A Comprehensive Syllabus

Course Syllabus  – Astronomy 101A Syllabus Summer 2013

• Prerequisites: None (college algebra strongly recommended; we use math in this version of the course)
• Instructor: Ana M. Larson, Senior Lecturer; anamunn@uw.edu
• Course homepage: http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/anamunn/Astro101/
• Now all transferred to Canvas
• REQUIRED Text: ISBN-13: 978-0393912104 Understanding Our Universe; Palen et al (W. W. Norton & Co. 2011) There are electronic options available

A. Goals and Objectives

Each lesson starts with a list of the associated learning objectives. All aspects of this course are geared towards helping each learner reach those learning goals. If you know the information associated with each objective, then you will do very well in this course.

Student learning outcomes

By the end of this quarter, each student should be able to

• explain the concept of the celestial sphere, its divisions, labels, and use.
• apply his or her knowledge of terrestrial physics (Newton’s laws of motion and gravity, conservation laws) to celestial events.
• recognize the various kinds of spectra and describe the mechanisms that produce them both geometrically and at the atomic level.
• outline the major components of the current theory of how planets and stars form.
• summarize the various ways astronomers classify stars and use these classifications to define physical characteristics of stars.
• review the changes made in the luminosities, temperatures, and radii of variable stars and relate these changes to stellar evolution.
• create a flowchart of stellar evolution for a sun-like star and a 10+ solar-mass star.
• discuss the various ways stars “die.”
• identify the major regions of the Sun and state where and how energy is created and transported to the Sun’s surface.
• communicate effectively what is meant by the Earth-Sun connection.
• describe the Milky Way, our location in it, stellar populations and what they tell us, how material is recycled.
• summarize current theories of how the Galaxy formed and what lies at its very center.
• classify galaxies and relate the classification scheme to the formation and evolution of the Universe.
• list at least 4 steps of the “distance ladder” and state how observations using the methods in these steps led us to our current view of space and time.
• explain what is meant by the concept of “look-back time” and how it is used to study galaxy evolution.
• give an overview of the Big Bang theory including how it explains the current state of the Universe and supporting evidence.
• compare the models of the various fates of the Universe, citing evidence that supports each model.
• throughout the course, interpret and use information contained in a chart or graph.

B. Outline and Description

General Overview

Astronomy today is no longer memorizing the names of the constellations, nor mapping the location of stars, nor learning the mythology associated with the patterns. Astronomy today has moved away from the study of tides on Earth, from the phases of the Moon, and the study of ancient astronomers. Rather, astronomy today is the application of the physics we know here on Earth to the rest of the Universe. As a science (said to be the oldest as well as the newest science), astronomy is involved in the unending process of observing, theorizing, adjusting, modifying, observing, and so on.

Starting with Sir Isaac Newton, we have come to learn that all that works here on Earth, works in the Universe. The force of gravity that caused the proverbial apple to fall on Newton’s head also keeps the Earth in orbit around the Sun, the Sun in orbit around the center of the Milky Way, the Milky Way tied to a small local group of galaxies. Gravity from all objects clear across the Universe is felt by our Earth (albeit with an immeasurably small influence).

We start with the familiar first. We learn a little about the night sky so that we may later know where our studied objects are. We learn about how enormously huge the Universe is and a rough time scale for its evolution. We then move on to form the foundation for our study: scientific methods, matter and energy, universal motion, gravity, light, and telescopes as time machines.

To enhance our study of the stars, we investigate our star the Sun. The course then moves on to the nomenclature used by astronomers to classify and understand stars: How far away are they? What are they? What are they made of? How are they born? How do they live and die? Our work will examine many stars located in the “solar neighborhood.” We stop briefly to ponder the bizarre nature of some remnants of what once were massively luminous stars: neutron stars and the enigmatic black holes.

During the last third of the quarter, we move to a study of our galaxy, the Milky Way, to an overview of the other galaxies in the Universe, to the expansion of the Universe (and how we know all this). We investigate how we’ve come to know our location in the Galaxy, the kind of galaxy that it is, and how our galaxy compares to others in the Universe. We then “end” with the “beginning” – the Big Bang and the overall structure of the Universe – that which we can see and that which we cannot.

Lectures and Sections

Our lecture part of the class will be a combination of the introduction of concepts, lecture “experiences” on those concepts, and practice questions to get an idea of whether or not you are understanding what is being discussed. There will be opportunities for you to write about what you have learned as well as extend your knowledge to different circumstances.  You will meet many of the students sitting around you as together you struggle over the abstract ideas being presented. We expect to spend only half of each lecture actually “lecturing.” Our goal here is to guide you and monitor your personal efforts in learning.

