Astronomy 1115 Section 002 Spring 2020 Revised March 16, 2020 Lecturer: Dr. J. Matthews, Office: Physics and Astronomy 1029 Email: johnm@phys.unm.edu Office hours = by appointment Class Web Site: http://physics.unm.edu/Courses/Matthews/Astro1115-2Sp20/ This is where class lectures and additional class information are available. 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). This is available using what is called "Inclusive Access" via UNM LEARN which links directly to your Bursar's account. The steps are as follows: 0. login to UNM LEARN and select our class astr-1115-002 (Spring 2020) 1. Open the course materials tab 2. Click on RedShelf course materials 3. Select the green button that says “view course materials” 4. Click on: Opt in Now Then register for a 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 has completed 6. Go to the My Courses tab on your Pearson account and select astro 1115 (possibly labelled Astr1115-002) 7. Find the assignments on Course Home (this may take a minute or so to load). Then click on All Assignments to find the list of available assignments. Pay attention to the Due Date/Time as you will be penalized if assignments are completed after that Date/Time! 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 2 will happen at our normal class time of Tuesday and Thursday at 2pm. 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 lectures in which case there will be a QuizA 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. 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 Spring 2020 is: Chapt 0 (0.4 later) Jan 21 - 23 Chapt 1 Jan 23 - 28 Chapt 2 Jan 30 - Feb 4 Review/Chapt 3 Feb 6 Chapt 4 (skip 4.4) Feb 11 Review/Chapt 5 Feb 13 - 18 Review/Chapt 6 Feb 20 Midterm #1 Chapt 0 - 4 Feb 25 Chapt 6 (con't) Feb 27 Chapt 7 Mar 3 Review/Chapt 8 Mar 5 Review/Chapt 9 Mar 10 - 12 (Midterm break Mar 17 - 19 --> extended Mar 17 - Apr 3) Midterm #2 Chapt 5 - 8 Apr 7 Chapt 10 Apr 9 Chapt 11/12 Apr 14 Chapt 12 Apr 16 Chapt 13 (skip 13.6/7) skip entire chapter Chapt 14 Apr 21 Chapt 15 Apr 23 Chapt 16 Apr 28 Chapt 17 Apr 30 Midterm #3 Chapt 9 - 12 May 5 Review May 7 Final Exam Chapt 14 - 17 Section 002 Probably Tuesday May 12 at 10am - 12 noon Online probably using UNM LEARN ========================================== 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? ================================