Syllabus: Short Official Version
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Astro labs always START in the first week of classes.
Of course, lab section periods that coincide with
UNLV holidays
do NOT meet.
So lab sections with section periods coinciding with
UNLV holidays
in the first week do NOT meet in the first week.
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For summer semester courses, the lab nights are
TWR---that is all of TWR for each individual section---it's a compressed course.
The lab time period is 7:30--10:30 pm.
Astronomy Lab Coordinator / Instructor:
Items:
It can be found by googling "david jeffery astlab unlv", but it may NOT turn up as the first item.
Yours truly does NOT like to do that after a semester has started, but sometimes small updates or even large ones are needed.
Any large updates will be called to the attention of the students by email and during the lab periods.
This can always be done with Canvas (unlv).
They will make those adjustments known to you in the lab period itself and sometimes by email communications.
There is NO manual to buy.
The labs are still a bit under construction, and so the lab instructors may need to compensate for deficiencies and gaps for awhile.
We previously used Diane Pyper Smith's A Guide to Astronomy, but this is now phased out.
NO food or drinks on the roof where we do our outside observing.
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Table: Evaluation Items
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Item Weighting Number Drops Comment
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Labs 50 % 10 0 Students must pass at least 6 labs
to pass the course. A pass is 60%.
Rationale: This is a lab course
and lab skills are what are to be
developed.
Quizzes 40 % 6--10 1--5 Lab Instructors can choose
the number of quizzes to give
in the range 6--10, but only
highest 5 scores count.
Rationale: The quizzes enforce
prep/recap and allow individual
students to be better evaluated.
Lab final 10 % 1 0 The lab final must be deemed a pass
by the lab instructor
in order to pass the course.
Rationale: The lab final ensures
that certain simple skills are
learnt by all students.
Extra credit 0 % 0 0 There is NO extra credit.
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Table: Evaluation Items
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Item Weighting Number Drops Comment
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Labs 20 % 10 0 You get a mark just for reporting
the lab has been done with attempting
all tasks required for RMI and
self-checking against all task answers
which are posted.
Quizzes 40 % 10 0 The quizzes are done in the allotted
with NO outside aids after the
the corresponding lab has been
completed.
Students are on their honor to follow the
Rules for Remote Instruction Exams/Quizzes
Lab final 40 % 1 0 A 2-hour, 100 question final with about
70 % of the questions drawn from the
quizzes.
Students are on their honor to follow the
Rules for Remote Instruction Exams/Quizzes
Extra credit 0 % 0 0a There is NO extra credit.
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For remote instruction (RMI), students can always access their current grade record at Ast105: Section 1001 grades with anonymous aliases: remote instruction. WebCampus is NOT used.
Each grade record consists of 4 lines: example of a semester end complete grade record with line descriptions below:
Psamanthe Cumulative Ave.= 93.80 Dev.= 2.500 Letter Grade=A Ave=100.0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Ave= 87.0 9 8 3 7 10 10 10 10 10 10 Ave= 95.0 95
Typically, a section GPA will be in the B- to B range, NOT counting the grades of students who withdraw from the class officially or unofficially. Official university section GPAs will often be lower than the section GPA arrived at by lab instructor since the official university section GPAs include students who are officially still in the class, but have de facto abandoned it---such students usually get F's.
In any section, there do NOT have to be any D's or F's---there do have to be B's and C's. There will usually be A's---but not necessarily.
The lab instructors keep track of marks and assign the letter grades, NOT the lab coordinator.
As described above the class GPA will probably be in the B- to B range.
The reason for the simplified 5-point fixed scale is that is very difficult to find a set full fixed scale or a curve that adequately assesses students before all marks are in. After the marks are all in, yours truly will have a better idea how to distribute the grades fairly.
Lab reports are the marked results of doing the lab exercises.
Students typically work in groups of 3. Two-person groups are allowed. FOUR-PERSON GROUPS are FORBIDDEN, unless there are more than 24 people in the lab room which might happen on a rare occasion when many students are doing makeups from another section.
Generally, each student must write a lab report, unless otheriwse directed by their lab instructor.
As indicated above in subsection Evaluation, lab reports are worth 50 % of the final grade.
Lab reports are mainly filled in during the lab period and are usually handed in at the end for grading.
General questions (i.e., questions not arising in during the lab period itself) can be done ahead of time. This is recommended as part of the preparation.
If a lab exercise cannot be completed during the lab period---usually because some observation can't be carried out due to weather---the lab can be completed in the next period.
The lab instructors set their own preparation and quizzes.
The specified preparation is for the labs and the quizzes.
The lab instructors decide on their own marking schemes for the labs.
Note, however, that group members often have very similar reports, and so marking them all in detail is time-consuming and redundant. To deal with this situation, here are three suggestions for the lab instructors:
But remember you must pass 6 labs at least to pass the course. See the subsection Evaluation.
As indicated above in the subsection Evaluation, quizzes count for 40 % of the final grade.
The quizzes are usually given at the start of the lab period.
They will consist of about 10 questions and take about 10 minutes.
People who come late have to do the quiz out of the classroom---if the lab instructor permits late starts at all.
The specified preparation is for the labs and the quizzes.
The lab instructors may make up their own quizzes. However, the lab coordinator does provide a standard set for the lab instructors who wish to use it---but this set is NOT yet quite complete for the new labs---quizzes 6 and 12 have yet to be completed.
For the rules on makeups for the quizzes, see subsection Makeups below.
There will be 6 to 10 quizzes and only the top 5 count.
So you can afford to miss or not prepare for at least one quiz.
But the since the quizzes count for 40 % of the total grade, you should prepare for at least 5 of them seriously.
