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ASTR1020K-Stellar and Galactic Astronomy

Syllabus

Summer 2008

Instructor: Dr. Chad L. Davies

Office: IC 226

Office Hours: On-Line, 1:00-2:00 pm M-F

Office Phone: 770-358-5831

E-Mail: c_davies@gordonstate.edu

Class Meeting Time: Lab Times: July 5, 12, 19

Course Home Page: http://www.gordonstate.edu/faculty/c_davies/astr1020hp.htm

Textbook: Astronomy, Journey to the Cosmic Frontier 5th Ed., Fix, John D., WCB/McGraw-Hill, Boston, 2007.

Required Materials: Calculator

Semester Credit Hours: 4 (3-2-4)

Division: Natural Sciences

Course Description: Astronomy from the early ideas of the cosmos to modern observational techniques.

Course Philosophy:  My philosophy in teaching this course is that the student:

·      Learn about astronomy as a science,

·      Become familiar with a body of astronomical knowledge,

·      Learn how to make simple observations of the sky and

·      Have fun. 

With these goals in mind and understanding the survey nature of this course, I will be incorporating information from a number of different sources using a variety of different methods.  As such, while the book is a very good starting point, it will be necessary to supplement it with additional outside material which will be found on the course’s Georgia View site.  Therefore, it will be important for the students to plan on reading both the text and the supplemental material.  As this course is a lab science, the student should expect to spend some of each class doing laboratory or observational work.  Additionally, there may be opportunities for students to do some real sky observations, though these will be outside of the normal scope of the class.

            The course will be broken into four roughly weeklong sections.  The first of these sections will cover the basics of the physics of astronomy: Light, Optics, Gravitation and the processes that power the Sun.  Next we will look at the observations and observational techniques astronomers used to classify stars and look at the stellar life cycle.  The third section will be about understanding galaxies in their many complex forms including active galaxies.  The final section of the course will look at large scale structure in the universe and the possibilities for life therein.  Each section will have a number of activities specifically designed to enhance learning of the material in those sections.  Given this, the flow of the course may not follow the order of the text.

            The most striking feature of the course is that it will be taught on-line.  This method of delivering course content has both its strengths and weaknesses.  While the convenience and flexibility of the method are obvious (I’m assuming that’s why many of you chose to take this course) there are a number of pitfalls that must be addressed.  Research shows that for a typical on-line course that is run both asynchronously (without specific times) and without a specific meeting place the rate of student success is often only 20%.  This means 4 in 5 students fail or withdraw from the course rather than complete it successfully.  Thus, we’ve got to build in some things that will assist you, the student, in being successful.  The biggest enemy of the student in an on-line course is procrastination.  Since many courses of this sort don’t have solid “deadlines” such as quizzes and exams to be ready for on a specific date there tends to be an “I can get it done tomorrow” approach for many students.  With this in mind, there will be a number of deadlines hardwired into the course.  As you read through the assessment descriptions below you’ll see that most of the assignments will have solid due dates that correlate closely to when those types of assessments would be due in a typical summer course.  Also, several of the items are designed to keep the student “in the game” by encouraging interaction with their classmates.   While this leads to more work that one might expect from an on-line course it seems to produce a much higher success rate among the students.

One or two other things should be noted.  First, I am a constructivist in my teaching philosophy.  This means that I believe learning is best achieved when students do most of the work in creating their knowledge.  I view myself more as a “guide on the side” than a “sage on stage”.  Many students initially mistake this approach as being less rigorous than other teaching styles they’ve encountered.  While I may not expect you to memorize a large amount of useless minutia, I will expect you to completely understand the ideas, models and thinking we explore and discover.  This will take you a good deal of time.  Cramming and/or memorizing may earn you a C in the course, a student wishing to earn a better grade can expect to have to spend extended periods of time getting comfortable with the material we cover.  To facilitate this, there will be lab work and homework.  These activities will require the student to become involved in “discovering” much of the material of the course.  Much of this work can be done collaboratively, both during the Saturday lab times and as part of informal student groups. 

