Astronomy 151

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 and by appointment

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Textbooks

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

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Instructional Technology

Required Homework Access
Mastering Astronomy,   Mastering Astronomy, course ID MAJONES87088

Clickers
Clickers are required for graded in-class questions,   see Clicker help.

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Grading

The semester grade will be determined from the following:

Hour Examinations

There will be two in-class exams, each counting for 20%. The final exam will count for 30%. Therefore the total exam portion of the grade is 70%.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. Clicker participation will be used as evidence of attendance.

Homework: Mastering Astronomy

Homework assignments will make up 15% of your final grade. The homework will be completed through the Mastering Astronomy homework system. There will be approximately one homework for each chapter of the book to be covered. Register an account at: Mastering Astronomy. The course ID is MAJONES87088. The first assignment is to show you how to use Mastering Astronomy, and will not count toward the course grade even if it shows up in the gradebook.The due dates for homework assignments are for the whole class, hence it is not possible to submit late homework assignments.

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 participate in only one of each type of 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 (or 2-pages double-spaced) typed essay description of your observing trip should be handed in to me for you to get full credit.

Each extra credit viewing session is worth 5 points.

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. Please see: The campus syllabus at   Campus syllabus.

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. The dates are approximate.

Chapter	Topic	Week Starting
Chapter 1	Introduction and Charting the heavens	Aug 19
Chapter 2	The Copernican Revolution	Aug 26
Chapter 3	Radiation	Sept 2
Chapter 4	Spectra	Sept 9
Chapter 5	Telescopes	Sept 16
Chapter 6	The Solar System	Sept 23 & 30
Test 1	Up to Chapter 5	Sept 24
Chapter 7	Earth: Our Home in Space	Sept 30 & Oct 7
Chapter 8	The Moon and Mercury: Scorched and Battered Worlds	Oct 7 & 14
Chapter 9	Venus: Earth's Sister Planet	Oct 21
Test 2	Up to Chapter 8	Oct 24
Chapter 10	Mars: A Near Miss for Life?	Oct 28
Chapter 11	Jupiter: Giant of the Solar System	Oct 28 & Nov 4
Chapter 12	Saturn: Spectacular Rings and Myseterious Moons	Nov 4 & 11
Chapter 13	Uranus and Neptune: The Outer Worlds of the Solar System	Nov 11 & 18
Chapter 14	Solar System Debris: Keys to Our Origin	Nov 18
Chapter 15	The Formation of Planetary Systems: The Solar System and Beyond (if time).	Nov 25
FINAL EXAM	Comprehensive (emphasis on chapter 9 onwards)	December 12 12:30 - 2:00

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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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Makeup Policy

The lowest homework grade and the lowest clicker grade will be removed, allowing everyone to miss one homework and one class. Makeups for exams will be made under exceptional circumstances. If a known conflict exists you should contact the professor at least two weeks in advance to make alternate arrangements. The final is subject to the normal university requirements regarding multiple exams on one day. That is to say, if Astronomy 151 is your third exam of the day you should contact the professor at least two weeks in advance to make alternate arrangements.

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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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