AST 310 001 Course SYLLABUS Fall 2014 Hands-On Astronomy TR Classroom Location: Instructor 2:00 - 3:15 AM Room 397 Tim Knauer Office Phone Office hours E-mail Textbook Chem-Phys Room 149 859-257-7147 Tue 3:15-4:15; Mon 4-5, and by appointment. [email protected] There is no textbook for the course, but there will be assigned reading to specific web articles. Course Website: Observatory Website: http://www.pa.uky.edu/~tgknauer/AST310_001/ & BlackBoard https://pa.as.uky.edu/observatory COURSE TOPICS - This is an introductory, survey course. We will consider astronomical objects from which we can derive data. CLASSROOM DECORUM & ATTENDANCE – You may use a computer or PDA to take notes only with prior permission from the instructor. Laptops are a visual distraction for students sitting behind and next to them. This is largely a visual course, and laptops also make it difficult to make any kind of meaningful sketches to accompany your written notes. Reading for recreation or other courses while in class is a public display of disrespect that I will not tolerate. Headphones and earbuds are not allowed. Turn your cell phones and iPODs ® off during classes and exams. The instructor reserves the right to assign seats, and remove students from a class in order to preserve decorum. Academic Integrity - Cheating and Plagiarism will be dealt with according to the Faculty Senate rules. Rules and guidelines can be found at the UK Office of Academic Ombud Services. GRADES - Your final letter grade will be determined by your numerical scores on the three in-class tests, the final exam, the writing assignments, the quizzes, the lab activities, and by your participation in the on-line course evaluation system (see below). Quizzes 15% Plan – WHY & WHAT 15% Plan – HOW & WHEN 15% Data Collection 15% Data Reduction 15% Data Results 15% Proj. Presentation 10% Total 100% Grading: A B C D E ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ < 88% 76% 64% 50% 50% ASTRONOMY LAB PROJECT – We will make use of the MacAdam Student Observatory and its other resources to complete a lab project. Most of your grade will be determined by this project. There are milestones to be met along the way, so that you have a measure of how well you are doing in the course through the semester. It will be necessary to spend some evenings at the telescope, possibly quite late, to accomplish some projects. If that is not a possibility, you may choose a project that can be satisfied using daytime resources. It will also be necessary to work in pairs at the telescope, so you should choose a partner that has a similar schedule as your own. Security concerns: All students are required to come to their observing sessions with their project partners. We recommend that students sign up for telephone alerts from UK Emergency Management. COURSE EVALUATION – Course evaluations are an important and mandatory component of our department's instructional program. An on-line course evaluation system was developed to allow each student ample time to evaluate each component of the course and instructor, thus providing the Department with meaningful numerical scores and detailed commentary while minimizing the loss of instructional time in the classroom. The evaluation window for this semester will be Wed Nov 19 through Wed Dec 10. To access the system during this time, go to http://mercury.pa.uky.edu/~evaluation. You will need to use your student ID number to log into the system, and this will also allow us to monitor who has filled out evaluations. However, when you log in you will be assigned a random number that will keep all your comments and scores anonymous. You should keep that number in case you need to log in a second time to complete the evaluation process. Extra Credit - 1 percentage point will be added to your final score if you complete a course evaluation in the time allowed, using the online service. Some students begin the process without finishing; no credit will be given for incomplete evaluations. I strongly recommend that you use a university computer lab for this exercise. Student Email - Students are strongly encouraged to use their name as used by the registrar when identifying written work and exams. Further, it is the student’s responsibility to read their university email accounts. Delivery of responses to accounts other than the one supplied by the university is not the responsibility of the instructor. Failure to read emails from your university account is not the responsibility of the instructor. Project Details – If at all possible, you will be allowed to choose your topic of investigation. The instructor will present a list of possible projects and you may choose from that list, or with the instructor’s approval, create one of your own. The goal is to make observations that can be turned into usable, possibly even publishable, data. The Department of Physics and Astronomy has a poster session at the end of the summer, and your results will be a part of that display. You will be given a detailed outline for your project goals with due dates by January 30. Each of these steps will be reviewed by the instructor and either approved or modified. These will be presented to the class, informally.  Observing Project o Plan – WHY & WHAT o Plan – HOW & WHEN o Data Collection o Data Reduction o Data Results o Final Presentation Each part of your project will be submitted electronically as a Word or PowerPoint file. You will keep all of these separate files to be combined into a single report at the end of the semester. In lieu of a final exam, you will make a presentation outlining your work this semester and your results to the class. These presentations will be open to Physics and Astronomy faculty, staff, graduate students, and post-docs to attend; we will both be evaluated.