Wave your hand or just speak up as seems appropriate.
Now that we haved done the RECOMMENDED
Transparent Course Summary, on with the
details of the course.
Yours truly
does NOT like to do that after a semester has started, but sometimes small
adjustments or even large ones are needed.
Any large one will be called to the attention of the students
by email and during the class periods.
The syllabus is always a little preliminary.
And the much shorter official
syllabus is at
URL
At the beginning of the semester, there are always a few people going to the wrong
Bigelow building and wondering what's wrong.
The two buildings are just across the boulevard
from each other---they have slightly different light cones.
See the preview on light cones in
the the figure below
(local link /
general link: light_cone.html).
Yours truly likes previews since it is too tedious to cover topics
in strictly logical order.
This can always be done with Canvas (unlv).
However, since MyUNLV
actually sends emails to any email account students
specify, we can assume that
the Rebelmail account requirement is at present
in honored in the breach as well as in the observance.
Note that
the courses Ast 103
and Ast 104
are both stand-alone courses.
Neither the one nor the other is a pre/corequisite for the other or the one.
If you would like to take both, you could take them in any order or at the same time.
The first part of both courses can be much the same depending on the instructor's choice of topics.
Often the first part is the basics of astronomy: e.g.,
the celestial sphere,
constellations,
phases of the Moon,
the history of astronomy,
and the necessary background physics material.
So taking both courses may give the student a double dose of some topics.
The pre/corequisite can be waived at the discretion of
the lab coordinator for
Ast 105 who is me.
My role as lab coordinator is completely separate from role as instructor of
Ast 103
and Ast 104.
See
Introductory Astronomy Laboratory (AKA astlab) Course Website / Extended Syllabus: Ast 105
for more on Ast 105.
You can find
Introductory Astronomy Laboratory (AKA astlab) Course Website / Extended Syllabus: Ast 105
by googling
"david jeffery astlab unlv",
but it may NOT be the first item.
If you need to a lab course, see
MyUNLV: Search and search on "ast".
From UNLV Policies
in the Syllabi Content memo:
Cheating on exams is absolutely out of line.
It's shameful to do it. It is attempting to steal from your
fellow students.
Cheating gets a zero on that exam plus
maybe other course penalties
and
the Office of Student Conduct
will apply their own penalties.
About assignments: in the instructor's view,
teaching a fellow student
about a problem line by line is fine. Allowing them to directly copy is NOT.
Another important issue under academic integrity is
copyright.
Actually, becoming really familiar with copyright law is
an enormous task.
It's simply best NOT to use copyrighted material whenever possible.
About all that is absolutely fair use are
short quotes of text.
We will start
IAL 0: A Philosophical and Historical
Introduction to Astronomy today.
So you'll get a closer look at
IALs
in just a bit.
IAL
is the unified source---it is ONE-STOP SHOPPING---it is the
course textbook,
student
notes,
my notes, and the lecturing tool.
Students do NOT need to take
notes at all.
But note-taking
probably helps with maintaining alertness and learning the material even if
students never looks at their
notes again.
What of copyrighted material in the
IALs?
For better or worse, all the writing is my own, except for short
quotes which are explicitly indicated as such.
What of images? Like in the figure below
(local link /
general link: hubble_ultra_deep_field.html).
Naturally, NASA is a main source for
IAL.
But finding NASA images is actually tricky since
NASA seems to never have invented
an easy-to-use, one-stop-shopping image archive.
NASA Multimedia
may be the closest to that.
See Wikipedia: Internet archive: NASA images
for a brief, vastly incomplete, and probably
out of date discussion of NASA
image resources.
Wikipedia articles are actually
a pretty good sources for NASA images.
Good ones for topics have already been selected.
You could also just go googling for images.
Giving proper credit and permission is ethically required.
Also, the value of an image depends very much on its
provenance---where it came from, who made it,
what is its authority.
Why Planetary Systems for a title
rather than the traditional Solar System?
When we only knew one
planetary system,
the Solar System,
the Solar System could be viewed
as a field just by itself.
But NOT now when we know
so much about other planetary systems.
In science we are always trying to
make our understanding more general.
The more general understanding of the
Solar System is one that sees it in the context
of planetary systems in general.
So the field of the Solar System has been
subsumed in the more general field of
planetary systems.
The new title Planetary Systems reflects this
scienfitic evolution.
