Astronomy 1115 Section 001 Fall 2019 Lecturer: Dr. J. Matthews, Office: Physics and Astronomy 1029 Phone: 277-2077 (usually UNreliable) Email (very reliable): johnm@phys.unm.edu Office hours = by appointment Text: Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe, 8th Edition, Chaisson / McMillan = CM You will also need to register in (and pay for) Mastering Astronomy (MA). The most economical solution is to bundle the online Mastering Astronomy with 5 month access to the (also online) eBook. There are now two ways to do this. a) The first (traditional) is to go to the Pearson Mastering Astronomy web site: https://www.pearsonmylabandmastering.com/northamerica/masteringastronomy/ with the course ID = MAMATTHEWS4167575 You need to pay using eg a credit card. The cost of Mastering Astronomy + 5 months access to the eBook is $59.99 b) the second (called "Inclusive Access") is via UNM LEARN. Note: in this option MA already knows about our class so you do NOT need and should not use the course ID = MAMATTHEWS4167575!! The primary advantage of this route is that LEARN links dirrectly to your Bursar's account. Currently the cost is a few dollars less than the traditional route; so same material at a little less cost. If that is your choice for paying for Mastering Astronomy + 5 months access to the eBook then this is what you need to do: 0. login to UNM LEARN and select our class astr1115-001 1. Open the course materials tab 2. Click on RedShelf course materials 3. Select the green button that says “view course materials” 4. Login or register to your Pearson account (if you already have a Pearson account use that login ID and passwd). By registering you are also paying (via your Bursars account) for the course material: Mastering Astronomy and 5 months of the online eBook version of our text 5. It will take a couple minutes to process that you are accessing the material, and you will receive an email once it’s completed 6. Go to the my courses tab on your Pearson account and select astro 1115 (possibly labelled Astr1115-001) 7. Find the assignments on course home (if nothing comes up then just select course tools, and then assignments.) Lectures: The chapters from "CM" that will be discussed are given on the Lecture Schedule (further down this page). To help you engage the many, likely new, words and concepts in the course, we will use several learning tools that are provided by the online Pearson "Mastering Astronomy", MA. The MA tools include: a) "Quiz" questions to help you engage the new material, and related new concepts, that were discussed in the most recent lecture. A "quiz" assignment follows each lecture and is due about a day after each lecture class. Your participation and grade in the "quiz" questions will count for 10% of your final grade. b) "Homework" includes a variety of tutorial exercises and multiple choice questions to help you focus your re-reading of, and re-digesting, the material in each chapter of the text (CM). There will be one "homework" per chapter. The chapter "homework" assignments will be due about a week after the chapter was covered in class. The multiple choice "homework" questions are similar to the questions on the class midterms and final and thus are a good preparation for those examinations. Your participation and grade in the "homework" questions will count for 15% of your final grade. Note: in determining your "quiz" and "homework" scores I will drop the lowest 15% to 25% (to be determined) of your assignment scores. Thus you can miss a few assignments with no penalty. However your goal should be to do "all" the assignments and to "score as well as you can" on each assignment! Hints: Start early (ie do not delay!) to find your own best procedure for doing the MA assignments and doing them ON TIME as late assignments count less (or nothing). The MA assignments also help prepare you for the class midterms. While the best procedure varies from person to person the components include: i) attend class lectures ii) read each chapter in the text typically multiple times (note that there are about 20 pages per class lecture) iii) review the class lectures (pdf files posted on the class web page) iv) keep a (short) "log" of the major topics in each chapter ... these will appear "frequently" in the MA questions ... as your "log" will be invaluable when you need to make 1-page notes for your midterm exams. Snow Days: IF UNM declares a "snow DELAY" with classes beginning at 10am, then our Astr 1115 Section 1 class will meet from 10am to 10:45am. Homework: The class homework is the "quiz" and "homework" questions discussed above. These assignments are ONLY in the online MA. So as noted above you need to register and pay for MA; then you go to MA to find all of the assignments. Click on "All Assignments" to list the Quiz and Homework assignments. Assignments are coded as follows: first the chapter eg Chapt00 for chapter 0 to Chapt17 for chapter 17 followed by Homework or Quiz. Thus for chapter 0 there is a Chapt00Homework and a Chapt00Quiz. Some chapters have 2 lectrues in which case there will be a QuiaA and a QuizB Finally I recommend clicking on "Calendar" when you want to check on the assignment due dates. If you have issues with Mastering Astronomy the procedure is as follows: 1. Go to: https://support.pearson.com/getsupport/s/ 2. Click "Contact Us" at the top-right corner of the page. IF you do not see "Contact Us' click on More and Contact Us should appear. 