Introduction to Astronomy 1050 modified 9/1/2015

Course and Instructor Information

Welcome to Introduction to Astronomy!

Instructor: Dr. Paul Johnson Email: pjohnson@uwyo.edu

Office Hours 327 Physical Science Bld: 12.30 to 1.30 Tues. Schedule for Lecture/Lab

A bit about your instructor (me):

I grew up on the Florida Gulf Coast (Tampa), went to a teeny, tiny college in North Carolina (Davidson) and earned my Ph.D. in Astronomy as the University of Washington (Seattle). Afterwards, I worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Jet Propulsion Lab (Pasadena) and the Royal Observatory Edinburgh (Scotland). (Lucky me!) Then I came to UW in 1981 (post Jurassic Period, but not by much). I have four sons (all grown) and two granddaughters (3 and 6). I enjoy reading (especially history and economics), hiking, biking, travel, and conversation. My research is the detection of microorganisms in blood for infected patients. (What does that have to do with astronomy?) And I love to travel to France to work with collaborators (and drink wine).

There are two graduate student TAs in this class (Coty Tatge and Jaya), and I’ll let them introduce themselves. The three of us enjoy teaching. You’ll find this class to be a significant amount of work, but I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Paul Johnson, Professor

About the class:

This class will be taught in a manner that provides you with a lot of latitude and independence, a lot of freedom to balance the effort that you put into this class with the grade that you would like to earn. It will be a combination of in-class lecture/discussion combined with a mandatory 2-hour lab, taught once a week by a T.A. There will be required reading on a weekly basis that will cover material that will be difficult for many of you. Computer-based homework and quizzes will be assigned on a weekly basis and will give you some feedback about how well you understand the reading. For those of you who have trouble with the material (and that will be the majority) I would urge you to email and/or bring questions to class so that I can cover more difficult material as needed. In addition, the readings will be accompanied by tutorial web videos which will explain some of the difficult concepts in the text. I will be video-taping all of the lectures, which will be available on the web.

In this course we discuss astronomy as a science, from an historical and philosophical point of view as well as the frontiers of astronomy that are opening.

This course is meant to encourage critical thinking and reflection. If you have any comments, concerns or questions please feel free to email me or schedule an appointment.

Scientific principles and laws do not lie on the surface of nature. They are hidden, and must be wrested from nature by an active and elaborate technique of inquiry. ~John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, 1920

Course Syllabus

REQUIRED TEXTS1. Essential Cosmic Perspective 7th Edition by Bennett Caution: there are several similar book titles by the same author and other authors. There is a downloadable digital form of the book as well as a hardcopy version. Be sure that you are not ordering both!

2. Mastering Astronomy -- Standalone Access Card -- for The Essential Cosmic Perspective, 7th edition by Bennett ISBN13:978-0321928085 Course ID: MAJOHNSON35673 

Mastering Astronomy, Ordering, Registration and Use

3. Polleverywhere, Ordering How to register for Poll Everywhere.htmRegistration and Use

COURSE OVERVIEW

The history of Astronomy and Astronomy as a science.   Astronomy is covered from an historical perspective, treating Cosmology from the ancients through Kepler, Galileo, and Newton up until the present. Being the oldest of the physical sciences, astronomy is used to good advantage to illustrate the scientific method with the groping of early astronomers.

The Earth and the Solar System. The solar system is examined in light of observations from spacecraft as well as the ground. This section is taught so as to compare the geology and meteorology of the-planets with what we know about the Earth. Elementary mechanics is used to describe the motion of the planets.

Stars. The birth, life and death of stars are detailed and stars are compared. How we gather information about stars is covered in some detail using elementary concepts about electromagnetic radiation. Elementary general relativity is used to describe black holes.

Galaxies and the Cosmos. The morphology and evolution of galaxies is described with special emphasis on how their distances are determined. This is used to develop the concept of a big bang cosmology. The most probable scenario regarding the origin of the universe is described.

