Course Description:

ASTRO 1050 is an introductory course for non-science majors. It provides a broad introduction to Astronomy including: (1) daily, monthly and yearly patterns in the sky; (2) basic physics of gravity, light, and atoms; (3) formation of the solar system; (4) stars and stellar evolution; (5) galaxies, cosmology, and the evolution of the Universe; and (6) the fundamental tenets of science and the scientific process. The goal of this course is to cover most of the areas of modern astronomy at a level which requires only basic mathematics.

Resources:

Astronomy Notes by Nick Strobel - Online textbook for pedagogical development of concepts

Various Wikipedia Articles - Supplemental reading for additional declarative knowledge (specific pages to be determined by instructors, see Tentative Schedule section)

Lecture Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy by Ed Prather, Tim Slater, Jeff Adams, Gina Brissenden, and the CAPER team - Workbook for in-class exercises, MUST BE PURCHASED NEW

Loose-leaf paper - for in-class assignments

Lab notebook

Any astronomy textbook (e.g., Horizons by Michael Seeds, The Cosmic Perspective by Bennet et al., Discovering Astronomy by Steve Shawl)

Course Objectives:

We will follow the guidelines set forth by the American Astronomical Society, the National Science Education Standards, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the in-class survey. The goals for this class are as follows:

Appreciate the scientific process, how it works, the notion that physical laws are universal, the elements of scientific theories, what they do and do not tell us.

Develop familiarity with the night sky and how its appearance changes with time and position on Earth.

Describe how data is collected from astronomical objects, and what quantities can be measured/inferred.

Understand basic - yet crucial - physical laws, and the processes that govern astronomical quantities.

Integrate concepts from related subjects to explain relationships (e.g., physics and math) between astronomical quantities.

Infer the nature, structure and evolution of the Universe, and objects therein.

Instructional Philosophy of the Course:

The overarching goals of this course are for you to understand the nature of science through the eyes of astronomy; to understand the big ideas in astronomy; and to develop a lifelong interest in astronomy and current events surrounding astronomy. To meet these three goals, the course instructors have carefully designed a sequence of learning tasks and assessment procedures as outlined below.

Active engagement with nearly daily group activities. It is a demonstrated fact that you can only learn a limited amount of information from lecture alone, no matter how clear or entertaining. Therefore, this course is composed of a series of mini-lectures that will be augmented by collaborative classroom activities called Lecture Tutorials (LT). The LT activities target specific ideas presented in lecture and are designed to be completed in groups of 3-4 people during class by talking through the questions and writing a detailed, consensus response. You will not submit these for grading. However, the questions are quite similar to the questions you will find on the course exams and you are therefore strongly encouraged to consider these activities as a critical component to your success in the course. The LTs are available at the bookstore and they must be brought to class each day. In order to nurture a collaborative and productive environment, we insist that cell phones, PDAs, blackberrys, etc. be turned off during the class. Communication with the outside world during class will be considered disruptive and disrespectful to the rest of the students (and could also be considered cheating -- see Academic Honesty). Anyone caught using any of these devices during class will be asked to leave and a penalty may be assessed.

Attendance at all classes is REQUIRED. Because this course is built around daily activities to accompany the lecture, your attendance and full participation at each class period will be an essential component of your success in the course. Periodically we will administer unscheduled questionnaires in class that will be collected during class and used to establish a participation grade. These questionnaires will not be given a letter or numeric grade, rather you will be given credit for what you complete on an all or nothing basis.

Carefully studying the text is REQUIRED. The course mini-lectures are designed to focus on the really difficult aspects of astronomy or to provide structure for your out-of-class study. You are accountable for all material, concepts, and interrelationships presented in the mini-lectures, the text, and, most importantly, the Lecture Tutorials. Therefore, it is imperative to your success in this course that you complete the assigned readings prior to coming to class. Reading assignments should be completed BEFORE the date listed. Otherwise, the mini-lectures and tutorials will be less useful in helping you develop a deep understanding of the course topics. It is important to remember that the exams or questionnaires will cover material from the text readings that may or may not be discussed in class.

Assessment and Grading:

In order to promote an active and collaborative learning environment, there will be no curve to assess grades. Each student will only be competing against themselves, and will be responsible for gaining the declarative knowledge and conceptual understanding for performance. This is a four credit class with three credits in the primary lecture section (1) and one credit from the accompanying lab section (10-17). Consequently, 75% of grade will arise from work done for the lecture section, and 25% from work in the lab section.