The facts to learn go on and on---jillions
of them.
How do you do it?
As mentioned above under Tasks,
no one can memorize jillions
of isolated facts---you learn the
narratives in which those facts
turn up and the narratives cue you for the facts.
A little algebra, a little
geometry.
Roughly 10 % or less of the questions will involve math.
No need to react with shock and awe---like the
Medieval scholars shown
in the figure below
(local link /
general link: lady_geometry.html)
To help with the math component, there is a
math refresher:
IAL 1:
Scientific Notation, Units, Math, Angles, Plots, Motion, Orbits---which is actually the
2nd
IAL
since there is a zeroth
IAL:
IAL 0:
A Philosophical and Historical Introduction to Astronomy.
Is this a hard course
or an easy course?
Somewhere in between.
It's easy in that there are NO essays,
NO course projects, and all exam questions are
multiple-choice questions.
But it's hard in that it is extensive---those
jillions of facts.
But as I always say, it's
nothing like organic chemistry.
There are two streams:
For either stream, a good approach is to do the
reading-homework-self-testing
for an
IAL
first and then listen to the lecture.
You get the detailed lengthy presentation and then the abbreviated, simplified one
in other words.
For lecturing, yours truly uses
IALs
as a lecturing tool.
Note
IAL
has a complete narrative as must have in order to be the course textbook.
I will just scroll through most of the words---those are for the
student's private reading.
The length of the break for group activity depends
a bit on what's in it and how it goes.
See group activity below.
For in-person-instruction courses,
in summer semester 90-minute periods, there will be
a bit of break after the group activity.
For the remote instruction course,
we will usually have two 5-to-10-minute breaks.
A reading
(see below Readings)
and a homework-self-testing
(see below Homework-Self-Testings)
combine to make
a reading-homework-self-testing
for which a student gets a mark.
For the classroom, we can explicate how
RHSTs work just by
looking at the IAL Contents with words
of explication.
The readings are all from
IAL---except
the Course Website / Extended Syllabus
(which you are reading right now)
is a required reading too and is considered
IAL: -1.
URLs and videos linked from
IAL
are purely supplementary---they are NOT part of the required readings.
The readings from
IAL
are IAL -1
(which is the
Course Website / Extended Syllabus
that you are reading right now),
IALs
0 to 30,
but 3 are omitted since we do NOT cover them and mostly they do NOT exist.
The omitted IALs
are specified in the
IAL Contents.
Someday, yours truly might get those omitted
IALs
written/completed.
So there are 1+1+30-3=29
IALs
to read altogether.
Here's a table to coordinate
IAL
number and count of
IALs:
IAL 18: Exoplanets and
IAL 23: The Post-Main-Sequence
Life of Stars
are readings only insofar as they can be read since they have never been finished.
IALs
NOT covered at all in class:
IAL 5:
Physics, Gravity, Orbits, Thermodynamics, Tides
and IAL 13: Venus.
Parts of other
IALs
are NOT covered in class: some such parts are
already set; other parts are NOT covered if we need to catch up a bit.
The NOT-covered-in-class
IALs
and parts are still readings if they appear in the table above.
IALs
NOT covered at all in class may be less heavily weighted on exams.
There is NO rigid schedule for covering the
IALs
in class.
We do them when we get to them and they vary in length: typically 1 to 3 class periods.
We will just glance over our stream of
IALs
now:
see
IAL.
The readings from
IALs
are
IAL -1
(which is the
Course Website / Extended Syllabus
that you are reading right now),
IALs,
0 to 18 plus 21,
omitting 17 which is out of date as specified in the
IAL Contents,
Someday, yours truly might get 17 updated.
So there are 1+1+16+1+1=20
IALs
to read.
Here's a table to coordinate
IAL
number and count of
IALs:
IALs
NOT covered in class:
The NOT-covered-in-class
IALs
and parts are still readings if they appear in the table above.
IALs
NOT covered
at all in class may be less heavily weighted on exams.
There is a schedule for covering the
IALs
in class, but it is NOT rigid.
We do them when we get to them and they vary in length: typically 1 to 3 class periods.
We will just glance over our stream of
IALs
now:
see
IAL: Contents.
The readings from
IAL
are
IAL -1
(which is the
Course Website / Extended Syllabus
that you are reading right now),
IALs
0--8, 19--23, 25--26, and 28--30.