3. IF you are accessing MA via UNM LEARN tell the Technical Support Representative, "My course is being deployed via "Inclusive Access" and "Partner Integration." The Pearson representative said: Students will need to complete a quick form so a case number is assigned.  Once they complete the form a phone number will appear that they can then call. The student will need to give their case number that was just generated to the tech person so they can quickly retrieve their issue.  If they tell that person that their course they are registering to is deployed in Inclusive Access and Partner Integration, they will be routed to tier 3 support immediately. Exams and grades: Three quarters (75%) of your class grade is based on 3 mid-term and 1 final exam(s). Each exam will have 60 multiple choice questions. Midterm and final exams count "equally" toward your grade [more below]. The mid-terms are 75 minutes in time duration, the final is 2 hours. You can bring ONE page (8 1/2" x 11") double sided of HAND WRITTEN notes to each exam but no cell phones! A hand calculator is OK but probably not needed. To calculate the exam component of your grade, I will choose your THREE best exam scores (from the 4 exams). I will then sum the THREE best scores to obtain a total exam component grade contributing 75% to your final grade. Notes: Recall that the other 25% of your final grade comes from your Mastering Astronomy assignments. If you do well on the first three exams you need not take the final, however you do need to complete the Mastering Astronomy assignments! For this class there will be no extra credit options. Instead please use the feedback from the Mastering Astronomy assignments to keep you on track to get a good grade in the class! If you would like additional help you may find the following (free) online YouTube series helpful: a) Crash Course Astronomy: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtPAJr1ysd5yGIyiSFuh0mIL b) Khan Academy Cosmology and Astronomy: http://www.khanacademy.org/science/cosmology-and-astronomy Then the letter grades in the course will be: A 85 - 100+ (Plus and B 65 - 84 minus grades will C 45 - 64 be assigned.) D 30 - 44 F below 30 The TENTATIVE lecture and test schedule for fall 2019 is: Chapt 0 (0.4 later) Aug 20 - 22 Chapt 1 Aug 22 - 27 Chapt 2 Aug 29 - Sept 3 Review/Chapt 3 Sept 5 Chapt 4 (skip 4.4) Sept 10 Review/Chapt 5 Sept 12 - 17 Review/Chapt 6 Sept 19 Midterm #1 Chapt 0 - 4 Sept 24 Chapt 6 (con't) Sept 26 Chapt 7 Oct 1 Review/Chapt 8 Oct 3 Review/Chapt 9 Oct 8 (Midterm break Oct 10) Review/Chapt 9 (con't) Oct 15 Midterm #2 Chapt 5 - 8 Oct 17 Chapt 10 Oct 22 - 24 [Prof. Pihlstrom] Chapt 11/12 Oct 29 Review/Chapt 12 (con't) Oct 31 Chapt 13 (skip 13.6/7) Nov 5 Review/Chapt 14 Nov 7 Review/Chapt 15 Nov 12 Midterm #3 Chapt 9 - 12 Nov 14 Chapt 16 Nov 19 Chapt 17 Nov 21 - 26 Review Dec 3 - 5 Final Exam Chapt 13 - 17 Section 0011 Probably Tuesday Dec 10 7:30am - 9:30am Regener Hall 103 ========================================== Class goals: A) experience thinking like a scientist: 1) be attentive, question "everything" eg what is that all about? why is something the way it is? can we explain something in a more simple way? 2) apply the scientific method: theory/model/belief --> make predictions --> make observations AND compare with predictions --> refine theory/model/belief IF there is poor agreement B) be aware that objects in the universe are in motion controlled by the force of gravity C) learn that astronomical objects are like people: they are "born", evolve and ultimately "die" 1) so the universe is not static 2) the oldest objects in the universe have a finite age! D) appreciate that science is based on as reliable information as is available 1) information comes to us in the form of light (electro-magnetic radiation) from virtually all objects in the universe 2) tested physics lets us interpret the information provided by the light this allows us to learn about objects (in the universe) that we will never be able to visit! E) realize that scientific figures (in the text) are packed with information and require repeated asking the question: what is that all about? realize that seeing patterns in astronomy (like patterns in life) provide a better way to understand what is "going on" instead of memorizing facts or rules. Again the issue is to ask: what is that all about? Note: In the revised Core Curriculum for NM Universities 5 skills are identified. These are given here along with how these are related to the class goals: communication: goal A quantitative: goals A, B, D and E critical thinking: goals A, C, D and E personal and social responsibility: goals A and E information literacy: goals A, C, D and E ================================