ASTRONOMY 100
ON-LINE
WINTER 2012
Ted
Coskey
RS
172
OFFICE
HOURS: 9:30-10:15 M-F.
Office phone: 206-934-6447
email:
ted.coskey@seattlecolleges.edu
FAX:
206-934-5807
FOR TECH
SUPPORT WITH THE ANGEL WEB SITE, CALL 1-866-425-8412.
Introductory
astronomy
This is a general, non‑mathematical survey
course in Astronomy. The book we
will use is Astro, by Backman/Seeds. During the quarter we will
study telescopes, constellations, the earth, the moon, planets, the sun, stars
in general, exploding stars, galaxies, quasars, the beginning and the end of
universe, life in the universe and more.
Methods:
On-line courses are obviously different from in-class courses. I would like to give you some of the feel of an in-class course by encouraging student interaction. As you progress through the course, be sure to ask me questions in the public forum. That way everyone can learn from both your question and my answer as would happen during an in-class course. Some of your homework assignments will be posted for all to read and possibly comment on.
So that I don’t short-change students in my on-campus courses or myself, I will allocate the same amount of contact time to this on-line course as I would to my on-campus courses. I will answer as many questions as I can in that time. I’ll answer questions in the order received. In this way I should get to everybody, sooner or later. (I’m just talking about contact time here, not prep time or time spent grading, or that portion of my daily office hour spent talking with students from this and my other courses.) tw
For you to do well in an on-line course, you must be highly motivated and highly disciplined. These courses often take more time, not less time, than an in-class course. More is expected of you because there is no lecture. I hope that you will be curious, but regardless I expect you to do some research beyond the text, which can just mean going to Google or the equivalent and hunting a bit. Our text is good, but can't be up to the minute. You need to find out what is happening now. The text also does not cover all the topics I wish you to learn about. I will post some web sites, but again feel free to do some surfing.
Read the
chapter. Mark in your book if that helps you. Note information I put on the web
site. Do some web surfing.
I'm sorry, but I do
not like to accept late
homework or allow makeup
quizzes unless you talk with me about it
first. I will,
however, throw out your lowest 50-point homework grade and your lowest quiz
grade. In general, the first quiz that you miss
will be the one thrown out and the first 50-point homework that you miss will be
the one thrown out. If you don’t
miss any work, you will have the option of not doing the last quiz and/or the
last 50-point homework. If I do
accept late work, I may deduct five points or more depending on how late it is
and why it is late. My phone number is listed above and the school is
listed in the phone book. (I
check the web site for the course almost every day and I do have voice mail, but
I often forget to check it on weekends so email is a better
then.)
You
must always state your references on your homework!
You
must PARAPHRASE YOUR WORK. YOUR WORK MUST BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS! I
repeat: YOUR
WORK MUST BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS! You must not ‘copy and paste.’ I can easily do a web search if you
submit something that sounds plagiarized.
Plagiarism usually results in the student receiving a ZERO on the
assignment and a letter being sent to the Vice President of Student
Affairs. Please, do not copy other
people’s work. Stop by the Writing
Center or see me if this is not clear to you.
Your grade in this course will be based on the
following:
Your final grade will be based on the
following:
Test #1, covering Chapters 1‑8
= 80
points
Test #2, covering Chapters 9-15
= 80
points
Quizzes and homework [I will throw
out your lowest 50-point homework grade
(I will not throw out the 10 or 20 point
grade and I will throw
out
your lowest quiz grade.]
= 440 points
Total
= 700 points
To compute your percentage at the end of the
quarter, add up your total points and divide by the number of points
possible. Multiply by 100.