PREREQUISITE Math 1000 or passing the mathematics proficiency examination at level III. (Not having this math prerequisite will make this course an uncomfortable experience for you.)

WEEKLY CLASSES AND USE OF MASTERING ASTRONOMY AND POLLEVERYWHERE

Students are expected to read and learn the course material on their own, as well as they can. We will have one reading quiz per week, usually on Tuesdays, as well as a weekly homework assignment from Mastering Astronomy. The quizzes will be at the beginning of class and will necessitate the use of your mobile device as well as registration on Polleverywhere. If you are late for class and miss a quiz, this isn’t the end of the world, as I will allow everyone to drop their two lowest quiz scores. It is the responsibility of the student to register and verify (by looking at your grades) on the Mastering Astronomy and Polleverywhere web sites, within the first week of class. Failure to do so might mean a loss of credit. In addition, you should verify your Polleverywhere grades on a weekly basis to ensure that you are connected correctly each and every lecture.

LABS

There is a required two-hour lab session each week (beginning the second week of class). It is assumed that you have registered for a lab section and it is expected that you attend the section for which you have registered. The labs are conducted by teaching assistants in Room 132 of the Physical Sciences Bldg.

You may only attend the lab section for which you are registered. There are no regularly scheduled makeup labs, so lab attendance is important.

GRADES

This class is meant to be challenging, yet fun and interesting. I don’t like grades any more than you do, but it is my job to provide a learning assessment. So here it is.

12 labs 10% (drop the lowest 2 grades, 10 pts. each for a total of 100 points)

12 homework assignments 15% (drop the lowest 2 grades, 15 pts. each for a total of 150 points)

Weekly reading quizzes 10% (10 points each, drop the lowest 2 grades) (100 points)

Class participation 5% (based on use of Polleverywhere responses throughout the semester) (50 points)

3 tests 60% total (200 pts. each) for a total of 600 points

A - 90% ( 900 pts.) and up

B - 80-89% ( 800 – 899 pts.)

C - 70-79% ( 700 –799 pts.)

D - 60-69% ( 600-699 pts.)

F – 59% ( pts.) and below

Although you are expected to read the text to be able to receive a good test grade, tests will be based on those topics presented in lecture and lab. In order to receive a good test grade you will need to work the homework and labs on your own, or you will not understand the material well enough to receive a good test score.

A summary of your itemized grades will be made available to you by your T.A. every other week after about the third week of the semester. Please report grade discrepancies immediately to your T.A. It is also advisable to keep all of your graded tests and lab reports.

In general, you will find that the tests are challenging and that labs, homework, and reading quizzes will be much easier and ideally will bring your grade up to where you would like to be. Tests will be curved individually, by a small amount (usually less than 10%) so that there isn’t a necessity to curve at the end of the semester. It is critical to do all of the work and keep up with the material I attempt to construct this class so that those of you who put in a lot of time reading and understanding the material (~ 4-6 hours a week outside of class) will receive an A or B, and those who do less work or find science particularly challenging can still obtain a C. The average student in Astro 1050 will receive an A or B. If you are having problems and are frustrated that your grades aren’t what you expect them to be, then see me. The sooner the better.

TESTS

Tests will have three levels of questions (but won’t be identified as such):

1.) Level 3: Most of the questions will cover facts that are easily found in the text. (What is the nearest star to the Earth? The Sun.)

2.) Level 2: Fewer questions (perhaps a quarter) will require that you directly apply one of the principals in the text to answer a question. (If the earth where 2x as far from the Sun as it is now, how much weaker would its gravity be? 4x weaker.)

3.) Level 1: A minority of the questions (10% or less) will require more analytical thought perhaps combining two or more principals that were learned in class.

I expect that everyone who has read through the material in the text more than once should do well on the Level 3 questions. Those who have developed a basic understanding of the material, and have checked that understanding by doing well on homework and quizzes (on their own) should be able to do well on the Level-2 questions. Level-3 will prove challenging for the majority of the class.

