ASTRO 376R/FALL 2015
           	 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-fa15/a376-fa15-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. 

====== (Aug 27)
-- Course overview and Lab Registration 

====== (Sep 1, 3, 8) 
- Research Universities 
- Why  Participate in Undergraduate  Research at UT? 
- Getting Involved in UG Research at UT : 10 Tips 
- What is scientific research and the scientific method?
- Observational/experimental  and theoretical projects 
- Understanding the different ways to communicate scientific results
-  How to search for different types of scientific literature
-  How is research funded? How does this impact you?
-  Ethical concerns and responsibilities of research

====== (Sep 10, 15)
- Hands-on Tutorial on the Linux operating system 

====== (Sep 17, 22)
- Homework 1 
- Hands-on Tutorial on the Emacs text editor  

====== (Sep 24, 29)
- Presentation by UG  doing research at UT
- In-class exercise with Linux and Emacs 

===== (Oct  1, 6, 8, 13, 15) 
- Visualization and Characteristics of CCD imaging data (S/N, PSF, etc)
- Hands-on Tutorial: Introduction to  IRAF
- IRAF assignment in Section 11 due on Oct 10 (extended to Oct 15 due to Bash)
- Class discussion of Bash Symposium research excepts
- Presentation by UGs  doing research at UT 
- Homework 2 based on IRAF
- Optional IRAF Exercise 2 for Extra Credit: "Basic CCD Reduction  & Photometry"

====== (Oct 20, 22)
- Bash Symposium (Oct 18-20)
- Discussion of Bash symposium and assignment based on it 
- Effectively Communicating Research through Posters, Papers, Talks 

====== (Oct 27, 29, 31; Nov 3, 5)
- Hands-on Tutorial on IDL
   Array manipulations 
   Reading multi-dimensional catalogs
   Basic statistics
   Producing scatter plots & histograms
- IDL assignment 1 (Section 8 of tutorial): due on Tu Nov 5  
- IDL asignment 2 (Homework 3): given on Tu Nov 5, due on Tu Nov 12

====== (Nov 10, 12) 
-  Nov 12 = Career planning  by CNS Career Design Center 
- IDL asignment 3 (Homework 4): given on Tu Nov 12, due on Tu Nov 19


====== (Nov 17, 19, 24, No class on Nov 26=Thanksgiving)
- Homework 5 (IDL and GCET)
- Basic concepts for Homework 5
   Cosmological and Doppler Redshift  
   Age of Universe ,  Angular diameter distance
   Bandpass shift,  Surface brightness dimming
- The Galaxies and Cosmos Explorer Tool
   (GCET; http://www.as.utexas.edu/gcet/)

====== (Dec 1, Dec  3) 
- Using LaTex to Write Scientific Papers 
- Making a Template CV 
- Final lecture: Class Goals, Skills Learnt, Future Steps