|
Last modified: 8/12/10
Instructor: Eric W. Harpell
email: eharpell@laspositascollege.edu
phone: 925-424-1379
Office
hours: no official hours in Fall —email works best!
Please
read this entire document carefully!
Tiger
Stripes on Enceladus
Welcome! If you are new to Astronomy 10, take a few
minutes to read the course description and information below. The timeline
for everything you need to do in the class is contained in the Weekly
Schedule at the end of this
document.
Succeeding in Astronomy 10
|
In a nutshell, you need to do six things
to succeed in this class.
·
5 Blackboard
quizzes (from quizzes and exams area in blackboard) 25 pts each x 5 =
125 pts
·
5 homework
assignments from “smartwork” website
20 pts each x 5 = 125 pts =
100 pts
total = 400 pts
|
Grades (out of 400 possible points)
|
***Schedule of Exams and
Assignments***** Click here or See “Class Schedule ” in the
Blackboard Course menu. This is your lifeline to the class, so don't ingore it! Print it up and post it where you will see it often!
Course materials
|
Required
text:
The
recommended package you need is:
21st
Century Astronomy 3e: The Solar System + Ebook + SmartWork
·
ISBN-13: 978-0-393-93284-3
make
sure you buy the book that says: "The Solar System"
available at the LPC
bookstore, or through the publisher online
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-393-93284-3/
The
cost though the publisher is $71.15. This includes the text,
ebook, and smartwork access.
Important notes:
You can also purchase the “complete” book simply
called 21st Century Astronomy 3e.
You absolutely do need to purchase access to the Smartwork
course assistant website. This comes
free with new books, so please check if you wish to purchase
a used book online, or choose not to purchase a book at all.
This is not recomended, but it is possible to use another current
astro textbook and still pass the class. Smartwork can be purchased
online. See below, or the Smartwork Link in the Blackboard course
menu for more info.
|
|
|
Student Study Guide for 21st Century
Astronomy: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/astronomy/21st-century-astro3/ |
The "Study Space" is not required for the class, but may help you on blackboard quizzes.
|
In addition to Blackboard, The Smartwork Website is
another portal to learning astronomy over the Internet. This site
includes animated tutorials, ranking tasks, diagnostic questions, and
other learning activities. In effect, this is your homework for the
course, and worth 1/4 of the possible points, so please don't ingnore
it.
STUDENT SELF-REGISTRATION
You will need to create a
SmartWork account and self-enroll into the proper
class by following the
"First Time User" instructions at
http://smartwork.wwnorton.com
You will need:
1. a valid email address
2.
The enrollment key for your course: BLUMEN892 (case sensitive)
3. a registration code from W.W.
Norton. This proof-of-purchase allows
students to access your course
after their free two-week trial period.
This Key comes free with your text, or can be purchased by following
the instructions at http://smartwork.wwnorton.com
Blackboard Unit Quizzes There
will be 5 Unit quizzes in the quizzes and exams area of Blackboard.
The dates and content of the quizzes can be found in the course
schedule below. These are open book, open
notes, and open internet quizzes. You
are encouraged to collaborate with fellow students in completing these
quizzes—however, not all questions will be the same!
These qu
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/978-0-393-93284-3/izzes
are not timed, but they must be submitted prior to the due date, or
a 10% late penalty will be applied. These
quizzes are generally 25 multiple choice questions drawing on all
content listed in the class schedule (look for all the information
in the same row as the Quiz).
Final Exam:
There is one final exam. It will be a mixture of essay and multiple choice,
which will be based on Blackboard quizzes, and Smart Work Assignments. In general, the goal of the final exam is
to ensure that you have understood and mastered material you have already
seen on quizzes and homework assignments.
Note that you will be provided with a set of 6 - 10 essay Questions a few weeks before the final. Three of these will be selected at random and placed on the final exam.
Astro Survey Assignment :
This
assignment will require you to take a basic knowledge survey quiz, and then
administer a similar but more detailed quiz to three or four other
people. You will then be asked to
summarize the results of this survey and put the results into
perspective. You will receive 5 points
simply for taking the survey quiz yourself, and up to 15 points for doing a
through job on the survey. More
details on this survey will be found in Blackboard in the "
Astro Survey ” link.
Final Project
The
Final Project is a paper, power points presentation, or website on a topic of
interest closely related to the subject matter of astronomy, but not studying
in any detail during the class. For
example, you would not do a project on “Mars” in general, but you might
consider “possibility of future colonization of mars” in which you discuss
the obstacles and possible solutions to humans living on the frozen red
planet! Of Course, there are a huge
number of possible topics for you to choose.
A list will be found in the “final Project” link in Blackboard. In general, a paper should be five pages
long, double spaced, with 12 point text.
Images and charts will make the paper longer. Power point presentations can contain
slightly less text—1200 words is a reasonable minimum length. Before you subject your paper, however, you
will submit a ‘research project proposal” in the discussion board in
Blackboard.”
Blackboard Discussion
There will be four questions of the month for you to answer this summer in the
blackboard discussion area, well as a "current interest" , Quiz tips and tricks, and class help section. The
four questions of the month will require you to do some research on or
off line, and present the results of your research in a the form of a
"mini paper". Each of these questions of the Month will be graded on a
scale of 0 - 20 points each. Specific directions for completing these
Questions will be found in Question itself in the Blackboard discussion
area.
Besides the Question of the Month, there will also be a
section for you to post general Questions realted to the five quizzes
in blackboard, or even better, to help your classmates by replying to a
post. There will also be a current itnerest section where you can post
information, websites, and comments related to material you have found
online, on TV, in print, at a Planetarium, Observatory, or simply in
the sky while taking this course. Finally, there will be a "general
class help" section where you can post questions, or respond to
classmates post regarding smartwork, test taking strageies, deadlines,
or anything else that comes up. Points for disucssion board items will
be awarded as follows:
Questions of the Month -- 4 x 20 points each = 80 points
blackboard Quizzes, current interest, Genral help = 20 points
Note that you do not have to post in all three areas (Quizzes, current
interest, General Help) to receive most or all of the 20 points
possible. The 20 points here are awarded at at the instructors
discression. More specifically, if you post quite a bit in one section,
it can compensate for lack of posts in other sections.
 Class conduct and Academic Dishonesty:
You are encouraged to collaborate on quizzes and assignments. You may not
collaborate on the final exam.
Also, it is absolutely considered cheating if you get feedback from a
student who has already taken a quiz.
Any students caught cheating on a quiz or exam will be given an F for
the assessment and referred to the Dean of Student services for disciplinary
action, which may include expulsion from Las Positas college. Such incidents are rare, but do occur
yearly. Students
are also expected to use common courtesy in their discussion board
posts and replies. Profane, or high negative comments may result in
expulsion from the class.
Click Here for the Class Schedule |