Tests will be based on HW questions, in-class quizzes, practice tests, and questions from the labs. Most questions will come from these sources

verbatim . If you have worked to learn from the HW, class quizzes, practice tests, and labs, you should do well on the tests.

Makeup tests will be given only to students having University excuses at regularly scheduled makeup test times. Makeup tests will be entirely essay questions of the same difficulty as the regularly scheduled test. 

ONLINE HOMEWORK

There will be weekly homework (as outlined in the schedule) as a way of making sure everyone is keeping up with and understanding the material. Homework will be completed using the Mastering Astronomy web site, Using Mastering Astronomy for Homework.htm and answers will be available interactively (i.e. immediate feedback given on the web site). Starting from the second week of the class, there will be 12 weekly homework consisting of approximately 10 multiple choice questions each will take under an hour to complete. You will be assessed on your best 10 homework scores. This gives you some latitude to miss class assignments for excused or unexcused absences. Excuses for missed assignments will not be taken. Some homework questions (or closely related questions) may reappear on the exams, so it is recommended that homework be completed and well understood.  It is strongly encouraged to work the homework on your own. In my experience, much of the learning is done by attending lecture, doing the homework on your own, and evaluating your understanding through homework and quizzes. Copying homework is not honest and will almost certainly result in a weak understanding of the material and a poor grade.

CLASS HOMEPAGE 

I will have class reading outlines and handouts published on the class homepage:  http://physics.uwyo.edu/~pjohnson /astro1050/intro.htm

It is essential for you to be able to regularly access this web site. Access can be made from any of the computer "pods" on campus. These pods are located in the campus computer center, the A&S building, the Engineering building, the Union, the 3rd floor of the Physical Science Building, and in the room in front of the Science Library. The lecture outlines are just that, and are not meant to be a set of lecture notes. If you have any questions about how to access this homepage or the World Wide Web in general, these will be answered in the first laboratory session by your T.A.

EMAIL ACCOUNT

This class has about 60 participants. The only way I can contact you or the class as a whole is through your uwyo email address. Please check your uwyo email regularly (daily).

SCHEDULE OF READNG ASSIGNMENTS AND LABS

Print out a copy of the lab write-up and bring it to lab with you each week. Homework will be assigned on a weekly basis. Quizzes will be given in class weekly, based on reading assignments. It is expected that each student put in about 2 hours at home per hour in class, reading and doing homework, for a total of 6-8 hours/week.

Schedule for lectures, labs, and reading last modified 10:00 am 1/15/2014

EXAMINATIONS

This course has three examinations. They are not cumulative.  Tests are multiple choice/short answer.

o Exam 1 – Oct. 6th Study Guide Test 1o Exam 2 - Nov. 5th Study Guide Test 2o Exam 3 -  Dec. 10th Study Guide Test 3

ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE FIRST WEEK

By Monday, September 7, read Chapters 1 and 2 NOTE: You will only see assignments (or any other modifications) to this web page change if you refresh your browser cache (generally accessible under browser settings). (Your web browser will generally save frequently visited web pages so you might not see them changed.)

IMPORTANT LINKS

Schedule for lectures, labs, and reading last modified 10:00 am 8/9/2013

How to enroll in Mastering Astronomy for homework and quizzes last modified 5:00 pm 1/26/2013

Registration for Polleverywhere (Early Astronomy by Johnson in .pdf format) last modified 9/1/2014

GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS AND OFFICE HOURS -- TBA

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY*

Discussing course material with your classmates is in general a good idea, but each student is expected to do his or her own work. Misrepresentation of anyone else’s work (including work done over the Internet) as your own is considered plagiarism. Any instance of academic dishonesty (including cheating and plagiarism) will be dealt with according to university regulations. It is your responsibility to avoid complaints or appearances of impropriety. Do not bring cell phones to exams or engage in any behavior during exams that may suggest collusion.

Complete regulations regarding academic dishonesty are here.

Science does not know its debt to imagination. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson