Astronomy 152

Contact Information

Instructor: Dr. Kate Jones
Office: 611 SERF
Phone: 974-4022
Email: kgrzywac@utk.edu
Class Times: 12:40pm - 1:55pm T/Th
Office Hours: 10:00am - 11:30 T/Th

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Textbooks

Required Textbook
Chaisson & McMillan,  Astronomy Today, 6 or 7th Edition

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Grading

The semester grade will be determined from the following:

Hour Examinations

There will be three class exams, counting for 85%. No exam score will be dropped and ordinarily no make-up exams will be given. However, if there are documentable circumstances, a makeup will be considered. Exams will be closed book. The class exams will be objective questions (T-F, multiple choice, matching, fill-in the blanks.).

Clicker Questions

Clicker questions given in class count for 15% of your final grade. It is important that you obtain a clicker and register it as soon as possible. Instruction on how to register your clicker can be found here: Clicker help. More information will be available during the first class.

Extra Credit - Observations

Day and Night telescope observation sessions are available from the roof of the Physics building (conducted by Mr. Paul Lewis). For day sessions Mr. Lewis will talk to you and show you features of the solar atmosphere such as sunspots, prominences, plages, etc.  You can prepare for these sessions by browsing the chapter in your book on the Sun. For evening sessions Mr. Lewis will discuss the various objects that are in the night sky. You meet on the roof of the Physics building. [through the door at the very top of the East stairwell (near the elevator doors)].You may do only one of each type session.

Mr. Lewis' office is on the first floor of the Nielsen Physics next to the elevator doors and his phone number/answering machine is at 974-9601. If it is raining, snowing, or overcast then there will be no viewings. If the night observation is canceled, usually a movie is shown. If you are in doubt that your session will be canceled due to weather call or email Mr. Lewis, gplewis@utk.edu, to check. Not showing up without a valid reason can get you barred from future sessions since you will have wasted a time slot that another student could have used. It is also very important that you try to do your observing as early as possible since bad weather usually causes many cancellations of the extra credit sessions. This causes many students to miss their chances for extra credit. Don't let it be you!

A stamped form from Mr. Lewis PLUS a one page typed essay description of your observing trip should be handed in to me for you to get full credit.

The worth of each extra credit viewing session is 5 points.

Extra Credit - Paper

In extreme cases, an additional extra credit opportunity may be made available. A paper, 3 - 4 pages, on a specific topic, yet to be determined, will garner you 7 points. The paper should be submitted through SafeAssign via Blackboard. An excessive plagiarism score from SafeAssign will void the worth of the extra credit paper and/or be referred to the Judicial Board.

NOTE the extra credit paper is only available in extreme cases, and with the agreement of Dr. Jones.

The extra credit points will be added directly to the sum of the exam and quiz scores

Grading Scale

Your grade will be determined using the number determined from the above description. The grade boundaries are:

A	90 and above
A-	87 - 90
B+	83 - 87
B	80 - 83
B-	77 - 80
C+	73 - 77
C	70 - 73
C-	67 - 70
D+	63 - 67
D	60 - 63
F	below 60

All work submitted by a student is expected to represent their own work. Students are expected to perform all work in conformance with the University policies regarding Academic Honesty.

Grading Policy

If, for any reason, there is a concern about a grade given on an exam or exam question, an appeal will be entertained if it is raised no later than one week after the date on which the graded exams are made available for return to the class. After this “appeal period” of one week, exam grades will be considered final and will not be altered.

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Topics

Below you will find a list of the chapters from the textbook that will be covered this semester. PDFs of the lectures will be made available on blackboard before for the lecture.

	Introduction
Chapter 1	Charting the heavens
Chapter 2	The Copernican Revolution
Chapter 3 Chapter 4	Radiation and Spectra
Chapter 5	Telescopes
Chapter 6	The Solar System
Chapter 7	Earth: Our Home in Space
Chapter 8	The Moon and Mercury: Scorched and Battered Worlds
Chapter 9	Venus: Earth's Sister Planet
Chapter 10	Mars: A Near Miss for Life?
Chapter 11	Jupiter: Giant of the Solar System
Chapter 12	Saturn: Spectacular Rings and Myseterious Moons
Chapter 13	Uranus and Neptune: The Outer Worlds of the Solar System
Chapter 14	Solar System Debris: Keys to Our Origin
Chapter 15	The Formation of Planetary Systems: The Solar System and Beyond

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Additional Resources

Additional Web resources within the Department of Physics & Astronomy can be found at
Steve Daunt's Web Site for Astronomy 151

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Classroom Environment

I firmly believe that the classroom atmosphere should be comfortable and open, allowing students and teachers to discuss the material. This requires a great deal of respect and listening to one another as well as reducing side conversations to a minimum. I request that laptops not be used in the classroom as they can easily become a distraction e.g. email, facebook etc, believe me, I know! This does mean that I expect you to take any notes on paper with a pen, or you can print out my slides and write on them (I post all my slides on blackboard).

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Disability Statement

Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Please contact the Office of Disability Services at 865-974-6087 in 2227 Dunford Hall to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.

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