Someday, yours truly might get omitted
IALs
24 and 27 written/completed.
So there are 1+1+8+5+2+3=20
IALs
to read.
Here's a table to coordinate
IAL
number and count of
IALs:
IALs
NOT covered in class:
The NOT-covered-in-class
IALs
and parts are still readings if they appear in the table above.
IALs
NOT covered
at all in class may be less heavily weighted on exams.
There is a schedule for covering the
IALs
in class, but it is NOT rigid.
We do them when we get to them and they vary in length: typically 1 to 3 class periods.
We will just glance over our stream of
IALs
now:
see
IAL: Contents.
All the
IALs
included in the Readings
have accompanying homeworks and solutions which are already POSTED.
Yours truly is working on it---as time allows.
There are also excluded
IALs
which are labeled NOT a reading.
So don't read them for the course. You can read them for educational value.
After completing self-testing you should check your answers.
Ideally, you should first try to find the answer in the
IALs
and only
after you should check the already posted solutions.
Self-testing is vital in any course to achieve active knowledge that leaps
into your mind---like an elephant
when someone says elephant.
Ideally, the answer or how to get the answer needs to spring into your mind
on tests and in life.
It can only do that with practice.
Two ways:
Report on your group activity slip
(see Group Activity below)
as per the following examples:
Do NOT report partial
reading-homework-self-testings:
e.g., "I've done reading-homework-self-testing for 3 sections of
IAL 0".
I do NOT record partial
reading-homework-self-testings
since these are slices too fine to notice.
Send the email RHST report in the email BODY to
david.jeffery@unlv.edu
in format:
Lastname,Firstname,Ast103 or 104,section1001 or 1002, IAL number(s), date.
The recommended due dates for the reports of
reading-homework-self-testings (RHSTs)
are all specified by regular semester week or summer semester day at
Introductory Astronomy Lectures (IAL): Contents.
The recommended due dates are for keeping up efficiently with the course.
There is
NO penalty for being late until the final due date.
The final due date is Tuesday at 4 pm after final exam week
(or final exam day for the summer semester) when grades are due for all courses.
Do NOT wait till the last moment to report.
Note that yours truly sometimes, but rarely, misses reports,
and so yours truly's makes it
the to make sure that the instructor
has recorded all
reading-homework-self-testings
by the final due date.
You can check your
reading-homework-self-testings by looking at the
Posted Grade Records
under your anonymous alias.
So before loafing begins (see the figure below
(local link /
general link: hammock_loafing.html),
check that
reading-homework-self-testings have been
recorded in the Posted Grade Records.
The homeworks and solutions are the study guide.
Typically, about 50--70 % of the exam questions are drawn from the homeworks.
So knowing all the homeworks really well
is a desideratum for the exams.
But since there are exam questions NOT from the homeworks and there are
over the semester too many homeworks questions to just memorize them all, you have to
know those astro stories too.
As an example of accessing homeworks and solutions, let's access
Homework -1 for in-person instruction
(or
Homework -1 for remote instruction)
and
Solution -1 for in-person instruction
(or
Solution -1 for remote instruction).
If this is is an
in-person instruction course,
below in today's group activity,
we'll do
Homework -1.
Full 75-minute and 90-minute lectures are awful---they harder to receive than to give, in fact.
No one can pay full attention that long on a regular basis.
So usually, but probably NOT always, we will break from lecturing at about the 40 minute mark
for a group activity.
Rules of the group activity:
The group activity will be carried out in groups of 2 or 3 usually.
Students should put their answers on a slip of paper.
There is only slip per group and all the
students should put their names on it.
Your name should appear just ONCE on the slip at the TOP of the slip:
And PRINTED, NOT written in cursive like
John Hancock's signature.
The group activity slips
should be handed at the end of class---or when you abscond during the
group activity.
Just put group activity slips on the front table as you head out.
Be really, really clear about readings done.
On the group activity slips, make sure it is clear
who is reporting what readings.
Print your name on the slip once at the TOP
of the slip: the same printed name
to report your participation AND your
readings.
Your name should only appear ONCE on the slip:
Do NOT slow down my recording process with confusing repeats of the same names!!!!!
Any corrections to the grade record for
group activities
(which can be checked by the students---see
Posted Grade Records
and Anonymous Aliases)
must be done very soon after the date the corrections are asked for.
I'm NOT going to consider corrections for dates long past when
accurate memory of group activities done has faded from mind.
