University of Evansville (UE), 2011 Fall, 3 hours, 3 credit hours.
Sections
Very reassuring I think.
Caption: Albert Einstein (1879--1955) with friends Conrad Habicht and Maurice Solovine, ca. 1903. The Olympian Academy.
Credit: Unknown photographer.
From Wikipedia.
Permission: Public domain at least in USA.
Also my favorite Einstein quote:
In my youth I despised all authority---and I have been punished for it by being
turned into an authority myself.
--- my memory of this quote. Like a lot of folks, the big E
may have said roughly the same thing several times.
Wave your hand or just speak up as seems appropriate.
Laptops can be used for in class-related activities only: taking notes, look-ups during group activities, etc.
which is the site you are maybe viewing right now.
This site contains the preliminary syllabus and links to the course lectures.
The site is/will be/may be linked from the official physics department
UE Physics.
Copying on tests is absolutely out of line.
Teaching a fellow student about a problem line by line is fine. Allowing them to directly copy is not.
These
lectures
were written and are updated by the instructor.
They can never be as perfected as professional publisher books, but essential are the same---and they
are free.
The lectures are
the unified source---they are ONE-STOP SHOPPING---they are the course textbook,
my lecturing tool, and the student notes.
Students do not need to take notes at all.
But notetaking might help with alertness and learning the material even if the student
never looks at them again.
To be brief, old astronomy (seasons, lunar phases,
constellations),
all of physics (just kidding),
the Solar System,
stars,
black holes,
galaxies,
and
cosmology.
The facts to learn go on and on---jillions of them.
How do you do it?
No one can memorize a jillion isolated facts---you learn the stories in which those facts
turn up and the story cues you for the facts.
There is a MATH COMPONENT---but it's elementary.
Caption: "Sherlock Holmes
and Dr. Watson. From the Sherlock Holmes story The Greek Interpreter.": year 1893sep.
``It's elementary, Watson,'' said Holmes annoyingly.
Credit: Sidney Paget (1860--1908) in the
The Strand Magazine, 1893sep.
Linked source: Wikipedia
image
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paget_holmes.png.
Permission: Public domain at least in USA.
It's there because astronomy
is very mathematical, and so getting some understanding of
the mathematical aspect of astronomy is essential.
It is also one of the gaols of this course to develop student math skills a bit.
A little algebra, a little
geometry.
Roughly 20 % of the questions will involve math.
No need to react with shock and awe---like these Medieval scholars.
Caption:
"Detail of a scene in the bowl of the letter 'P' with a woman with a set-square
and dividers; using a compass to measure distances on a diagram. In her left
hand she holds a square, an implement for testing or drawing right angles.
She is watched by a group of students. In the Middle Ages, it is unusual to see women
represented as teachers, in particular when the students appear to be monks.
She may be the personification of Geometry. Illustration at the beginning
of Euclid's Elementa, in the translation attributed to Adelard of Bath.
Year: 1309--1316, France (Paris)."
Credit: Unknown 14th century artist, posted by User: Leinad-Z:
From Wikipedia.
Public domain at least in USA.
There is a math refresher:
IAWL Lecture 1:
Scientific Notation, Units, Math, Angles, Plots, Motion, Orbits---which is actually the 2nd lecture
since there is a lecture 0.
Is this a hard course or an easy course?
Somewhere in between.
It's easy in that there are no essays, no course projects, and all questions are mulitple-choice.
But it's hard in that it is extensive---those jillion facts.
But as I always say, it's
nothing like organic chemistry.
I will lecture using the
lectures
as my lecture tool.
The lectures
have a complete narrative since they must be the course textbook.
But in lecture, we mostly just look at images, videos, key words, key statements, key facts,
and questions for the class.
I will just scroll through most of the words---those are for the student's private reading.
I find that students get used to not reading most words.
So do NOT be mesmerized by the words.
We will break up the lecture for group problem solving for 5 or so minutes most days.
The problems are just the homework problems: see below.
Everyone must participate in solving the problems and I will circulate helping/annoying folks.
So break into groups of 2 to 4 right now.
Introduce yourselves while a circulate and get names.
Say about 5 minutes.
The lectures run from
0 to 31, but 7 are omitted since we don't cover them and mostly they don't exist.
The omitted lectures are
specified on the
lectures contents.
Some day I'd like to complete those missing lectures, but the course is quite long enough
as it is, and so that day may never come.
So there are 25 lectures to read. I just give you the marks for the omitted lectures
in order to keep my marking scheme intelligible to myself.
There is no deadline for any of the readings, except the end of the semester sometime
before my grades are due---I'm still trying to find that out.
However, it is overwhelmingly best to read the lectures as they are being covered
or passed over in class.
Yes, I do not lecture on all the lectures.
Some lectures are just readings.
We'd never cover all the topics if I
lectured on all 25 included lectures.