Second, because this a summer course, we will be trying to learn sixteen weeks of material in a four week period of time.  For the credits in this class to transfer to other schools there are certain topics that must be covered regardless of the format.  Therefore, it is very important that the student work hard to keep up in the course.  Getting behind can really hurt your chances of being successful because every day in a summer class is like a week in a course offered over a full semester.  This means that there will be several tasks that you will need to complete every day to stay abreast of the material including reading the book, looking over activities, reading articles and writing summaries and participating in on-line discussions.  Lecture notes will be made available to help you with the material, as will additional on-line resources such as Java simulations and web site information.  The most important thing to realize however is that you are ultimately responsible for doing well in this course format and that will require a lot of discipline and work.

Method of Evaluation: The student’s progress in the course will be evaluated using several different methods.  As this is a survey course, it is important that the student do reasonably well in each of the methods.  Therefore, failure to complete any of the listed portions of the course evaluation may result in a grade of F being assigned for the course.

On-Line Quizzes:  Each Tuesday and Friday of the course an on-line quiz will be made available through the course’s WebCT page. These quizzes are open note and open book and can only be taken on the day when they are assigned.  The lowest quiz will be dropped.

Homework/Lab Work:  Each week there will be on-line homework required of the student in the form of discussion questions to be answered via email and discussion to be posted on the course’s WebCT bulletin board.  Additionally, there will be labs and activities done during the Saturday meetings of the course.

Periodical Reviews: The student will be required to read a compilation of articles related to astronomy over the term of the course.  The articles will be placed on reserve in the library. Each student will read 15 articles over the course of the semester then summarize each article in a short paper of at least 150 words in length. The summary will be checked for spelling and grammatical mistakes as well as for informational accuracy.  The articles will be picked up twice, once at each exam for grading.   The review should address three points:

• What was the main point of the article (50 words)?
• Why is the information presented important to the science of astronomy (50 words)?
• How does the information in the article relate to you or to what we have studied in the course (50 words)?

Paper:  During the course, a 1500 word paper will be written about a topic selected by the student.  The topic will be emailed to the instructor who will return a question to the student to be answered in the paper.  The paper will have at least five sources, of which only one may be encyclopedic in nature and of which one must be a book.  Sources will have been published within the last ten years unless approved by the instructor.   Wikipedia is not considered a valid source for this type of paper.

Mid-Term Exam and Final:  Two examinations will be given during the course.  The exam scores will be curved with the top point of the curve being the average of the two highest scores on the exam and a perfect score.  Consequently, it is possible for a student to earn more points than the exam was worth (a sort of extra credit).  The curve is not a straight number of points that is added to each score but a sliding scale that rewards students for doing well. 

Course Policies:  The following policies will be in effect throughout the duration of the course.  The instructor will deal with any other situations that may arise on a case-by-case basis.

Cheating Policy:  Cheating is immoral, unethical, antithetical to the goals of higher education and a violation of the spirit and mission of the scientific pursuit of knowledge.  Additionally, dishonesty is harshly punished in the workplace.  Therefore, cheating, if caught, will carry dire consequences in this course.  If the student is caught cheating, the student shall be possible subject to any of the following punishments: assigning of a score of zero on the work, a permanent lowering of grade in the course, the assignment of a failing grade to the course, being reported to the Vice Presidents of Academic and Student Affairs and/or expulsion.  Cheating will be considered any case where a student has represented work or ideas as original when they are not.  Reasonable evidence of this (mainly in the form of copying another student’s or author’s work) will be considered sufficient grounds for prosecution.  Additionally, all students in a group will be expected to contribute equally to work done.  Thus, the instructor will deduct points from a student’s work if it is perceived that the student is “riding” on the work of his or her teammates.

Accommodations of Disability:  If you need to make academic adjustments for any type of disability, see the instructor during office hours or by appointment. 

Statute of Limitations:  While the instructor does his best to accurately review and assess student work, instances may occur where an error in assigning a grade may occur.  The student has exactly two class periods from the time when the grade was handed back to the class to ask the instructor to review the grade.  After this time has elapsed, all grades may be viewed as being carved in stone.

Make-Up Work:  While missing class is a bad idea, it is occasionally unavoidable.  If a student finds that he or she must miss a class the instructor should be contacted at the earliest possible time to arrange a time to make up any missed material.  If the student waits more than a week after the absence to discuss the make-up with the instructor, the request may be denied. Occasionally, students will find it necessary to put in extra time in the lab/classroom area.  Students are encouraged to do this in their assigned workgroups, as many of the activities will be constructed to encourage group work.

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Revised: June 24, 2008