Wilbur Wright College

Astronomy 201 D Fall 2009

Descriptive Astronomy

 

 

Required Textbook: Horizons by Michael Seeds, 11th edition

Class Meetings:  T. Th. 9:30 – 10:50 am  Room S337

Instructor: Warren Wolfe

Office Hours: M. T. W. Th: 7:50 – 9:20 am

Office: L387

Phone: 773 481 8391

e-mail: wwolfe@ccc.edu

Quizzes and Tests: There will be a 20 point quiz after each two or three chapters. There will be a midterm exam following chapter 9  plus a final exam which covers the entire course. Each of these is worth 100 points. See the schedule below for details. There is also an exit exam which you must pass to receive college credit.

Homework: Homework assignments in the schedule refer to the Review Questions at the end of each chapter. Answer each question with a sentence or short paragraph. Homework is due on the Tuesday following the week in which it is assigned. Each homework assignment returned on time will receive 3 points of credit. There is no credit for late homework.

Extra Credit: For 10 points of extra credit attend the Sky Show or the Star Rider Theater at the Adler Planetarium (http://adlerplanetarium.org). Take at least two pages of notes and be sure to have your notes stamped by an employee of the planetarium. Write a two page report on your visit. As an alternative to the Adler visit you may research an astronomical topic on the internet and write a two page report on your findings.

Grading Policy:   A: 85% - 100%,  B: 70% - 84%,  C: 55% - 69%
                             D: 40% - 54%,  F: 0 – 39%

Makeups: Quizzes may not be made up. Unit tests may be made up for a valid reason. Makeups are more difficult than the original test.

Active Pursuit of Course Objectives: Active pursuit of this course involves class attendance, turning in homework, taking quizzes and tests. At Midterm, all professors must submit a grade that reflects the performance of each student. Students who do not demonstrate “active pursuit of the course’s objectives” at this time will automatically be withdrawn from the class and receive a grade of ADW. Students may be dropped for any of the following reasons:

·                                 Failure to attend 50% of the classes.

·                                 Failure to submit 50% of the assigned homework.

·                                 Failure to take 50% of the quizzes and tests.

If you must be absent from class or late with your assignments for a good reason please let me know as soon as possible to avoid being dropped.

 

Schedule:

Week

Text

Homework

Quizzes and Tests

#1    8/24

1, 2

Ch 1: 3, 5, 6, 7, 9  

Ch 2: 1, 2,  4, 5, 6, 7, 12

 

#2    8/31

3

Ch 3: 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11

 

#3    9/7

4

Ch 4: 1, 3, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15

Quiz #1 Chap 1 - 3

#4    9/14

5

Ch 5: 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 15, 16

 

#5    9/21

6

Ch 6: 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 16

Quiz #2  Chap 4 -  5

#6    9/28

7

Ch 7: 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 12, 15

 

#7    10/5

8

Ch 8: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14

 

#8    10/12

9

Ch 9: 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14

Quiz #3  Chap 6 - 8

#9    10/19

10, 11

Ch 10: 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 13

Midterm Exam
Chap 1 - 9

#10  10/26

12

Ch 11: 2, 3, 7, 8, 13, 14

 

#11  11/2

13

Ch 12: 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 14

Quiz #4  Chap 10 – 11

#12  11/9

14

Ch 13:  1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11

Ch 14:  1, 6, 8, 10, 11, 14

 

#13  11/16

15, 16

Ch 15: 1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 14
Ch 16: 2, 4, 5, 11, 13, 15, 16

Quiz #5  Chap 12 – 14

#14  11/23

17, 18

Ch 17: 1, 3, 5, 9, 15
Ch 18: 1, 5, 14, 15

 

#15  11/30

19,
Review

Ch 19: 5, 7, 13, 15

Quiz #6  Chap 15 – 18

#16  12/7

 

 

Exit Exam, Final Exam

 

The classroom presentations are available. They require Internet Explorer.

Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5   Chapter 6
Chapter 7   Chapter 8   Chapter 9   Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12
Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18   Chapter 19

 

Chapter Vocabularies:

Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5   Chapter 6
Chapter 7   Chapter 8   Chapter 9   Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12

Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18

Chapter 19 Chapter 20

 

Review Exercises

Chapters 1 -3       Chapters 4-5        Chapters 6 – 8      Chapter 9   Chapters 10 - 11  Chapters 12-13

 

 

Class Gradesheet

 

Useful Web Sites:

Textbook: http://www.brookscole.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&flag=student&product_isbn_issn=9780495113584&discipline_number=19

Hubble Space Telescope: http://hubblesite.org/

The Solar System: http://www.nineplanets.org/

Cosmology:          http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/

                             http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm

Timeline of the Universe: http://www.pbs.org/deepspace/timeline/index.html

Global Climate Change: http://epa.gov/climatechange/index.html

Dark Matter: http://www.eclipse.net/~cmmiller/DM/

Black Holes: http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/BlackHoles.html

General Astronomy: http://www.astronomytoday.com/

Academic Integrity

The City Colleges of Chicago is committed to the ideals of truth and honesty. In view of this, students are expected to adhere to high standards of honesty in their academic endeavor. Plagiarism and cheating of any kind are serious violations of these standards and will result, minimally, in the grade of “F” by the instructor.

Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty is a serious offense, which includes but is not limited to the following: cheating, complicity, fabrication and falsification, forgery, and plagiarism. Cheating involves copying another student’s paper, exam, quiz or use of technology devices to exchange information during class time and/or testing. It also involves the unauthorized use of notes, calculators, and other devices or study aids. In addition, it also includes the unauthorized collaboration on academic work of any sort. Complicity, on the other hand, involves the attempt to assist another student to commit an act of academic dishonesty. Fabrication and falsification, respectively, involve the invention or alteration of any information (data, results, sources, identity, and so forth) in academic work. Another example of academic dishonesty is forgery, which involves the duplication of a signature in order to represent it as authentic. Lastly, plagiarism involves the failure to acknowledge sources (of ideas, facts, charges, illustrations and so forth) properly in academic work, thus falsely representing another’s ideas as one’s own.

Penalties for Academic Dishonesty

In individual cases of academic dishonesty, sanctions may range from a written warning to a failing grade for the course; the severity of the penalty is left to the discretion of the instructor. Additional sanctions may be imposed up to and including dismissal from the City Colleges when circumstances warrant it.

Accessibility

Any student with a disability who is eligible for reasonable accommodations should contact the Disability Access Center located in room L135, Learning Resource Center of the Wright North Campus or call 773-481-8016 as soon as possible. If you need special accommodations in our classroom please see me first.