Sections in this course are on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Your activities there will be closely tied to what we discuss and work on in lectures.

C. Exams

There are 3 exams in the course: 2 midterms and a final.  Midterm 1 (50 minutes) covers Lessons 1 – 4; Midterm 2 (50 minutes) covers Lessons 5 – 8.  The final exam (110 minutes) is comprehensive, with an emphasis on Lessons 9 – 12.

D. What and When

Lectures are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 10:30 – 11:20 am.  Sections are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, various times.

The assignments consist of both graded and non-graded work.  For graded work, the reading quizzes that generate our discussions during class time are important. In addition, the lecture “experiences” and activities that are done in sections are instrumental in your doing well in the course. These assignments may be stand-alone or those involved in the comprehensive lab, the Hubble Law and the Expansion of the Universe, where we work with real data.

Activities: Observational astronomy today consists of research, forming questions, forming hypotheses, writing observation proposals, doing the observations, reducing the data (from raw numbers to spectra or images), analyzing the data for results (measuring, graphing, looking for correlations, doing statistics on the data), and then writing up the results for publication. As much as possible, we have tried to reproduce these processes in the activities, especially those connected with the projects. Thus, they will consist of inquiry, simple calculations, mapping, data gathering and analysis, and discovery.

Problem solving is as much a part of astronomy as it is in real life. Where possible, we have tried to steer away from a “cookbook” exercise. If you do not know the answer to a question, then make your best guess and write down the logic you used in making that guess. Original thinking and solid logic are as important as getting the right answer. You will often find during this course that for much of what we observe in the Universe we have no answers; this fact is what keeps astronomers busy their entire lives.

Lecture Experiences in Learning Astronomy: Rather than spend 50 minutes of lecture time in one-way communication (that is, instructor directs information to students who are assumed to be sponges willing and able to soak up knowledge), we will be using part of the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday lectures in active student investigations of astronomy methods and concepts.  These “experiences” will facilitate your learning of abstract and usually complex astronomical information.

Tutorials: The tutorials in this course are designed to help clarify those concepts that students find most difficult to understand.  They usually start out with amazingly simple questions and gradually build upon those logically to reach the final level of learning.  Relevant analogies are brought in to assist in this process.  We have had many students tell us, “I finally got it!” after working through a tutorial. These are NOT graded so that you will feel free to make your best guess without being penalized.

Readings : REQUIRED Text – Understanding Our Universe; Palen et al (W. W. Norton & Co. 2011)  You will need to read the relevant sections of our text and answer the reading quiz questions connected through Canvas to the UW Catalyst Tools BEFORE the quiz expires (usually before the topics are covered in class).

Exams:  October 11, November 1, and December 9.

E. Obligations – Yours

• Show up to class on time – chronic lateness is unacceptable. Stick around until class actually ends. Leaving early disrupts those around you.
• Come prepared for each lecture and section; adhere to deadlines and timetables established by your instructor and TAs.
• Please turn off the cell phone ring, limit text messaging.
• Do not distract other students during lecture by talking (no matter how softly).
• Laptops are encouraged; Web games, Facebook, YouTube, and surfing are not. I will ask you to leave lecture if I find you are disturbing students around you.
• Please actively engage yourself in taking notes, working on tutorials, and relevant group work.
• Don’t fall behind in your class work — you will find it extremely difficult to catch up.
• Please don’t work on material for other courses during lecture or sections. Learn to manage your time!

F. Obligations – Ours

• Show up to class on time, coming fully prepared to teach.
• Announce changes in the syllabus, course calendar, assignments promptly and effectively.
• Provide clear instructions regarding assignments, expectations, due dates, and penalties for late work or absenteeism.
• Respect and honor students and the various unique talents, expertise, backgrounds, and aspirations they bring to the course.
• Grade and return assignments in a timely manner.
• Do all we can to create an open, respectful, and trusting environment.
• Do all we can to express our excitement, dedication, thorough involvement in astronomy in the hope of transferring some of it to you!

G. Assessing Learning; Grades

Your learning in this course is assessed in a number of ways.  We do keep track of how often your come to class because we count on your participation in all that we do.  The reading quizzes are all graded carefully by me, and I double check to make sure your answers do not come from stock answers on the Internet.  The activities are challenging and we carefully monitor them while you are working on them and grade them for accuracy, fluency, writing ability, and understanding.  There is no extra credit offered in this course, either in lectures or in sections.