Just let me know that you need a special drop. I just take your word for it.
If you have 5 special drops and 7 ordinary drops already, and need more special drops,
I will just drop the whole group activity item:
see Dropping Whole Group Activity Item below.
I require that students
ask me to drop the group activity.
I don't do it automatically if it improves your grade.
You can ask to have group activity
dropped up until the time grades are submitted to the registrar---but
NOT after.
People who have had the group activity dropped have to
report readings by email and keep track of exam dates from the
Course Website / Extended Syllabus: Exam Schedule.
Remember the posted dates are only tentative
until maybe a week before the exams.
For in-person-instruction courses for
summer semester 90-minute periods,
the group activity will be followed by a short break for
5 minutes or so.
The group activity
will typically start 5 to 10 minutes before the 5-minute-or-so break
(see Summer Semester Qualification 1).
Sometime before the END OF CLASSSES
(i.e., see the Academic Calendars),
you must stop by MY OFFICE
(BPB 244:
see also
instructor information)
for an interview---where will do
physical distancing
and masking during all pandemics.
Note the END OF CLASSSES is the last Friday BEFORE the finals week---or
just the last Friday for the summer semester.
I give extensions in the cases of people who have tried to
set up an interview within the deadline, but who I have NOT been
able to see me before the deadline.
Other very extenuating cases might be considered---but remember you've
had all semester to do the interview.
Do NOT wait for the last minute.
So make an appointment if you want to be sure to catch me,
So you should suggest a time for an interview---and
ask me to suggest one.
I understand that students often have tight schedules
for when they are on campus.
So short interviews just before or after class are OK.
But usually you should let me know in advance you are coming.
You just get the mark for showing up.
Typically, the interview is 5 to 10 minutes or so, but we can chat longer if we like.
The interview is really just to make sure that all students
meet up with me
at least once out of class for a one-on-one or one-on-two if two come at once or ...
It helps break the ice between students and instructor, and gives me
some insight into the concerns of students.
Acceptable alternative activities include:
You should check with me if a proposed alternative activity is acceptable before you do it.
Just report that you have done an acceptable alternative activity and you will be given the
interview mark.
There will be two of these---just like in the figure below
(local link /
general link: testing.html).
All questions will be multiple-choice and, as aforesaid,
typically about 50--70 % will be drawn from the homeworks.
The exams consist of 72 multiple-choice questions and you have 75 minutes.
The material covered on each exam is specified below in
section Exam Schedule.
See the note on Device Use during
tests.
For in-person-instruction courses,
the in-class exams consist of 50 multiple-choice questions and will occur in
the first 50 minutes before the ordinary 5-or-so-minute break
(see Summer Semester Qualification 1).
After the break, we will just resume with an ordinary class period.
It's sort of sickening to have a class period just after a exam, but that's the
summer semester for you.
There will be NO group activities
on in-class exam days.
It will be comprehensive and two hours long.
"Comprehensive" means all
IAL
readings
are included---except for explicit exceptions.
See Final Exam Information.
The final
will be similar to the in-class exams, but with 100
multiple-choice questions,
and so is about 40% longer---except for the
summer semester, it's 100 % longer.
The
IALs
covered since the last in-class exams MAY be given a somewhat heavier
weighting than earlier
IALs.
The longer the interval since the last in-class exam,
the likelier there will be a heavier weighting.
See the note on Device Use during
tests.
Why a comprehensive final?
Well, remember a course is about learning.
A comprehensive final is part of the learning process.
The student
is obliged to comprehend the whole course at once.
To see big picture and how the parts fit in to the
big picture:
see the big picture
in the figure below
(local link /
general link: sistine_chapel_ceiling.html).
From an evaluation point of view, a comprehensive final
puts more weight on understanding than the in-class exams
where pure memorization is a somewhat more feasible strategy.
See
Rules for Remote Instruction Exams/Quizzes.
Students are required to supply their own
scantrons with
spaces for at least 100 questions for all exams.
See also the note on Device Use during
tests.
For IPI courses,
the summer semester final
will be 90 minutes and will be held in the last scheduled class period
in the regular classroom,
unless other arrangements are made
by the instructor.
See Rules for Remote Instruction Exams/Quizzes.
Makeup exams are given for valid reasons, but
students must ask for them promptly.
