ASTR100: Introduction to Astronomy
Sections 0201-0207, Fall 2001

Prof:

miller@astro.umd.edu

Textbook:

Astronomy: The Solar System and Beyond

Class Meetings:

Lectures meet in PHYS 1412 on MWF from 9:00am to 9:50am.
Lectures are led by the professor and will include demonstrations, slides, videos etc.

Discussion Sections meet in CSS 2400 at times listed below starting the week of September 3 (the SECOND week of classes). Discussion sections are led by student Teaching Assistants (TAs). The sections provide a smaller and more informal environment for further developing the material taught in class. The TAs will also answer questions about the lectures and reading and will review material before exams.

Course Description:

Welcome to Astronomy 100! You are about to embark on an ambitious project - to survey our known Universe in one short semester. We hope that you'll find this course enjoyable and walk away with a better knowledge and understanding of the universe that we live in. With that goal in mind, the course attempts to focus on major concepts in astronomy and where possible tie those concepts into issues relevant to your life. For example, global warming, an important worldwide issue for the 21st century, is also central to understanding the differences between the environments of Venus, Mars, and Earth. At a more philosophical level, understanding how our universe works and how planets, stars, and galaxies form and evolve gives us a better perspective on our place in the universe and how special planet Earth is to our continued survival.

You may have chosen this course as part of your CORE Liberal Arts and Sciences Studies Program, the general education portion of your degree program. CORE Distributive Studies courses are designed to ensure that you will take a look at several different academic disciplines and the way they create and analyze knowledge about the world. A faculty and student committee approved this CORE Distributive Studies course because it will introduce you to ideas and issues that are central to a major intellectual discipline and because it promises to involve you actively in the learning process. Please take advantage of the opportunities this course offers you.

Course Expectations:

Attendance: In order to succeed in this course, I expect you to attend the lectures and discussion sections. This is very important! The material on the homeworks and exams are based upon the material covered in the lectures, the text, and the discussion sections. We find that when grading exams, it is very obvious which lectures you missed. If you have to miss a lecture or section, be sure to look at another student's notes and make sure that you understand what was covered. There will be times during the semester, in both lectures and sections, when we may ask for written responses to questions. Your written answers will count towards your grade in the class.

Preparation: I expect you to be prepared to work. You will understand the lecture more easily if you preview the reading assignment. A more careful reading is recommended after lecture. You should study your class notes sometime before the next lecture to make sure that everything is clear. I encourage you to ask questions.

Study Habits: Study wisely and ask for help if you need it. If you just cram the night before the exam, you probably will not do very well. It is better (and easier) if you keep up with the material on a daily basis. If you have questions, please see me or one of the TAs. We are here to help you learn. If you are experiencing difficulties in keeping up with the academic demands of this course, contact the Learning Assistance Service, 2201 Shoemaker building, (301) 314-7693. Their educational counselors can help with time management, reading, note-taking, and exam preparation skills.

Grading:

Grade are based on a point scale with different assignments weighted as shown in the table. The points are distributed across a variety of exercises so that no one thing will dominate your grade: blowing a single exam will not kill your grade. However, this also means that it is imperative that you complete all assignments. Zeros on multiple homeworks fail to add up in a big way!

ASSIGNMENT	Homeworks	Section	Open House	Exam I	Exam II	Final	Total
POINTS	150	150	50	100	100	200	750

Letter grades will be assigned based upon your cumulative score. Grades for some discussion sections may be adjusted slightly so that the average grade given by each TA is similar. Here is how your grade will be determined from your point total in the class.

Letter Grade	Course Total	Percentage
A	675-750	90%-100%
B	600-674	80%-90%
C	525-599	70%-80%
D	450-524	60%-70%
F	0-449	0%-60%

The point scale makes it possible for everyone in the class to do well. For example, if everyone scores above 80% in the course, you would all receive either an A or a B letter grade. I may adjust the number of points required to get a given grade depending on the class averages; however, any adjustment will make it easier to get a given grade, never more difficult. No + or - grades will be given.

Midterm Exams

There will be two in-class examinations which will be held in PHYS 1412 on Friday, October 12 and Wednesday, November 7. These exams are closed book with no notes or calculators allowed. Each exam will consist of multiple choice questions, essay questions, and problem solving questions. The schedule of lectures included in this syllabus shows what material will be covered on each exam. Please bring a pencil and your ID card to each exam (including the final).

If for whatever reason, the University is officially closed on the exam date, the exam date shifts to the next lecture date.

Final Exam

As per University rules, the final exam for this course will be held on Friday, December 14 from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm in PHYS 1412. This final exam is cumulative; it will cover all material discussed in this course. However, since the material which comes after the second midterm will not have been covered by the midterm exams (see Lecture Schedule), the weight on these chapters will be higher than on earlier chapters. The final will include multiple choice, essay, and problem solving questions, greatly resembling a longer version of the midterms.

Missed Exams

The first rule of missing exams is: DON'T

If you are not able to take an exam due to illness or other legitimate reasons (as outlined in the Academic Info section of the schedule of classes) and you wish to take a make-up exam, you must

before

Make-up exams must be taken promptly. In the case of the final exam, you must arrange for a make-up final within 48 hours after the scheduled exam, and preferably much sooner as final grades must be submitted shortly after the date of the final.

