Syllabus
Info
| Title | Astronomy |
| Term | Spring 2016 |
| Credits | 3 |
| Time | Tue, Fri 1.30-3.20 |
| Place | Brown Science/Sci 117A |
| Level | Introductory |
| Faculty | Sara Salimbeni |
| Office Hours: | by appointment (M, Tu, W, F)
|
| Tutor | to be announced |
Textbook
Astronomy Today (vol II): Stars and Galaxies 8th by Chaisson & McMillan
Other Useful Books
Understanding Physics by Karen Cummings, Priscilla W. Laws, Edward F. Redish, Patrick J. Cooney (on the reserve shelf)
Course Policies & Grading
Attendance and Participation
Attending the lessons and actively participating in class are essential to successfully pass this course. During the semester you are allowed up to 2 absences for illness, family emergencies, religious observance, etc. Your grade will drop by 3.5 points for each absence beyond the first two. You will not receive any credit for this course if you missed more than a total of 7 classes. Please, come on time to class, three late arrivals will be considered an absence.
Readings, Participation and Pre-class assignments
You are required to participate and collaborate with other students during class discussions, group work and experiments. You are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the material and ask questions. Reading the material is critical for having a productive class time, failing to prepare will affect the learning of you and your classmates. To help you with the reading I will assign pre-class questions that will be discussed during class time. Readings, quality of participation and pre-class assignments are part of your grade (15% of your final grade).
Homework
Homework will be 35% of your final grade. Homework is an essential tool to learn and to receive feedback. For this reason it is important that you hand in your assignments on time. Students are encouraged to work together on the homework assignments. However, your final write-up of the assignment must represent your own understanding; copying another person's work is plagiarism and will result in no credit for that assignment.
Midterm and Final
In addition to the assignments, there will be a Midterm (20% of your grade) and a final (30% of your final grade). You are not allowed to collaborate while you are working on the Tests or on the final (unless I assign group work).
Late Police for Assignments, Tests and Final
This is how late work will affect your grades:
days of delay percentage of the actual grade
--------------- -----------------------------------------
1 to 3 90%
3 to 7 80%
8 to 15 60%
15 to 30 40%
over 30 it will not be accepted
Special arrangements for late work can be obtained under very special circumstances agreed through prior discussion with me.
No late work will be accepted for the Take-Home tests and Final assignments.
Plagiarism
Academic Honesty is expected of all scientists, and also of all students. Cheating on homework or the final exam will result in no credit.
If you are not sure on how to use a source, please check this
link on the library webpage.
Grading
|
|
| 35% | Weekly homework |
| 15% | Readings, quality of participation and pre-class assignments |
| 20% | Midterm |
| 30% | Final |
Grade Letters
| Highest | Lowest | Letter |
| 100.00 | 93.00 | A |
| 92.99 | 90.00 | A- |
| 89.99 | 87.00 | B+ |
| 86.99 | 83.00 | B |
| 82.99 | 80.00 | B- |
| 79.99 | 77.00 | C+ |
| 76.99 | 73.00 | C |
| 72.99 | 70.00 | C- |
| 69.99 | 67.00 | D+ |
| 66.99 | 60.00 | D |
| 59.99 | 0.00 | F |
Tentative Schedule
Day Topics
------ -----
Jan 22 Constellation
Jan 26 earth orbital motion
Jan 29 Motion of the moon and measurement of distance
Feb 2 Radiation
Feb 5 Spectroscopy
Feb 9 Telescope
Feb 12 The Sun
Feb 16 The Sun
Feb 19 The stars
Feb 23 The stars
Feb 26 The stars
Mar 1 Interstellar Medium
Mar 4 Interstellar Medium
Mar 8 Star formation
Mar 11 Star formation
Mar 29 Stellar evolution
Apr 1 Stellar evolution
Apr 5 Stellar explosion
Apr 8 Stellar explosion
Apr 12 Neutron stars and black holes
Apr 15 Neutron stars and black holes
Apr 19 The Milky way
Apr 22 The Milky way
Apr 26 Galaxies
Apr 29 Galaxies
May 3 Review
