PLANETS, STARS AND GALAXIES,
AST 1002, Section 1, Fall 2002

meets 3:35-4:50 Mondays and Wednesdays in 101 UPL
(UPL=Undergraduate Physics Laboratory=Richards building, N of Keen building)

Instructor: Prof. Todd Adams

Office hours: 10:00-11:00 am, Monday and Wednesday, Keen 515;
any time I am in my office;
and at other times by appointment

Contact info: phone 644-7159
e-mail: tadams@hep.fsu.edu

Course web site: http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~tadams/courses/fall02/ast1002/

Information on the separate Astronomy Lab course, AST1002L
 

COURSE OBJECTIVE

This is a science course based on the topic of astronomy. It is also a liberal studies course. Therefore, in addition to helping you understand facts and concepts, our goal is to help you gain an appreciation of astronomy as a science. This means understanding how we know things as well as what we know. The course topics will include planets, stars, galaxies, cosmology, the scientific method, and much more. The subject of astronomy covers a wide of topics and we will be unable to study them all in detail. We hope to come out of this course with a better understanding of the universe we live in. Some of the questions that we will try to answer in this class are:

•     What are those lights in the sky?
•     What are white-dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, and quasars?
•     What causes the change of the seasons (spring, summer, fall, and winter)?
•     Where were the chemical elements that make up carbon-based life forms like us made?
•     What energy source fuels the Sun? How much longer will it shine?
•     How can we learn important information about stars simply by looking at starlight?
•     How likely is Armageddon - the collision of Earth with an asteroid?
•     What evidence do we have that life is present on other celestial bodies, e.g. Mars?
•     Are we alone in the universe?

This course involves a technological marvel: the Personal Response System (PRS). Every student in the class will be assigned one and only one numbered zapper, which resembles a remote control. The zapper will be used to answer questions raised during class and will be used to take quizzes. Prior to the start of each lecture, you should pick up your zapper from the numbered bin. It is crucial that you know which zapper is assigned to you, as you will need them for class and you will need them for all quizzes. You can check your zapper assignment by checking this PRS assignment list. Use of a zapper under than the one assigned to you (e.g. taking a quiz for a friend) is a violation of the honor code. Such violations will result in zeros for that quiz. Such zeros will NOT be dropped from the final grade. These zappers DO NOT BELONG TO YOU  and are used for many other classes, so please make sure to return them to the correct numbered storage box at the end of class. (If you forget to do so and the zapper assigned to you gets lost, you might find it hard to do the quizzes!)

Your final grade will be based on the results of quizzes, exams, participation and extra-credit. There will be 12 quizzes which is approximately one per week. However, the quizzes will be given randomly with some weeks having no quiz and other weeks having two quizzes. The best way to be prepared for the quizzes is to attend class and stay current with the material. Your lowest two quiz grades will be dropped. There will be 2 mid-term exams which will take place on a Wednesday. The prior Monday will be used for review. The final exam will take place during exam week and will cover the full semester's material. The last lecture will be devoted to review.
 

Your two lowest quiz grades will be dropped. This policy is intended to deal with a missed class due to illness or unforeseen circumstances.  If you are sick for an extended period of time, documentation is required to excuse missed quizzes. Documentation must be produced upon your return to class. You are expected to answer the questions on the quizzes and all exams by yourself, without consultation with your neighbors (recall the Honor Code).

No exam, including the final exam, may be missed. If you do miss an exam, for a reason judged valid by your instructor, it is your responsibility to make sure that the missed exam is made up by an oral exam arranged promptly with your instructor. If you miss the final exam, again for a valid reason, it must be made up the next time a final exam is given in this course, that is, Spring 2002.

You can earn up to 10% extra credit towards your final grade by either: class participation, via the `sign-up sheets' passed to those who correctly answer a question in class; by answering challenge questions, which I will post weekly along with the answers to the quizzes, usually by 6 pm of the day of the quiz; or by answering homework problems, which will be accessible via the CAPA (Computer Assisted Personalized Approach) site. Questions in class will usually be worth one point, with harder questions worth more. The challenge questions must be answered by e-mail to me within 24 hours of their posting. and will usually be worth several points. Your extra credit grade will be calculated by finding the person with the largest number of points added up from both sources and assigning that person an extra-credit grade of 10%; your grade will be normalized (pro-rated) relative to this. This extra credit can significantly improve your grade and you are encouraged to take advantage of it.

You are strongly encouraged to attend the lectures as the quizzes will take place during class, and represent an  important component of your final grade. You can also gain extra credit points by answering questions during class.

I encourage everyone to ask me lots of questions, before, during and after the lectures. If I am going too fast in a lecture this is a great way for you to slow me down! You can also send me e-mail, call me on the phone, or come to my office. I will always be there during my office hours, and if you wish to come at other times, send e-mail or call to make sure that I am in. I find this to be the most fun part of my job as a teacher, and so you should take advantage of this!

This is a brand new textbook published this year. It is current in its information with lots of useful and interesting diagrams/pictures. I suggest you read the text prior to lecture and feel free to make notes directly in the book.

Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations should, within the first week of class: 1) register with and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC); 2) bring a letter to me from SDRC indicating you need academic accommodations, and what they are. This and other class materials are available in alternative format upon request.

The following is the tentative schedule for the class. Note that there is far more material in the text than we can cover in class, and you are responsible only for the material covered in class. All of the material from the lectures is on the main web page under Class Material.