Decimal grades will be assigned as
follows:
|
4.0 |
98.0-100 |
|
2.3 |
78.0-78.9 |
|
3.9 |
96.4-97.9 |
|
2.2 |
77.0-77.9 |
|
3.8 |
94.8-96.3 |
|
2.1 |
76.0-76.9 |
|
3.7 |
93.2-94.7 |
|
2.0 |
75.0-75.9 |
|
3.6 |
91.6-93.1 |
|
1.9 |
74.0-74.9 |
|
3.5 |
90.0-91.5 |
|
1.8 |
73.0-73.9 |
|
3.4 |
89.0-89.9 |
|
1.7 |
72.0-72.9 |
|
3.3 |
88.0-88.9 |
|
1.6 |
71.0-71.9 |
|
3.2 |
87.0-87.9 |
|
1.5 |
70.0-70.9 |
|
3.1 |
86.0-86.9 |
|
1.4 |
69.0-69.9 |
|
3.0 |
85.0-85.9 |
|
1.3 |
68.0-68.9 |
|
2.9 |
84.0-84.9 |
|
1.2 |
67.0-67.9 |
|
2.8 |
83.0-83.9 |
|
1.1 |
66.0-66.9 |
|
2.7 |
82.0-82.9 |
|
1.0 |
65.0-65.9 |
|
2.6 |
81.0-81.9 |
|
0.9 |
63.0-64.9 |
|
2.5 |
80.0-80.9 |
|
0.8 |
61.4-62.9 |
|
2.4 |
79.0-79.9 |
|
0.7 |
60.0-61.3 |
If you need course adaptations
or accommodations because of a disability, please contact me as soon as
possible.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any
questions. A good quarter to
you!
OPTIONAL TERM PAPER
EXTRA
CREDIT: TERM PAPER
For extra credit you may do a term paper worth up to 5 points added to your final point average. (This would increase your grade by 5%.) The paper should be 5 to 8 typewritten pages (about two thousand words). You should use at least five good references-"Science" magazine articles of reasonable length, books other than our text or other introductory astronomy texts, as well as good references from the internet. The paper should be heavily referenced with footnotes, endnotes or citations. It should have a bibliography page.
Please
check with me when you pick a topic and when you have an outline. Do so early in the quarter so that
you do well on the paper.
The paper will be due Monday, March 5 (week
10).
Please, write your paper in
your own words.
Remember that PLAGIARISM is illegal.
Plagiarism is using someone else’s work and not
giving them credit. If you use someone else’s work, you must give them credit by
citing the work. This is true when
you quote them, but it is also necessary when you rephrase their work. You must use citations, endnotes or
footnotes Heavily throughout your paper. Remember that I can pretty easily Google
phrases to be sure you are not ‘cutting and pasting’ from online sources or even
from books or magazines as many of them are now online.
The course is a five-credit course listed under
The Natural World. It is in the
Physical World column.
[I may give you an NC (no credit) if you request
it in writing BEFORE finals
week.]
If
there is any student in this class who has need for test-taking or note-taking
accommodations, please feel free to come and discuss this with
me.
STUDENT LEARNING
OUTCOMES ADDRESSED:
Communication
· Read and listen actively to learn and communicate.
Please, try to stay ahead in the reading and
homework. Feel free to see me
whenever you have questions about the course.
HAPPY QUARTER!
Ted
THE SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO
CHANGE DUE TO ILLNESS, WEATHER, ETC.
EXTRA PLACES TO
LOOK
University of Washington
observatory
Call 685.7856
for information as to when the on-campus
observatory is open to the public or check on the web at http://www.astro.washington.edu/pages/outreachtools.html
Seattle Science Center
planetarium.
Call 443-2001 for
information about shows, times and prices.
WEB SITES
http://sites.google.com/a/southseattle.edu/writing-center/
SSCC Writing
Center
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
(picture of the day)
http://www.nasa.gov/
(NASA)
http://www.stsci.edu/
(space telescope)
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html
(you control the Powers of Ten
concept)
Sky chart
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Yoursky
The Seattle Astronomical
Society
Note the Writing Center has
a site that is helpful.
http://sites.google.com/a/southseattle.edu/writing-center/
FOR TECH SUPPORT WITH THE
ANGEL WEB SITE, CALL 1-866-425-8412.
BELOW,
IS A ROUGH QUARTER SCHEDULE
|
WEEK |
READINGS/ASSIGNMENTS/VIDEOS-go to the Angel site for details. |
|
1 Tuesday, Jan 3 |
Read chapters 1, 2, 4 and pages 49-52 (on the tides) Homework: 1. Your (brief) autobiography 2. A report on telescopes. [See Lessons/Assignments in the Angel site for details about the homework assignments.] Watch the video: Powers of Ten http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 Watch the video on retrograde orbits: http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/Retrograde/index.html And look up retrograde motion. See if it makes sense. |
|
2 |
Read: Finish the reading assigned last week. Read chapter 5 for week 3. Look over the autobiographies of your classmates. Say Hi to some if you wish. Homework: 1. A report on an astronomer [As usual, see the Angel site for details.]-Due Wednesday of week 3 2. Summarize two of the telescope reports by other students in the class. Always be positive
when discussing the work of other students.
