ASTR100: Introduction to
Astronomy
Sections 0101-0107, Fall 2007
Prof: Sylvain Veilleux
Phone: (301) 405-0282
Email: veilleux @ astro.umd.edu
Office: CSS 0223
Office Hours: TuTh 11:00 am - 12:00 pm or by Appointment
Textbook: Pathways to Astronomy,
by Steven Schneider & Thomas Arny, 2007 (ISBN-13: 978-0-07-249965-0).
Class Meetings:
Lectures
meet in PHYS 1412 on TuTh from 9:30am to 10:45am. Lectures are led by
the professor and will include several demonstrations, slides, videos etc.
Discussion Sections meet
in CSS 2400 at times listed below starting the week of
September 10. Discussion sections are led by graduate 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 hold review sessions 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 are formed gives us a better perspective
on our place in the universe and how special planet Earth is to our
continued survival.
Most of you have chosen this course as part of your CORE Distributive
Studies Program, the general education portion of your degree program
(see Core Requirements below). 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!
Course Expectations:
Attendance: In order to succeed in this course, I
expect you to attend ALL 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 discussion
sections. 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. See me or the teaching assistant if you have questions.
There will be times during the semester, in both lectures and
sections, when I will 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 in
class, in section, during office hours, or over email.
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.
Grading:
I grade on a point scale with different assignments weighted as shown
in the table. A description of each of these components is contained
in this syllabus.
| 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 curved 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 |
656-750 | 87.5%-100% |
| B |
562-655 | 75%-87.5% |
| C |
469-561 | 62.5%-75% |
| D |
375-468 | 50%-62.5% |
| F |
0-374 | 0%-50% |
Grades A+, B+, and C+ may be awarded to students with point
totals in the upper third of the A, B, and C point ranges, respectively.
This point scale makes it possible for everyone in the class to do
well. For example, if everyone scores above 75% 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. Students with a documented disability
who wish to discuss academic accommodations should contact me as soon
as possible.
Midterm Exams
There will be two in-class one-hour examinations which will be held
in PHYS 1412 on Thursday, October 11 and Thursday, November 8. These
exams are closed book with no notes and no calculators allowed. Each
exam will consist of 20 multiple choice questions and three or four
essay or problem solving questions. These exams are incremental (i.e.,
non-cumulative) checkups on how well you have learned the
material. 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
According to University rules, the final exam for this course will
be held on Friday, December 14 from 8:00 am to 10:00 am in PHYS
1412. This final exam is cumulative, that is, it will cover
all material discussed in this course. However, since Units 70 -
82 will not be covered by the midterm exams (see Lecture Schedule),
the weight on these units will be higher than on earlier
units. The final will include multiple choice, essay and
problem solving questions with the exact combination to be determined.
This exam is also closed book with no notes and no calculators
allowed. Please bring a pencil and your ID card to the final.
Missed Exams
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
1) contact me by email before you miss the
regularly-scheduled exam and
2) submit a valid written excuse for
your absence within one week after the
regularly-scheduled exam.
Make-up exams will be given within one week after you submit the valid
written excuse. The make-up exams will have no multiple
choice questions. It will consist entirely of essays,
problems, and short answer questions, and will probably include ORAL
questions.
If you miss the final exam and have a valid written excuse,
you must arrange for a make-up final within 48 hours after the
scheduled exam. The make-up final, like the make-up midterms, will
have no multiple choice questions.
Discussion Sections
Your weekly 50-minute discussion section, which begins the week of
September 10, is an integral part of this course. The sections are run
by the TAs, with just general guidelines from me; they will generally
include a review of lecture material, presentation of problems and
material not covered in lecture, exercises and quizzes etc. 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/her first.
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 |
| 0101 |
M......... 9:00am-9:50am |
CSS 2400 |
Michael McDonald |
|
| 0102 |
M......... 10:00am-10:50am |
CSS 2400 |
Divya Khanna |
|
| 0103 |
M......... 11:00am-11:50am |
CSS 2400 |
Divya Khanna |
|
| 0104 |
F.........11:00am-11:50am |
CSS 2400 |
Don Punnoose |
|
| 0105 |
Th......... 1:00pm-1:50pm |
CSS 2400 |
Matt Zagursky |
|
| 0106 |
F.........9:00am-9:50am |
CSS 2400 |
Michael McDonald |
|
| 0107 |
F.........12:00pm-12:50pm |
CSS 2400 |
Don Punnoose |
|
Homeworks
There are a total of eight 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 writeup your assignments
neatly. Solution sets will be distributed during your discussion section.
