Astronomy 301—ScaloUnique number 50410Introduction to AstronomyClassroom and time: Welch Hall 3.502, MWF 12-1Professor: John ScaloOffice: R.L. Moore 17.220 Phone: 471-6446 (office), or 478-2748 (home) Email: [email protected] Office hours (tentative): MW 1:30-3, W 5-6, or by appointment (my hours are very flexible, and Iam more than willing to come in at other times). However I urge you to feel free to call me at my home or, or totalk to me after class (outside the classroom, if necessary—I have free time after most of our classes except onWednesdays); for short questions there is usually no need for you to walk all the way to my office, and I welcomephone calls at home—it is an extremely efficient way for us to communicate while a particular question orproblem is on your mind. Email is much less efficient and I usually cannot take enough time to give adequateanswers to scientific questions by email, although it is fine for non-subject matter communication.Teaching Assistant: Amy ForestellOffice: RLM 16.310Phone: 471-3462; cell phone (for emergencies): 296-5610Email: [email protected] hours: TBA, other times by appointmentTextbook: Chaisson, E. and McMillan, S. Astronomy Today, 5th Edition It is important that you purchase the 5th Edition. There are some used copies available, or trybestbookbuys.com to shop around online. It is not essential that the book contains its cd-rom. The textbook isexpensive, but several Astronomy Department faculty members use this book, so it has resale value.Course web page You can navigate to it throughhttp://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/education/fall06/scalo/301.htmlThe course website will contain the syllabus; an outline of most class lectures (usually as pdf files); a way for youto easily check your exam scores (link to eGradebook); and a simple way for me to distribute handouts or makeslight revisions to the reading assignments or subsections covered on exams. I urge you to check the websiteoften, and keep the url in a handy place.GradingExams: 100% of your grade will be based on 7 exams (about one every two weeks, beginning withMonday, Sept. 18. All exams will be weighted equally except that your lowest exam score will only receive aweight of 1/2 compared to the others. So you have to take all the exams, but if you have an off day (or week, etc.)it won’t hurt your final grade too much. The topics and dates of the exams (tentative—any changes will beannounced heavily in class and at the class website) are listed below. There will be no comprehensive final. Theexams will probably consist entirely of multiple choice questions, depending on class size. I will try to prepareyou for the nature of the exam questions by occasionally giving sample questions during lectures, by trying topoint out the types of information that I expect you to understand or remember, and giving examples on reviewsheets. There is an excellent multiple choice interactive self-testing part of the text web site(http://www.prenhall.com/chaisson) that I urge you to use, since the exam questions will be of that form, andsome will be taken from this source. (Click on Astronomy Today 5/e, then Study Guide for each chapter.) I willsuggest which questions to try on review sheets before each exam.In case of medical or other non-academic emergencies or situations, contact me as early as possible—itmay be possible for you to take an exam a day or so early or late in these cases (but not for academic reasons).We will try to get exam grades available to you through the UT e-Gradebook system (athttps://utdirect.utexas.edu/diia/egb/) within one or two days of the time of the exam. Often you should be able toget your exam grades on the same day (or evening) as you take the exam.Homework: There is homework in this class, but it won’t be turned in. Instead the homework consists of asubset of the questions at the end of each chapter and especially on the interactive multiple choice self-testing partof the text web site. The purposes of the homework are to give you a way of testing your understanding of thematerial, to provide a guide to the most important concepts, and to force you to keep up with the material.Although the homework will not be turned in or graded, you will find that your exam grades suffer significantly ifyou do not attempt to work through these assignments, especially since I will include some of them on each exam.Final grades: Final grades are assigned on the basis of A=87-100, B=78-86.9, C=67-77.9, D=55-66.9,F<55. Final percentages will not be “rounded up.” For example, if you end up with a 77.8, you will receive a C.There is no possibility of “extra credit”in any case because of the class size—I would have to offer the sameopportunity to all students.Departmental policies: Please download and read the “Memo to Undergraduate Astronomy Studentsregarding Astronomy Courses” at http://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/education/courses.html if you did notreceive it in class.Just under the cutoff? If at the end of the semester you are just under the cutoff for a grade (by, say,one, or two, or 0.3, percentage points), whether you are just under a D, say, or an A, do not call Prof. Scalo askinghim to lower the cutoff--this is unfair to all concerned. Cutoffs will not be lowered to accommodate yourindividual score. Scores at the end of the semester are not rounded up, so, for example, a 77.7 will get you a C.Special requestsIf you have any special request of any sort (excluding those not allowed, like lowering the grade cutoff),please put the request in writing, preferably by email, or call me on the phone. Please state clearly and explicitlyyour request and why it is reasonable. Include a phone number so that I can contact you about your request.Obviously (I hope) this procedure does not apply to minor requests such as “Could you write a little larger on theboard?,” etc. Any suggestions for improvement of the class as we proceed will be greatly appreciated—an emailis usually the easiest way.Attendance: Although I will not take attendance records, you should keep in mind that the exams arebased heavily on the lecture material (as well as the textbook), and that the “notes” that I will usually makeavailable to you are only bare outlines or abstracts of my lectures. The biggest single danger in this course is tofall far enough behind, either through lack of reading or spotty attendance, that you
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