Valid reasons include religious holidays,
official extracurricular activities,
illnesses, emergencies, special education/career occasions, unavoidable absences, etc.
Simply being unprepared for an exam is NOT a valid reason.
Students
are expected to organize their time appropriately for writing exams
at the scheduled times.
Of course, if you are unprepared because of illness that is a valid reason.
Students requiring a makeup
for IPI courses
should check my
schedule
and suggest a time for it---you know when I'm likely to be free---I don't know when
you are likely to be free---EXTREME EMPHASIS: you should suggest a time.
There are NO retakes.
Makeups are for people who CANNOT do the exam at the regular time.
A makeup exam is NOT necessarily the same exam given in the exam period.
If it is NOT the same exam, it will be a similar exam.
The 5 marked items, their weightings, and their drops are given in the table below:
The 3 marked items, their
weightings, and their drops are given in the table below:
From the front an audience looks
like in the figure below
(local link /
general link: audience.html):
some are attentative, some are asleep.
It's hard to fall completely behind if you attend class.
And there is lots of evidence that good attendance correlates
with achievement---but don't ask me to produce this evidence---it's
what deans tell me---and
Kenneth Sufka
too.
The rationale for the simplifed scale is that it is unfair to use a complete fixed scale
when the difficulty of tests varies
and
people report
reading-homework-self-testings at various times,
some report quite late.
So trying to distribute letter grades above satisfactory in a consistent way becomes difficult.
But final grades are on the 12-point scale as discussed in the next item.
The particular needs of individual
students CANNOT influence
the grade line choice
Usually, yours truly
uses the 12-point scale: A,A-,B+,B,B-,C+,C,C-,D+,D,D-,F.
So the grades are NOT all A's and B's.
There will be C's.
And note that yours truly is rather
parsimonious about A's---just being in the upper third of the class is NOT enough.
Yours truly will submit MIDTERM GRADES
(by whatever name they are called) when they are due
and final grades by
their due date---which is always the Tuesday
at 4:00 pm after finals week or, for
summer semesters,
the last Friday of the semester.
There are NO MIDTERM GRADES for
summer semesters it seems.
This is true for any course.
Students should make any queries about their
final grades or requests for
reweighing of items before
the instructor submits
final grades.
Yours truly posts grade records (which includes current
letter grades)
under anonymous aliases.
I avoid names with problematic connotations such as
Cancer
and Virgo.
The grade records are essentially self explanatory.
Every graded item in order with marking/correct answers as appropriate
and cummulative marks and current letter grade at the bottom.
If you wish to choose your own anonymous alias,
just tell me your choice
by email or
on a group activity slip
folded to conceal the anonymous alias.
You can make the request at anytime in the semester.
The anonymous alias should be known to you alone
and it should NOT be guessable as you or anyone else
and NOT be objectionable in an academic context.
Also it CANNOT be an astronomical object
since all the common ones are already all used.
The posting order will be in the extended alphabetic ordering (as above)
used by Unix directories.
15-second wait at least.
But if it is something just specified in the
Course Website / Extended Syllabus
(i.e., on this site), I'm likely to reply just with the
URL
to the relevant item above.
On with the show:
Introductory Astronomy Lectures (IAL)---or
Today's Group Activity
(if this is an
in-person instruction course)
and then on with the show.
Form groups of 2 or 3---NOT more---and tackle
Homework -1 for in-person instruction
(or
Homework -1 for remote instruction)
problems 1 to the end on the
Course Website / Extended Syllabus.
Groups of 1 for
remote instruction course,
of course.
Discuss each problem and come to a group answer.
Let's work for 5 or so minutes.
The winners get chocolates.
See
Solution -1 for in-person instruction
(or
Solution -1 for remote instruction).
Very reassuring I think.
Also my favorite Einstein quote:
EOF
Syllabus Items
EOF
googolplex
=10 googol
=1010100.
No one can memorize
jillions
of isolated facts---you learn the
narratives in which those facts
turn up and the narratives cue you for the facts.
This is like almost all non-trivial learning.
www.physics.unlv.edu/~jeffery/course/c_astint/ast.html
or, in easy-to-read form,
which is the website you are/may be viewing right now.
Find online by
googling
"unlv david jeffery ast".
The site may NOT be the first item listed, but it should be there.
www.physics.unlv.edu/~jeffery/course/c_astint/ast.html
Note for the in-person instruction course
that there are two Bigelow buildings:
EOF
EOF
The astronomy laboratory course
Ast 105
is a separate course from
Ast 103
and Ast 104.