Discussion Sections

Your weekly 50-minute discussion section, which begins the week of September 3, is an integral part of this course. The sections are run by the TAs, with general guidelines from me. They will review lecture material, present problems and material not covered in lecture, and may have their own exercises and quizzes. These sections serve as a forum to enhance your understanding of the course material. Your TAs are an excellent resource; get to know them and use that resource! Homeworks, Exams, and other work will be returned to you during your discussion section. Please attend all your discussion sections. If for some reason you have to miss a section meeting, you may go to one of the other section meetings offered by your TA that week if you get permission from him or her to do so.

Be sure to attend the discussion section for which you registered. The only way to switch sections is through the registrar's office; unofficial changes are not allowed.

Section	Discussion Time	Room	TA Name
0201	M.........12:00pm-12:50pm	CSS 2400	Sanderson
0202	M..... 1:00pm-1:50pm	CSS 2400	Hague
0203	W..... 10:00am- 10:50am	CSS 2400	Hague
0204	W......... 1:00pm-1:50pm	CSS 2400	Proctor
0205	F.........10:00am-10:50am	CSS 2400	King
0206	F..... 1:00pm-1:50pm	CSS 2400	Proctor
0207	F..... 2:00pm-2:50pm	CSS 2400	King

Teaching Assistants

TA Name	Office	Phone	Email	Office Hours
Jimmy Hague	CSS 0228	5-5566	jhague@astro.umd.edu	Mon 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM, Wed 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Jonathan King	CSS 0228	5-5566	jmking@physics.umd.edu	Fri 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM-2:00 PM
Amanda Proctor	CSS 0228	5-5566	aproctor@astro.umd.edu	Tues 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Thur 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Robyn Sanderson	CSS 0228	5-5566	rsanders@wam.umd.edu	Tues 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM, Thur 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Homeworks

There are a total of seven homeworks in this course. All homeworks are included with this syllabus and can also be obtained from the Assignments link from the class website. Homework #1 is the syllabus cover sheet. Please type or write up your assignments neatly. Solutions will be discussed in Section.

All homeworks are due in class at 9:00 am (i.e., at the beginning of class). Homeworks turned in after 9:15 am will be considered late and docked at least 20%. After the end of class on the due date, no more homework will be accepted. If for some reason you cannot turn the homework in person, you should ask a friend to turn it in for you. If you experience a valid emergency, you must write me an email or leave me a voice mail message before the due date telling me why you will be late. In this case, you must secure a valid written excuse and arrange with me to have the homework turned in to me as soon as possible and, in any event, absolutely no later than the beginning of the next lecture.

If for whatever reason, the University is officially closed on the due date, the due date shifts to the next lecture date.

Although you may discuss the homework problems with your friends, the final writeup must be in your own words. Copying from a friend's homework, copying from a book, or allowing a friend to copy your homework is academic dishonesty (see Academic Integrity below) and will not be tolerated in this class. Moreover, it is remarkably easy to spot this form of cheating, so expect to be caught if you try it. If you consult a reference other than the course text, please acknowledge it in your homework - this includes websites!

Open House

The astronomy department hosts an open house on the 5th and 20th of each month at the university observatory which is located just off campus on Metzerott Road. Each open house consists of a speaker talking about some aspect of astronomy. Following this short talk, there will be public viewing of the heavens with the observatory's telescopes (weather permitting). Dress warmly as you will be outside when using the telescopes! A list of scheduled speakers and topics, as well as information about a shuttle service that can take you to the observatory, is available online at http://www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse/.

Your open house assignment consists of three parts:

Attend one open house any time during the semester that is convenient for you. Listen to the speaker, tour the observatory, and take a look through the telescopes.
Write a description (include the name of the speaker) summarizing the presentation. You should also include a brief description of the interesting question(s) that were asked along with the answer(s) given by the speaker. Emphasize things that you learned and/or found interesting.
Describe what you observed through the telescopes. Please include (legible) drawings in this description! If weather does not permit observing, say so in your report. In this case, give a description of the observatory and the telescopes (there will be an observatory tour given by a graduate student in astronomy).

The paper must be typed, and should be roughly 2 pages long. Please proofread and check your spelling before you turn in the paper! Submit your paper directly to your TA.

To avoid everyone rushing to the observatory at the last minute, we will adopt the following policy. There will be three due dates for this report. If you turn your paper in early, you will earn extra credit points in addition to the normal points for the assignment.

Due Date	Extra Credit Points
Friday, October 19	8
Friday, November 9	4
Friday, December 7	0

When you go to the observatory, you will be asked to write down your name, course, and section number so that we know when you went. If you do not write this down, you will not receive full credit. Please note that in order to obtain extra credit, you must turn in your paper on either of the first two due dates. If you went to the observatory early in the semester but do not turn in your paper until the last due date, you will not receive extra credit. This is in part to encourage you to write the paper right after the open house experience when your memory of the event is still fresh in your mind.

Extra Credit

There will be no extra credit papers. The following are the only ways to earn extra credit in this class:

Attend class: I may ask questions or give assignments worth bonus points.
Do the Extra Credit questions on each homework assignment.
Turn in your open house assignment early in the semester (see above).

Class Web Page

The World Wide Web is a very useful resource that we will make use of in this class. All students should obtain a computer account, which will include email and internet access. If you do not already have one, get a WAM account. (This can be done in CSS 1400, one floor down from your section class room.) The webpage for this course is

http://www.astro.umd.edu/~miller/ASTR100/

It will contain links to course information, supplementary readings, and interactive programs to make ASTR100 fun and to help you learn. In addition, this site is also a gateway to many other astronomy links, including sites with up-to-date astronomical images that are made available to the public from telescopes in space and on the ground.

Special Circumstances

Students with a documented disability should let me know as soon as possible (preferably on the first day of class) so that appropriate accommodations can be made.