It is recommended that you do all the quizzes and prepare for them all seriously.
The lab report marks often do NOT vary much between students. The quiz marks often vary a lot. So the quiz marks often have a strong influence on the letter grades students get.
As indicated above in subsection Evaluation, lab final is worth 10 % of the final grade.
But you must pass it to pass the course.
The rationale for the lab final is that it ensures that certain very simple skills (observational and otherwise) have been learnt by all students.
If you do the preparation for the lab final, then you should pass it easily.
The lab final is usually given during the last period or last two periods of the semester with different groups of students doing the lab final at different times. Students only come for their allotted times.
Early lab finals (if the lab instructor permits them) and lab final makeups are arranged with the lab instructors.
The lab instructors set their own lab final and set the preparation for it.
The lab coordinator acting as a lab instructor has his own lab final which the other lab instructors can use if they like.
If you are in the lab coordinator's sections, see DavidJ's Lab Final Instructions. These instructions are updated for each new semester as the lab final time approaches.
Makeup Notes:
So students can always makeup at least one lab and one quiz before the lab final.
Students do need to take the initiative if they need makeups.
For summer semesters, special arrangements are needed if a second makeup period is needed.
If it's NOT, the makeups won't be offered. Each student's case will have be judged on its own merits.
The policies require that students be given the opportunity, if reasonably possible, to make up marked items missed for excusable absences: these being religous holidays and official extracurricular activities.
Thus, in general, you do NOT have to take a drop or a zero for such missed marked items. You can request a makeup and your lab instructor will try to accommodate you.
In the lab course, we do NOT have a dropped lab, but quizzes beyond 5 are drops.
It is the responsibility of the instructor to stop all disruptive or other inappropriate behavior in class.
Instructors can require that misbehaving students leave the classroom for the remainder of the period. If the students refuse, the instructor will call the UNLV Police at 911 and have the UNLV Police deal with the situation.
Any serious misbehavior may result in the instructor filing a student of concern report with the Office of Student Conduct (OSC). Anytime the instructor has to the call the UNLV Police, there will be a student of concern report.
Under certain circumstances, the instructor is required to contact the UNLV Police: e.g., in the case of a distressed student showing signs of alcohol or drug abuse.
Lab instructors and students are encouraged to review the UNLV Student of Concern Guide Book. If the link is dead, UNLV IT has moved the guide book again and try googling UNLV Student of Concern Guide Book.
The most relevant pages are 9--10.
If you are having problems in life, the university does have resources to help you:
Students should do the labs per Lab Schedule. It is best to do the lab on its recommended date. However, there is NO absolute deadline for any lab---except the ABSOLUTE deadline for all items is the Monday after the course ends since grades are due Tuesday.
You work through each lab thusly:
The student can email the lab instructor for help, but that is often inefficient since the response might be relatively slow and email responses often have their own ambiguities relative to students.
Yours truly has noticed that students often try to skip the lab narrative and just do the tasks, but then they don't know how and start doing Web searches for information which is usually hopeless---the Web doesn't have the specific information anywhere the student can find and for definitions, the online definitions for astronomy terms that first appear are often misleading. Inevitably, the student must think sometimes and the lab narrative is designed to give the student the information to think on.
You do must attempt all tasks, except those labeled IPI only (i.e, in-person instruction). The IPI only. Tasks usually involve using things NOT available to RMI students: telescopes, lab equipment, licenced software.
To access the lab keys, the student will need the SUPER-SECRET username password which the lab instructor will email to the students.
Note that in the summer semesters during June and July, the stars will start coming out clearly only ∼ 8:30 pm at the latitude of Las Vegas, Nevada: ∼ 36° N.
For observing, you can always check Sky map: Las Vegas, current time and Weather: Las Vegas.
If you are NOT in or near Las Vegas, Nevada, you will need to update the sky map's constrol fields. The Task: Naked-Eye Observation gives you directions for doing updates.
It is understood that RMI students may NOT be able to do a lab single session.
However, it is best that students do and report the 2 or 3 labs on the Lab Schedule for a given week in that week. It is very tedious to catch up, if you fall much behind Lab Schedule.
The student can then:
That is all. The student gets a mark just for having reported having done the lab.
This is the recommended procedure since it saves emails and possible confusion.
For RMI labs, the student needs access to the Web, pen or pencil and writing material.
If a student has a printer that would be convenient, but NOT necessary. Without a printer, a student will sometimes have to sketch sky map by hand---but that has its own educational value.
The RMI labs, do NOT use things NOT available to RMI students: telescopes, lab equipment, licenced software.
Every lab has an associated quiz: e.g., Lab 1: Constellations has Quiz 1.
The lab is the preparation/study guide for the quiz.
Soon after the student completes a lab, they should do the quiz.
The quiz is individual work and it is closed book/note/Web: only the student brain can be used for information. A calculator/phone can be used for calculations and only for calculations.
The quizzes are time-limited. The student has 2 minutes per question. So for X questions, the student has 2X minutes. Students with DRC accommodation for extended time have that extended time. Once a student starts, they much complete in the alloted time.
The students are on their honor NOT to cheat.
There are Rules for Remote Instruction Exams/Quizzes which explain how to report exam/quiz answers---follows those rules.
Quiz solutions will be posted after all students have complete: e.g., Quiz 1 will be posted at Quiz 1 solutions.
To access the quizzes and solutions, the student will need the SUPER-SECRET username password which the lab instructor will email to the students. This is the same as for accessing the lab keys.
The RMI Lab Final will be posted as per the Lab Schedule.
The exam is a 2-hour exam will have 100 questions.
Otherwise, the rules are the same as for quizzes which are also fully explicated at Rules for Remote Instruction Exams/Quizzes.