We will post questions and answers to general and procedural questions about the class here. When in doubt, look at the syllabus; it is likely to have the answer to your question.
Do I need to buy the text book or lab book for the class?
The text is recommended for reading before and after lecture and to
help with homework and studying for the tests. You can share a textbook
with a friend in the class if that is practical for you.
You must buy the lab book because you will be using the pages in the
book when you do the lab, tearing them out of the book and turning
them in. There is no option to share the lab book and you may
not use photocopied pages from someone else's lab book.
Do I need to go to lecture?
I highly recommend that you attend lecture. I provide the lecture
slide set in electronic form to you in ELMS just before the
start of each lecture; BUT, the lecture slides
DO NOT contain every word that I say in lecture. Lecture will explain
the slides, provide examples and demonstrations which illustrate concepts,
stress the most important concepts, and, of course, allow you
to ask questions. You are reponsible for knowing what is presented
in lecture.
As an incentive, or reward/punishment depending on your viewpoint, there are
lecture exercises worth a total of 40 points over the semester. The
homeworks are also due at the beginning of lectures.
Do I need to go to discussion and Lab?
It is highly recommended that you attend discussion. Discussion
will strengthen your understanding of the major lecture
concepts and prepare you for the lab each week. In addition there
are exercises in every discussion class. The exercises account for
60 points of your grade; getting a zero out of 60 would reduce
your grade by about 3/4ths of a letter grade.
You must attend in the lab in order to be able to do the labs.
The labs are worth 165 points in total. If you don't do any labs
the highest possible grade you could get (if you aced everything
else ) would be a C. Why do that to yourself?
What do I do if I miss a class?
If you have a valid excuse for
missing a lecture, discussion or lab and your know
ahead of time, even 1 hour ahead of time, you should email your
TA at the address here or email
astr101@astro.umd.edu .
You should then arrange with the TA to make up for missed work.
If you have a valid excuse for missing a class and know well ahead of
time, for example a university sponsored event where you are
a participant, a health related appointment, etc, contact your
TA a week (or more) in advance to make arrangements for making up work.
If you have a valid excuse and forget to email your TA in
advance, do so as soon as possible after missing the class.
If you delay more than a week in contacting your TA, we will
need a valid excuse for the delay.
We will not let you make up work from "weeks ago" unless you
have a valid excuse for your extended absence. Even in this
case, we need to wonder why you did not email your TA during
the absence to inform them of the situation. There are few
real life scenarios in which you are physically unable to
email for periods of weeks.