One or the other of
Ast 103
and Ast 104
or the equivalent is a pre/corequisite for
Ast 105.
Academic Misconduct: Academic integrity is a legitimate concern for every member of the
University community. We all share in upholding the fundamental values
of honesty, trust, respect, fairness, responsibility, and professionalism.
By choosing to join the UNLV community,
students accept the expectations of the Student Academic Misconduct Policy,
and are encouraged to always take the ethical path whenever faced with choices.
Students enrolling at UNLV assume the obligation to conduct themselves
in a manner compatible with UNLV's educational mission.
An example of academic misconduct is plagiarism.
Plagiarism is using the words or ideas of another person, from the
Internet or any other source without proper citation of the source(s).
See also:
To emphasize a key point for this course:
From UNLV Policies
in the Syllabi Content memo:
Copyright:
The University requires all members of the University Community to familiarize
themselves and to follow copyright and fair use requirements.
You are individually and solely responsible for violations of copyright and fair use laws.
The university will neither protect nor defend you nor assume any responsibility
for employee or student violations of fair use laws.
Violations of copyright laws could subject you to federal and state civil penalties
and criminal liability, as well as disciplinary action under University policies.
Additional information can be found at
http://provost.unlv.edu/copyright.
Let's just take a quick look at
IALs
now.
IAL
was written and is updated by the instructor.
IAL
can never be as perfected as published books, but
it amounts to the same thing---and it's free.
If you CANNOT find a link to
IALs,
google
"unlv david jeffery ial".
It may NOT be the first found item.
There are numerous supplementary sources: e.g.,
Wikipedia (generally very good on
astronomy, but
never a final source),
NASA sites (numerous),
UNLV libraries (probably quasi-infinite astronomy books),
and so on endlessly.
The images are a more complicated story:
This stream covers the basics of astronomy (which includes, among other things,
the celestial sphere,
the seasons,
constellations,
phases of the Moon,
and the history of astronomy),
all of physics (just kidding),
the Solar System,
exoplanets,
planetary systems
(see figure below for example),
stars,
black holes,
galaxies,
the cosmic web
(AKA the
large-scale structure of the universe),
and
cosmology.
Everything up to and including
planetary systems and
exoplanets
from the AA list above, plus a little more.
Everything from the AA list above, except for the
Solar System,
exoplanets, and
planetary systems---except we
do a little bit of these three topics anyway.
There is a math component---but it's elementary.
The math component
is there because astronomy
is very mathematical
(though this course isn't), and so getting some understanding of
the mathematical
aspect of astronomy is essential.
It is also one of the gaols of this course to develop student
math skills a bit.
But when I'm lecturing, we mostly just look at:
The two streams again:
Summer Semester Qualification 1:
The break will only be 5 minutes or so.
We have little enough time in
summer semesters.
Everyone will need that break---then we resume with renewed vigor and
vitality.
For the 3 streams, the readings are:
IAL identification number -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Count of IALs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
IAL identification number 11 12 13 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 22 23
Count of IALs 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
IAL identification number 25 26 28 29 30
Count of IALs 25 26 27 28 29 (see IAL Contents)
IAL identification number -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Count of IALs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
IAL identification number 11 12 13 14 15 16 18 21
Count of IALs 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (see IAL Contents)
IAL 18: Exoplanets
is a reading only insofar as it can be read since it's never been finished.
IAL identification number -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 19 20
Count of IALs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
IAL identification number 21 22 23 25 26 28 29 30
Count of IALs 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (see IAL Contents)
IAL 23: The Post-Main-Sequence
Life of Stars
is a reading only insofar as it can be read since it's never been finished.
Except IAL 18: Exoplanets
and
IAL 23: The Post-Main-Sequence Life of Stars
do NOT yet have homeworks and solutions.
AFTER you have completed a reading, you are REQUIRED to self-test
on the homeworks (unless there is a homework).
Self-testing means you try all the homework questions WITHOUT looking for
answers in the
IALs
NOR looking at the solutions.
After doing the homework-self-testing for an
IAL,
you report that you have done that
reading-homework-self-testing.
Note you get a mark for doing a
reading-homework-self-testing,
NOT for reporting the homework answers which are NOT reported.