Grading Percentage Breakdown

Grading Policy

The assignment of quarter grades is not on any kind of a normalized curve in this version of Astronomy 101. The ramification of this grading method is that the mean on any given assignment is irrelevant to how you are doing; you should not care about whether or not you got above average, only that you are doing your very best to succeed. You will receive a grade based on youroverall percentage for the quarter. The quarter percentages and the corresponding grades are as follows:

Other Important Policies

Working Together

Working together is encouraged: much learning takes place when discussing the material and concepts with your classmates. You are welcome to help each other find answers and discuss approaches to answers. ALL WORK TURNED IN, HOWEVER, MUST BE IN YOUR UNIQUE WORDS AND PHRASES . Points will be deducted when non-original work is found. In cases where plagiarism is suspected, we have been advised to refer the work to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and appropriate disciplinary action will be decided on that level after discussions with the student or students involved.

There have been isolated instances in the past where students have not heeded the above caveats, and we referred them and the evidence to the appropriate level for discipline. For additional guidelines on Academic Honesty and the rights of instructors, TA’s, and students, please read carefully: http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm

Attendance, late assignments, missed quizzes or exams

IMPORTANT! If you are ill, whether it is a bad cold or the flu (or worse) that usually plague us, STAY HOME! We will believe you and will work with you through email or other electronic means to help you complete the work. We want you to succeed. We also want everyone to stay healthy. There may be days when either your instructor or TA is ill. We will do our best to notify you with as much lead time as possible, stating alternatives to not having lecture or sections meet.

Attendance: By law, we cannot grade on your attendance; that is, whether or not you are physically present in the lecture hall or classroom. However, we can and will grade upon your participation. We do this through summary essays, lecture “experiences,” discussion, tutorial work, and other ways we have yet to think of. Active participation is an essential part of learning! Astronomy is a difficult subject, and you will need to approach it from every means available, including mentally and physically being there. We will be forming a community of learners; if you habitually miss classes without an excuse, could you honestly say that you were really part of the course and deserve course credit?

Late assignments: In general, we will not accept late assignments; check with your TA for his/her specific policy. There may be instances where your turning in an assignment late is simply unavoidable. If you foresee such a time, then let your TA know as soon as possible!  Again, each TA will be setting the policies here.

Teaching Philosophy

Basically, as your instructor, I will do everything within and to the best of my capabilities to help each student excel in this course. I have worked hard for years to develop a course that will guide students step-by-step to an understanding of the Universe and everything in it: how we view it, the physics, the magic of light, the awesomeness of stars, the importance of the Galaxy and our place in it, our dependence upon the Sun, the multitude of galaxies there are, and how it all probably began and might end. This is a dynamic course, just like the field it covers, and I welcome suggestions.

I hope to convey the fascination that science holds for me and the advantages to the methods within which scientists are constrained.

Within the framework provided, students should feel free to express themselves, to bring new ideas, to toss aside the baggage of misconceptions, and to explore whatever topics excite them further. The monitoring of the knowledge gained in this course is rewarding for me.

I hold to the statement: “Knowledge is Power.” An understanding of how the Universe works seems to open up a part of the brain that needed to know. Things should start to make sense. Your small part in this universe will seem both extremely miniscule and ultimately essential. I also hold to the fact that mathematics is the language of the Universe and to do science, we must include math.

I believe that every student wants to succeed, and that they want a challenge that takes work to meet. There is no substitution for high standards of performance. I will guide every student who wants to participate to meet those high standards.

I will work just as hard as the students in this course. While realizing that not every single student will be enamored with astronomy, I dislike it immensely when a student fails.

Realistically, each student is responsible for his or her learning; I can provide only the conduit – the framework – for their reaching their personal goals in this course.

Professional objective

To modify a student’s view of our world by helping her or him learn about the physics of the Universe, our place in it, and how we know what we do. The personal reward that comes from watching a student advance from a limited description of the stars to a critic of our knowledge of the birth, evolution, and possible fate of our universe is unsurpassed.

My research involved the study of the atmospheres and evolution of nearby, sun-like stars.  I was part of the Canadian team’s search for extra-solar planets, a search that turned up no candidates at the time, but two confirmed stars with planets more recently. For one of these, Pollux in the constellation of Gemini, my research helped eliminate possible alternatives to the radial velocity variability observed in the star. This disproving of an alternate hypothesis led the way to the convincing evidence of an orbiting, Jupiter-like planet.

Current research revolves around developing ways to assist undergraduate, non-science majors excel in astronomy courses, and astronomy/physics majors get successfully started in research of their own.