brian Mulligan

DISCUSSION SESSIONS: The discussion sessions will focus on background and additional material for the lectures. Much of the lecture material will be conceptual, and exams and quizzes will focus on understanding of these concepts. It is therefore important for students to discuss these concepts among themselves. Below are the specifics for these sessions:
M: 8:00-9:00 MAI 220F, 63280, Sydney
M: 9:00-10:00 MAI 220F, 63285, Sydney
M: 10:00-11:00 MAI 220F, 63290, Brian
M: 11:00-12:00 MAI 220F, 63295, Brian
M: 12:00-1:00 MAI 220F, 63300, Brian
M: 1:00-2:00 MAI 220F, 63305, Sydney
Office Hours: Sydney: W 2-3
Office Hours: Brian: T 2-3

PREREQUISITES: None

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Astronomy receives considerable attention from the media and the public in general. It allows us to ask fundamental questions about who we are, where we come from, and where we will end up as a world. This course will concentrate on the areas of Astronomy that are currently most covered by the media---planet detection and interpretation, supermassive black holes, gamma-ray bursters, dark matter in the Universe, dark energy, and other significant developments that arise during the semester. We will cover each of these in depth, but will also concentrate on the reaction that the media has had on them. The media and public often have an uncanny ability to probe directly to the main reasons for why scientists study a particular problem. The student who completes this course will not only have a better scientific understanding of the current hot topics in Astronomy, but also understand how the media can actually drive science in general.

This course fulfills three hours of the component area option of the university core curriculum and addresses three of the core objectives established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: communication skills, critical thinking skills, and one additional objective (teamwork, personal responsibility, social responsibility, or empirical and quantitative skills).

TEXTS: No textbook is required. Much of the relevant material will be articles that are available on the internet, so access to the internet is important. Lectures, along with many articles from the internet, will be provided online. I strongly recommend the book ``Cosmic Perspective'' by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, and Voit for additional material. I will add websites to the lists below during the semester.

GRADING: The students final grade will consists of:
15% exam 1
15% exam 2
20% exam 3
25% project
25% in-class quiz and class participation

The following grading scale will be used: 90+=A; 80-89=B; 70-79=C; 60-69=D. Any average below 60 is failing. We will not use +- for grades.

EXAMS: Exams 1-3 will consist of short answer and essay answer. The in-class quizzes will be short (15 minutes), testing conceptual understanding of recent material.

HOMEWORK: There is no formal homework, but the projects will require two status reports that will be graded.
PROJECTS: The projects will be a group presentation or group observing project. The details of the projects will be explained on a separate page. Each group should be composed of around 4 people. Many of the observing projects will involve the 9-inch refractor in Painter Hall.

GEMS Resources: All of you, especially those doing observing projects, should make use of the observing facilities on campus - either Painter Hall Observatory or the star parties on top of RLM. For the research papers, you are encouraged to make use of facilities at Blanton Museum of Art, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and UT Press.

University Lecture Series: There are lectures on Sept 19 and 20, evening in Bass.

POLICIES: There will be make-up examinations ONLY for students with valid excuses. The lowest quiz score will be dropped (so you can miss one quiz), otherwise no make-up quizzes unless you have a valid excuse.

Class attendance and participation will be important to how you do in the class. Since we will not use a book, it is important to come to class. The calendar for the course is given below. I will try to stick the schedule as closely as possible. If any dates change, I will make the changes in this file so refer to this webpage for updates.

WEB RESOURCES: I will have plenty of resources listed on the course website for additional help and information. In particular, the suggested book has a website at http://www.astronomyplace.com that is very useful. They have study questions and guides for students. I highly encourage use of this website.

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS: By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.

COURSE CALENDAR

Date	Subject	Due
8/25	Intro	---
8/30	Gravity	---
9/01	Gravity	Quiz 1
9/06	Gravity	---
9/08	Gravity Waves	---
9/13	Gravity Waves	---
9/15	Black Holes	Quiz 2
9/20	Black Holes	---
9/22	Exam 1	---
9/27	Black Holes	---
9/29	Black Holes	---
10/04	Particle Physics	Quiz 3
10/06	Particle Physics	---
10/11	Dark Matter	---
10/13	Dark Matter	Quiz 4
10/18	Dark Matter	---
10/20	Dark Matter	---
10/25	Exam 2	---
10/27	Dark Energy	---
11/01	Dark Energy	Quiz 5
11/03	Cosmology	---
11/08	Cosmology	---
11/10	Cosmology	Quiz 6
11/15	Cosmology	---
11/17	Fate of Universe	---
11/22	Fate of Universe	Quiz 7
11/29	Crazy Ideas	All Projects
12/01	Exam 3	---