All homeworks are due in class at 9:30 am (i.e., at
the beginning of class). Homeworks turned in after 9:45 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 your
TA an email or leave him/her a voice mail message before the
due date telling him/her why you will be late. In this case,
you must secure a valid written excuse and arrange with your TA to
have the homework turned in to him/her 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. 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
is available online at
http://www.astro.umd.edu/openhouse/.
Your open house assignment consists of three parts:
- Attend one open house anytime 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 between 2 and 3 pages long.
Please proofread and check your spelling before you turn in the
paper!
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 |
| Tuesday, October 16 | 10 |
| Thursday, November 29 | 10 |
| Tuesday, December 11 | 10 |
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. 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.
Essay Assignment
Given the problems that we have encountered with the visit of the
Campus Observatory, I have decided to give you the chance to make it up
with an essay assignment that doesn't require visiting the
Observatory. Here are the ten "Rules & Regulations" of this assignment:
1) Choose one of the topics listed below. No
other topics will be accepted.
2) Write in your own words a 2-3 page essay on this topic.
3) Your text has to go beyond what I've discussed in class and what is
described in your textbook "Pathways to Astronomy".
4) Make sure to list all of your references (e.g., books, websites,
etc). You should have at least two independent references, other
than "Pathways to Astronomy".
5) Do not copy from a website or a book - that would be
plagiarism and subject for review by the Student Honor Council.
6) One or two figures would be welcome but would not count towards the
2-3 page requirement.
7) The paper must be typed. Proofread and check your spelling before
you turn in the paper!
8) The assignment is worth a maximum of 50 points (no extra credit).
9) You cannot turn in both the Open House and essay assignments. If
you do, we will give you credits for the assignment with the
lower grade!
10) The due date is: December 11, 2007 at the end of the lecture. No paper will be accepted after that time!
Topics to choose from (only one topic per essay!)
- Global warming and the greenhouse effect on Earth
- Ozone hole on Earth
- Apollo Moon landing
- Mercury
- Venus' atmosphere
- Mars' surface
- Jupiter's atmosphere
- Saturn's rings
- Pluto's surface & atmosphere
- One jovian satellite (other than Io, Europa, or Myranda)
- Comet Holmes
- Near-Earth asteroids
- Adaptive optics
- Interferometry
- Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs)
- Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
- Spitzer Space Telescope (SST)
- Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO)
- Gamma-ray Large-Area Space Telescope (GLAST)
- Solar neutrinos
- White dwarfs
- Pulsars
- Stellar-mass black holes
- Cepheid variables
- Spiral arms in galaxies
- Supermassive black holes
- The Great Attractor
- Dark energy
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 will frequently ask questions worth bonus points
during lectures.
- 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. Your TA can assist you with
obtaining the account and learning to use it. The webpage for this
course
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
academic accommodations can be made.
The academic community at the University abides by a Code of Academic
Integrity. Acts of academic dishonesty include cheating, fabrication,
facilitating academic dishonesty, and plagiarism. Activities such as
cheating on exams or quizzes, copying homework from a friend or book,
allowing your homework or paper to be copied, and submitting forged
excuses for absences from exams are violations of this code. If we
suspect that an incident of academic dishonesty has occurred, we will
turn the case over to the Student Honor Council to investigate and
resolve. If the suspected party is judged `responsible' for the act(s)
of academic dishonesty, the normal sanction is a course grade of `XF'
which denotes failure due to academic dishonesty. This grade is
recorded onto the student's academic transcript. The Code of Academic
Integrity can be found in the Academic Info section of the Schedule of
Classes. It is printed in full in the Undergraduate catalog and on the web at
http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/code.html.
Please refer to this Code if you have further questions about
what is construed as academic dishonesty. We are very serious about
this.
ASTR100 is intended for non-science majors and requires no more than a
modest, high-school level science and math background. This course
satisfies the CORE Distributive Studies requirement for a
non-lab physical science course (CORE code PS). To satisfy the
CORE Distributive Studies requirement for a lab physical
science course (CORE code PL), this course must be taken
simultaneously with ASTR 111 (Observational Astronomy Lab) or
you must take ASTR101 (General Astronomy). Note that you cannot get
credit for both ASTR100 and ASTR101. Please be sure that you have
chosen the correct course.