PES 106        Spring 2003        Course General Astronomy II        Information

Professor/office hours	course syllabus	textbook and reserve books	grading standards
	Reviews for Exams		other astronomy links

---

Course Syllabus and Information

This course is primarily a descriptive astronomy course and the level of mathematics needed will be minimal. This is, however, a science course. We will spend a substantial amount of time trying to understand the science of astronomy and how information from physics, chemistry, and geology allows us to understand what we observe in astronomy. This semester will emphasize stars, galaxies and cosmology.

Tentative schedule (subject to revision)

• I. Introduction and History; Sun (Ch. 1 - 3, 11)
  • January 21 - February 18
    • a. Astronomy
    • b. Gravity
    • Light
    • Sun
• II. Stars (Ch. 12-14)
  • February 20 - March 20
    • a. stars - properties
    • b. stellar evolution
    • c. final states of stars
• III. Galaxies (Ch. 15, 16)
  • April 1 - April 24
    • Milky Way Galaxy
    • Galaxies - properties
• IV. Cosmology (Ch. 17)
  • April 29 - May 8 

Study hints: Read the assigned text pages before coming to class. This will help familiarize you with the basic ideas and terms to be discussed in the lecture. If you do not understand something after reading and the lecture, ask questions. Questions are welcome during the lecture or during my office hours.

Attendance: Attendance at lectures is not required, but may be very helpful. The book contains a very large amount of material. I tend to test on the things which I emphasize in lecture.If you do attend, please respect your fellow students and avoid unnecessary talking during the lecture.

Books

Text: "Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy",

Thomas Arny, 3rd edition

Go To Textbook On-line Learning Center Home Page

We will cover parts of Chapters 1-3 and most of Chapters 11 -17 in the text. Most of the rest of the book is covered in PES 105.

Grading

The course grade will be determined approximately as follows:

Midterm Exam 1	Preview, Ch. 1-3, 11	approx. Feb. 18	16%
Midterm Exam 2	Ch. 12-14	approx. March 20	16%
Midterm Exam 3	Ch. 15-16	approx. April 24	16%
on-line preclass questions	best 10 of 12	approx. weekly	10%
In-class Group assignments	(best 6 out of 8)	approx. every other week	17%
Final Exam	Ch. 17 + comprehensive	exactly May 15	25%

 Reviews for Exams

Exams: The exams will be multiple choice and will emphasize the material covered in the lectures.

Make-up exams: Normally make-up exams will not be given. If you miss an exam with a good excuse, I will average your other exam scores to replace it.

On-line preclass questions: Approximately weekly, questions will be posted on the web site linked from our class home page. Typically these assignments will be posted on Fridays and will be due by 7:00 am on the following Tuesday. These assignments will consist of three questions which will ask you to think about material that we will be covering the following week in class. The questions will help me to identify areas of confusion and topics that are well understood. This will help shape my lectures for the week. Grading of these will be very simple:

• 1 point = attempted only one question
• 2 points = attempted two questions
• 3 points = attempted all three questions
• 4 points = attempted all three questions and two of the three are correct
• 5 points = attempted all three questions and all three are correct

Group Assignments: Considerable research in astronomy suggests that students learn better in a more active environment and when they can talk over ideas with one another. This is not easy in a large lecture but we will try some activities this year. Each student will hand in their own work for each group project. This will include the group's consensus on the correct answer and whether you agree. You will be graded on your response.