See below for
How to Report Reading-Homework-Self-Testings (RHSTs)
and
Recommended Due Dates for Reporting Reading-Homework-Self-Testings (RHSTs).
See
Saint Nestor the Chronicler (c. 1056--c. 1114)
doing his homework in the figure below
(local link /
general link: saint_nestor.html).
Yours truly will circulate during the group activity
and that's a good time for short interactions with me.
Introduce yourselves, make new friends,
help your new friends
like Euclid (fl. 300 BCE) in
the figure below
(local link /
general link: euclid.html).
Note it is
academic dishonesty
to put down the names of students who were NOT present or did NOT participate.
It is shameful to cheat like this or any other way.
It does NOT matter if the
cheating is undetectable.
The measure of a man's real
character
is what
he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
---attributed to
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800--1859),
but actually by Anonymous
(see
Wikiquote: Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay: Attributed).
The full name should be PRINTED legibly.
ONCE
ONCE
ONCE
ONCE
ONCE
ONCE
Summer Semester Qualification 2:
You can just come by during my office hours.
But I may have wandered off down the hall or gone off on
errand, etc.
My office hours are per my
preliminary schedule,
except for summer semesters when
I'm around pretty much all day, except when teaching or lunching.
So you know my office hours. But I don't know yours.
You should have at least one astronomy/physics question for me and I'll have
some questions for you.
Instead of the interview, you can do an ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITY---which must be done
during the duration of the current semester so the extra insight gained from the
course makes it more rewarding.
Summer Semester Qualification 3:
EOF
Notes on Exams:
Summer Semester Qualification 4:
__________________________________________________________________________
Table: Evaluations Items
__________________________________________________________________________
Item Percentage Drops Comment
of grade
__________________________________________________________________________
readings-hm-self-tg 10 % no drops
group activities 10 % 7 drops The group activity item will
be dropped at student request.
interview 0 % no drops Suspended since 2020 spring.
2 in-class exams 40 % no drops
comprehensive final 40 % no drops
extra credit 0 % There is NO extra credit
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Table: Evaluations Items
__________________________________________________________________________
Item Percentage Drops Comment
of grade
__________________________________________________________________________
readings-hm-self-tg 10 % no drops
2 in-class exams 40 % no drops
comprehensive final 50 % no drops
extra credit 0 % There is NO extra credit
__________________________________________________________________________
In any course, just showing for class keeps the
student
at least partially up to date just in itself.
However, yours truly may use the 5-point scale (A,B,C,D,F) if the
12-point scale seems unfair which can happen when the class becomes small
and some of the 12-point categories become unpopulated.
The expensive prestige colleges have given up in the war on
grade inflation.
They give A's to everyone---well
something like 50 % of everyone
(see Rampell, C. 2014aug11, Washington Post, "A's for everyone").
But we're NOT Harvard:
see the figure below
(local link /
general link: harvard_yard.html).
However, there do NOT have to be any D's or F's necessarily.
But they can happen.
As mentioned above, the absolute DEADLINE for the
reading-homework-self-testings
is when final grades are due.
Remember that after an instructor has submitted
final grades,
any adjustments (except for purely
clerical errors) are NOT easy.
Grade postings under anonymous aliases are allowed by
FERPA
and UNLV policy.
See UNLV Faculty Policies: Grading.
As anonymous aliases,
yours truly assigns roughly at random
the names of astronomical objects:
Solar System names,
constellation names from the
list of constellations
(which is defined by the
International Astronomical Union (IAU)),
traditional star names
for named stars,
and galaxy,
galaxy cluster,
and
galaxy supercluster names.
Yours truly usually informs a student of what their
anonymous alias is when
yours truly replies to the
first email from a student which is often on their
first report of
reading-homework-self-testings.
The anonymous alias is NOT used as an identifier
when handing things in or emailing.
The anonymous alias is just for checking your grade record online.
If you send me a request for your current grade record or
letter grade,
I will usually simply tell/remind you of your
anonymous alias
and point to the appropriate grade directory from the list below
(local link /
general link: ast_grade_records.html).
Acceptable examples:
Kraken@Cthulhu,
Iset17,
@Doberman.Pinscher.
The anonymous aliases must be 15 characters or less
and can consist of characters from an extended alphabet:
%0123456789@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
where the first character is the blank.
You can, of course, email me questions about anything at anytime.
Group Activity:
:
Viaje al centro de la Tierra (1864)