The portion of the grade in the lecture section will come from three sources: (1) midterm exams, (2) the final exam, and (3) attendance and class participation. Midterm exams will account for 30% of the final grade. There will be three midterm exams. The top two will count toward the grade (15% each) and the lowest score will be dropped. There will be no make ups for the midterm exams. The final exam is scheduled for December 12th from 10:15AM-12:15PM. It is mandatory and will be comprehensive. The final exam will contribute 30% of the final grade. All of the exams (midterms and final) will be multiple choice, and will be 100 points each (weighted according to how much they contribute to the final grade).

The exams will test your understanding of key concepts in astronomy. A list of these concepts can be found on here. We will use the performance on these exams in comparison with the Astronomy Survey conducted on the first day of class to measure the gain in knowledge and scientific understanding. In turn, this will help us in future semester to refine our teaching methods. Along with each exam, we will also ask for opinions regarding what you like, dislike, and ask for suggestions for improving the class.

The final portion of the grade from the lecture section will come from attendance and class participation. As mentioned above in the Instructional Philosophy of the Course, we will periodically ask you to write a short paragraph on loose-leaf paper in class on a topic of our choosing. The topic may be related to the assigned reading, to a current event in astronomy, or to a key concept covered in that class period. These will be collected and perused by the instructors. Answers demonstrating a command of the assigned reading or concepts will be given full credit. No numerical or letter grade will be assigned to these questionnaires. These will be used to gauge both attendance and class participation, and will contribute to 15% of the final grade for the class.

The lab portion of the grade (25%) will come from a combination of a semester-long observing project and 12 labs to be done during the weekly two-hour lab sections. The instructor for the labs (the TA found on the front page of this syllabus) will grade the observing project and labs. The semester observing project and data/notes for the labs are to be meticulously kept in a lab notebook. (Details regarding the semester observing project can be found here.) Lab reports are to be turned in within one of week of the lab session. Each lab will be assigned a maximum of seven points, and the semester observing project will be assigned a maximum of 14 points. The total of (7x12) + 14 = 98 points are available. An additional two points will be awarded for turning in all lab reports in a timely manner and satisfying all requirements of the semester observing project, for a total of 100 points.

The final grade will be computed using the scores from the top two midterm exams, the final exam, participation, and the lab in the following manner:

The letter grade will be assigned based on the following table:

Grading Scheme
Total Points	Grade
85-100	A
75-84.999...	B
65-74.999...	C
50-64.999...	D
<50	F

There will be no plus or minus grades assigned.

Students with disabilities: If you require any special accommodations to participate in the class or complete assignments, please contact the instructor as soon as possible.

Academic Honesty:

University Regulation 803, Section 3 defines Academic Dishonesty:

"An act is academically dishonest when it is an act attempted or performed which misrepresents one's involvement in an academic task in any way, or permits another student to misrepresent the latter's involvement in an academic task by assisting in the misrepresentation. Some examples of academic dishonesty include such acts as: a. Representing as one's own work material copied or borrowed from any source, written or otherwise, public or private, without proper citation of the source. b. Using a ghost writer, commercial or otherwise, for any type of assignment. c. Submitting substantially the same work for more than one class without the explicit permission of all concerned instructors. d. Doing a class assignment for someone else or allowing someone to copy one's assignment. e. Using notes or prepared information in an examination unless authorized by the instructor. f. Taking an examination for someone else or allowing someone to take an examination for oneself. g. Copying from, or assisting, another student during an examination. h. Stealing, or otherwise improperly obtaining, copies of an examination before or after its administration. i. Submitting substantially the same work as someone else unless authorized by the instructor."

In addition, during the course of the semester, each student will be asked to carry out exercises in collaboration with other students. To nurture such an environment, we will consider any disruptive or disrespectful acts (such talking on a cell phone, or texting during class) to be a form of cheating. We consider academic dishonesty to be a serious offense and the maximum punishments allowed will be pursued in all scenarios. This includes completing any quizzes, or scantron forms with the help of another student or for scantron forms completed by another student who is not you. If similar work is submitted, all parties involved will receive a zero for their assignment. Make your work your own, be original.