The lectures that are just readings are specified in the
lectures contents and
are less heavily weighted on tests.
Be specific: e.g., ``I have read lectures 0, 1, 2, and 3'' or ``I have
read lectures 0 to 3''.
Just saying ``I'm caught up on the readings'' is too vague.
The homeworks and solutions are all posted already.
The homeworks are not handed in nor marked in any way.
They and the solutions are the study guide.
Typically, about 70 % of the test questions are drawn from the homeworks.
So knowing all the homeworks really well
is a desideratum for the
tests.
But since there are test questions not from the homeworks, you have to
know those astro stories too.
Actually, the password protection is just a little extra computer security.
Don't wait for the last minute and if you want to be sure to catch me,
make an appointment.
You should have a few astronomy/physics questions for me and I'll have
some questions for you.
You just get the mark for showing up.
Typically, the interview is 10 minutes or so, but we can chat longer if we like.
The interview is really just to make sure that all students meet up with me
at least once out of class.
All questions will be multiple-choice and, as aforementioned, typically about 70 %
will be drawn from the homeworks.
The in-class exams cover the material up to some cut-off point
that will be announced in class.
The final will be similar to the in-class tests, but about twice as long.
The final will be more heavily weighted on the material since the last
in-class test.
All students must AVOID knowing about given tests if they are
doing a make-up and must AVOID giving out information to
other students who have not yet done a test.
It's hard to fall completely behind if you attend lectures.
And there is lots of evidence that good attendance correlates
with achievement---but don't ask me to produce this evidence---it's
what deans tell me.
Letter grades will be assigned
per
the UE catalog, p. 52,
Grades--which allow instructors some freedom of
interpretation on how do determine ``average''.
I use a curve to automatically
assign letter grades during the semester---if there are enough
students to make a curve meaningful---if there arn't, I
just decide on letter grades.
There is NO fixed scale.
The curve is only used for current total grade: individual items (tests, etc. are NOT curved).
For these curved grades, I use the UE 11-point scale:
A,A-,B+,B,B-,C+,C,C-,D+,D,F.
There is no plus with A, no minus with D, no plus or minus with F.
The final grades are decided on by the instructor
directly---the curve is NOT used, except as a guide.
In this course, I expect that the class
GPA
will be in the B- range (i.e., about 2.7)---but I am rather
parsimonious about A's---just being in the upper half of the class is not enough.
There do NOT have to be any D's or F's---the curve is NOT used for final grades.
I will submit MIDTERM GRADES (if there are any) and FINAL GRADES
as scheduled somewhere.
Remember that after an instructor has submitted FINAL GRADES,
any adjustments (except for purely clerical errors) are NOT easy.
This is true for any course.
Students should make any queries about their final grades before
the instructor submits them.
They are a measure of what you learn in a course: the learning itself is what counts ultimately.
If you've worked hard in a course and learnt a lot, then that helps you will all the following
courses and all the rest of your life.
The best strategy is to work hard in a course subject to all other constraints in life.
Of course, if you need a specific grade for some particular thing (e.g., a scholarship),
don't undershoot.
Don't imagine you can fine tune your effort just to get that specific grade.
Often I post grades under anonymous aliases.
But I havn't figured out whether I can do that at UE
or not.
Grades are confidential and the rules that apply vary from place to place.
You can just ask me for your currrent grades.
15 second wait at least.
Thus we will just look over the sequence of lectures
appropriate to the solar-system, extrasolar-astronomy, or all-astronomy courses
and dig in.
On with the show:
Introductory Astronomy Web Lectures (IAWL).
http://physics.nhn.ou.edu/~jeffery/course/c_astint/ast.html
You can report readings by email or a slip of paper in class.
All the included lectures have accompanying homeworks and solutions.
To access the posted homeworks, homework solutions, and test solutions
you need the SUPERSECRET
username
and
password---which you
can get from the instructor right now.
TENTATIVE EXAM SCHEDULE
_________________________________________________________________
Exam Date Solutions (posted post-exam)
_________________________________________________________________
Exam 1 Sep26 M Exam 1 solutions
Exam 2 Oct28 F Exam 2 solutions
Exam 3 Nov18 F Exam 3 solutions
Final Exam Dec13 T Final Exam solutions
The final is in the regular classroom at 2:45 pm, Dec13 T as per
final exam schedule.
_________________________________________________________________
Make-up tests are possible, but students must ask for them promptly.
--------------------------------------------------------------
readings 33 % no drops
interview 1 % no drops
3 in-class tests 33 % no drop
comprehensive final 33 % no drop
--------------------------------------------------------------
Good attendance is recommended, but not marked.
In any course, just showing for the lectures keeps the student
at least partially up to date just in itself.
There are absolutely NO extra credits.
About grades: they are important, but they are not everything.
Beware of aliens bearing grades.