Text: The Essential Cosmic Perspective (7th ed.)
by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit

Description: Physics 109 is an intensive introductory course in astronomy. Topics to be covered include the history of astronomy, tools used in astronomy, our solar system, the life-cycle of stars, galaxies, and the structure of the universe as a whole.

Tests: There will be four in-class tests given during the semester in addition to the final exam. Of the four in-class tests, your lowest grade may be dropped, however, you may not skip any of the in-class tests (the grade on any in-class test that is missed without explicit permission from the instructor cannot be dropped).

Final: The final exam will be given at the date and time listed in the Course Schedule. Inform your friends and family of this now. Exceptions will not be made for such excuses as: my brother is getting married, my parents already bought my airline ticket, etc...

Homework: The publisher of our text provides a MasteringAstronomy web-site with study aids and quizzing. The text you purchased from the campus bookstore should include an access kit with an access code for this site, or you may have purchased access directly from the Mastering Astronomy web-site. For each chapter we study, it is your responsibility to take the Online Quiz for that chapter. The due date for each homework assignment is printed in red to the left of each chapter in the syllabus. You may not receive help when taking this online homework quiz. When you register for access to the web-site, you will be asked to provide a Course ID for our class. The Course ID is MACOOK28159.

Attendance: Attendance will not usually be taken, however, you are expected to attend and participate in class. You are expected to take all of the in-class tests and the final exam at the scheduled times unless prior permission from the instructor is obtained. If you are too ill to take a test, you are ill enough to need to see a doctor. Missed tests (including the final exam) can only be made up if written proof is provided for either your illness or a death in your immediate family.

Class Policies Quiz: Prior to 6:00pm on 9/6/2015, you must review the information on this web page and the pages it links to, then log onto the WFU Sakai system's entry for this class and take the online "Class Policies Quiz". Correctly completing this quiz counts for 5% of you final grade. You may take this quiz as many times as you like, but you must correctly answer all of the questions to receive any credit. It is your responsibility to take the quiz before the deadline. No excuses are accepted. It is your responsibility to try early enough to resolve any and all problems by the deadline. You are free to use the HELP desk, get help from friends, and to come to my office for help in getting enrolled. Once you are officially registered for the class, you should be enrolled in this class's entry on Sakai, but if you are just now adding the class, it may take several hours for this to be reflected on Sakai.

Grading: Your grade depends on your scores on the in-class tests, the final exam, the labs, homework, and the online class policies quiz. The relative weights assigned to these are listed to the left. The grading scale is shown to the right. I reserve the right to adjust this scale, but I do not generally do so and I will only lower the cutoffs. Note, if you receive a final lab grade that is less than 60%, you will fail the class! This is physics department policy and I am allowed no flexible on this. It is easy to score well above 60% on the labs, provided you attend and work reasonably hard on all of your labs.

As a special option, if you score an average of 28(out of 35) or higher on all 4 in-class tests and have no score below a 26 on any single test, then you may skip the final exam. In this case, your final grade will be based on 60% from the 4 in-class tests, 20% from the labs, 15% from the homework, and 5% from the class policies quiz. Your final grade will be based on the same scale as the rest of the class. At the end of the semester, I will send an e-mail to everyone who is eligible to skip the final exam.

Labs: Labs will be held in the evenings, on Sunday-Thursday from 8:00—10:00pm in room 105 Olin Physical Laboratory. You must attend the lab section you are signed up for. You cannot change your lab section without written permission from your instructor. You are expected to attend and complete all twelve of the labs. Your lowest lab grade will be dropped. Your lab manual can be found online. It is your responsibility to print out a copy and bring it with you to the first meeting.

There will be some outdoor labs and you should dress much more warmly for them than you normally would to travel to and from class. Hats and gloves are strongly recommended in the winter. Be prepared on any given night to go outside. You should bring to lab the following: pencil, eraser, lab manual, calculator, laptop computer. Laptop computers will be used in the labs.

Your lab grade will be based on the best 11 grades from the 12 labs you should complete this semester. This means that you can miss one lab during the semester for any reason without it having a significant effect on your lab grade. If you plan to miss one lab for any reason, you do not have to tell me or explain your reasons. You only need to contact me about labs if you have a valid reason to miss a future lab, or have just missed a lab and believe you had a valid reason for missing that lab.

If you miss a lab for any reason without prior permission from me, follow these instructions posted on the lab schedule page. The first thing you must do is leave me a phone/e-mail message. If you are too sick to call/e-mail, I will need to see a note from the hospital (if you're not in the hospital, you're not too sick to call/e-mail). If I deem your reason for missing the lab to be valid or if you had prior permission to miss the lab, then I will write a note to the TAs giving you permission to make up the lab. After the TAs receive a permission note for you, you will need to follow the instructions for making up a missed lab.

Software: We will make use of the Starry Night virtual planetarium software in class and in labs. It is included with your textbook bundle if you purchase it at the campus bookstore. If you do not purchase it through the bookstore, you can get it directory from the company that makes it. Information on how to purchase and download the software online can be found on the WFU Sakai site for this class. You will be guided through the installation of this software in your lab section.

Online Tutorials: The Mastering Astronomy web-site has numerous tools to help you understand the material presented in this class. Each chapter of the text has a corresponding section on the web site that includes summaries of the material, multiple choice quiesz, and interactive tutorials. I encourage you to make use of these.

Studying for This Class: You are expected to read the relevant chapters of the text as outlined in the syllabus. Do not wait until just before the test to read the text! Class lectures are intended to complement and reinforce the material in the text. This means that your instructor may cover, in class, material that is not in the text. It also means that some material in the text may not be covered in class lectures. Tests may include some material that is covered only in lectures or only in the text, but not covered in both.

In this course there is a large amount of material that you are expected to assimilate. The two things that will help you the most are to attend all of the lectures and keep up with the reading. It is usually difficult to understand everything in a science course the first time it is presented. Therefore it is important to be exposed to the material a number of times in different ways. When studying it is best to avoid highlighting parts of the text. This is because science texts tend to be very densely written and you will miss important information. Instead it is best to take notes on what you read. This slows you down and gives you a chance to ask yourself whether you really understand the material you are reading. It may be helpful to you to make an outline of the important material and to try and make connections between related material.

Following each test, the solutions will be posted on a bulletin board outside of room 108 in Olin. These solutions will remain there until the next test and will not be available after that. Also, following each test, a copy of the test questions will be posted online. I strongly urge you to compare your test answers with the posted answers to determine which questions you missed (tests are graded by machine and are not marked). I strongly encourage you to review each test, think about which questions you missed, and try to understand what it was about the material that confused you. I will be happy to discuss your test with you, but please be sure you have marked which questions you missed before coming to see me.