Watch the videos on eclipses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1B3RLf1A1s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwGs8_otT64
Quiz over chapters 1, 2, 4, and pages 49-52 (on tides)-Thursday |
|
3 |
Read chapters 5 and 6. Homework: 1. Summarize two of the astronomer reports by other students in the class. 2. A project on the HR (Hertzsprung/Russell) diagram |
|
4 |
Read chapters 7 and 8 Homework:
Watch The Universe: Season
1 Episode 10 - Life And Death Of A Star 1/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoX_FAbYa_c (This is the first 1/3. Then put 2/3 in and 3/3 in to
finish.) If you have access
to the History Channel online, you can get it all at once. Many of the videos that I show in
my lecture class are from Season 1.
Watch the video on black holes: Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Death by Black Hole
(31m)
http://fora.tv/2008/02/19/Neil_DeGrasse_Tyson_Death_by_Black_Hole Quiz on chapters 5 and 6-Monday |
|
5 |
Review the material that we have covered to prepare for the midterm next week. Homework: 1. Summarize/Discussion??? two of the ‘Why do we explore’ reports by other students in the class. Quiz on chapters 7 and 8-Wednesday |
|
6 |
Read chapters 9 and 10 Homework: Galaxy counts Midterm over
chapters 1, 2, 4-8, and tides-Monday
Watch the video on Galaxies |
|
7 |
Read chapter 11 Homework: The Star Chart Watch the video on the ‘Big Bang Theory’- * 7-9 below by Tyson Quiz on chapters 9-11-Thursday |
|
8 |
Read chapter 13 (the terrestrial planets) Homework: A report on the planets Watch the video on the Apollo moon landing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGQIckYRxGI. Watch the videos on the inner planets from the History Channel. The Universe:
Season 1 Episode 7 - Inner Planets: Mercury & Venus 1/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDWCRPa6e0I This is the first 1/3. Then put 2/3 in and 3/3 in to
finish.
See an animation of the Mars landing of Opportunity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tma2pt0k6UQ.
Watch a Mars fly-over. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAzgemcBxPw Quiz on chapter 13-Friday |
|
9 |
Read chapter 14 Homework: 1. A report on space missions 2. Summarize two of the planets reports by other students in the class. Watch the videos on the Jovian planets from the History
Jupiter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjL5d4jerTw This is part 1 of the 5 part series. Watch them all. Saturn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfDQeZxPsgw This is the first 1/3. Then put 2/3 in and 3/3 in to finish. Uranus/Neptune/Pluto: The
Universe: Season 1 Episode 11 - The Outer Planets 1/3
This is the first 1/3. Then put 2/3 in and 3/3 in to
finish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osWm8QygoH4 Quiz: NONE this week! |
|
10 |
Read chapter 15 Homework: The EXTRA credit term paper is due on Monday. Quiz on chapter 14-Wednesday |
|
11 |
Endterm test over chapters 9-11, 13-15-Thursday, March 15. |
Video sites you might want to look at.
* Neil DeGrasse Tyson. A series of 12 lectures on astronomy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sidLNXlTyU4
1-3: shapes and forces in the universe
4-6: cosmic catastrophes like black holes and objects impacting earth
7-9: the origin and evolution of the universe
10-12: the search for life in the cosmos
Vanderbilt Professor David A. Weintraub has at least 6 lectures on ‘How old is the universe.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyOYyhtB2P4&feature=relmfu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. The Scale of the Cosmos: From Solar
System to Galaxy to Universe.
2. User's Guide to the Sky: Patterns and
Cycles.
3. Circles Around Earth Become Orbits around the Sun.
4. Astronomical Telescopes and Instruments: Extending
Humanity's Vision.
5. Sun Light and Sun Atoms.
6. The Family of
Stars.
7. The Structure and Formation of Stars.
8. The Deaths of
Stars.
9. The Milky Way Galaxy.
10. Galaxies.
11. Cosmology in the 21st
Century.
12. The Origin of the Solar System.
13. Comparative Planetology
of the Terrestrial Planets.
14. Comparative Planetology of the Outer
Planets.
15. Life on Other Worlds.