Shadia R. Habbal
ASTRO 110 - Spring 2009
Time & Place:
- Mondays, Wednesday & Fridays, 8:30 - 9h20 am; Marine Building, Room 114
Professor: Shadia R. Habbal
- Office: Institute for Astronomy, Room B-103
- Phone: 956-6531
- E-mail@: shadia[at]ifa[dot]hawaii[dot]edu
Teaching Assistant: Justin Troyer
- Office: Institute for Astronomy, Room C-216
- Phone: 956-0982
- E-mail: jmtroyer[at]ifa[dot]hawaii[dot]edu
- Office hours: Monday 10:30-12:00 am - Watanabe 404
Course Outline and weekly schedule
- (including Homeworks due dates)
Course Materials
-
The course materials consist of:
1) a CD-ROM with an electronic version of the textbook, The Essential Cosmic Perspective by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider & Voit, 5th edn., Pearson/Addison-Wesley, 2008.
2) an access kit for the associated Mastering Astronomy website, and
3) the Astronomy Media Workbook by Michael C. LoPresto, 5th edn., Pearson/ Addison-Wesley, 2007.
These come as a single package and are available in the UH Manoa Bookshop. - Online resources: Mastering Astronomy
- Login information for Mastering Astronomy here.
Studying for this course
- Reading assignment in the textbook is given for each lecture. Each assignment will be about 10 pages.
- Please read the assigned material before coming to the lecture. Then re-read it after the lecture, in conjunction with review of your lecture notes, to fill out missing details in your lecture notes, and to clear up points you are confused about.
- The textbook has some good recommendations for succeeding in this course on pp. xxii & xxiii.
- There are a variety of insightful hints for maximizing your learning experience at university on the website of the Academic Skills Center at Dartmouth College. You may browse them at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/index.html.
Attendance
- Attendance at lectures is mandatory.
- A student will not be able to get the equivalent learning experience only by reading the textbook.
Grading
- Homework average 20%
- first Mid-Term 10%
- Second Mid-Term 15%
- Third Mid-Term 15%
- Final Exam 40%
Homework
- Homework assignments will be set once a week.
- The content of the homeworks is part of the examinable material of the course.
- Homework answers are collected at the beginning of the class
- Late homeworks will not be accepted.
- Homework assignments are based on interactive animations on the textbook's website Mastering Astronomy, and are generally engaging and assist learning the concepts of the course.
Examination
- The two mid-term exams and the final exam will consist mostly of multiple-choice questions.
- The latter will be computer-graded, so you must use No. 2 pencils for these exams, since the computer makes errors when trying to read marks made by harder pencils or ink.
- Make certain you bring a pencil and a photo-ID with you to the exam.
- We will check that students taking the exam are properly registered.
- You will be required to sign as well as print your name on your answer sheet.
- Failure to do so will result in a mark of zero for the exam.
- No latecomers will be admitted to the exam after one student has left the room.
- Make-up exams will be offered only for serious emergencies.
- If you must miss an exam you must see Prof. Habbal as soon as you are able.
- Make-up exams, if permitted, will consist of essay-type questions.
- Permission to take make-up exams for athletics-related absences must be obtained in advance of the missed exam; otherwise no make-up exam will be offered.
- No athletics-related absences will be permitted for the final exam.
Clickers
- Students are asked to pick up a clicker when they enter the classroom each morning and return it when they leave the classroom.
- The clickers will be shared by several sections of the survey of astronomy course each day.