You may obtain up to 15 points of extra-credit for
participating in an FSU astronomy event on the evening of November 18th,
here is the
public announcement.
Here is the
Student Worksheet for this event.
Your point total will be divided by 413 and mutiplied by 100%. The resulting percentage will be used to determine your grade using the specification below.
You are advised to check the blackboard entry for each of your scores, and to check your own point total.
You may obtain up to 12 points of extra-credit for a "constellation report". Here are details.
You may study FSU's Foucalt Pendulum for up to 20 points of extra credit. Here is the Pendulum Study Worksheet.
There is no prerequisite for this course. Students may enroll in ASTR 112 before or after completing ASTR 111, but the recommended sequence is 111 first and 112 second. The ability to apply high school level algebra will be reqquired - we will be using fractions, proportions, graphs, and scientific notation (which is reviewed in appendix A-1 of the text).
If you have taken ASTR 112 from Prof. M., you are not expected to repeat labs that are assigned for both ASTR 111 and 112 (e.g., the angle measurement lab). If you feel a need to repeat a lab, you are to request permission to do so. Otherwise, you will be assigned a topic of independent study of equivalent effort (and class point value).
We will be using PRS infrared response devices (clickers) during lecture. When you enter the planetarium for each lecture session, you are to sign the attendance log and then find the clicker with the serial number assigned to you. After class, you are to return your clicker to its storage box.
Professor M.'s office is in room 319 of the Lyons Science Building.
You may visit him
during his office hours (which are posted at
http://astro.uncfsu.edu/mattox),
by appointment, or any other time he is available.
Professor M.'s office phone number is 672-1652. He checks dailey for voicemail
left at this number.
You are also encouraged to communicate with
Professor M. using e-mail. His address is JMattox@uncfsu.edu.
You will receive 20 points of extra-credit for your first visit with
Professor Mattox during his office hours.
If you miss any class without prior permission, or get a grade of D or lower on any assignment, or fail to turn in any required assignment, you are required to check-in
with Professor Mattox during his office hours.
This course is offered by FSU's Department of Natural Sciences. The dept. office is in room 100 of the Lyons Science Annex Building.
These outcomes will be assessed during in-class discussion and on examinations.
The first homework assignment is to be submitted on-line by 12:00 pm on 8/25/08 - the homework form for it is linked from the class schedule: http://astro.uncfsu.edu/class/111/schedule.html. BE CERTAIN THAT YOUR NAME IS ON YOUR HOMEWORK FORM BEFORE YOU SUBMIT IT.
The homework is to be submitted on-line using the form linked from the schedule. The submission deadline is 60 minutes prior to the beginning of class. Late submissions will not be accepted without special permission from the instructor for special circumstances (and then probably not for full credit). Homework will correspond to approximately 250 class points.
Unless the server at http://astro.uncfsu.edu/class/ is not functioning, only on-line submissions will be accepted. Upon successful submission, your browser will display a letter from the instructor that includes the statement, "Your ... homework for ASTR was received...". If you don't see this, it is likely that your submission was not successful. In this case, you should use the back button on your browser to return to the form and resubmit. Repeat until you see "Your ... homework for ASTR 112 was received..." appear. If this doesn't happen, you should use the back button to return to the form, print it with your responses, and take the printout to your instructor before class. Alternatively, if the server isn't working, you may paste your responses into an e-mail and send it to your instructor.
It is recommended that you do your homework for this class with a stable internet connection (e.g. on campus, or cable modem or DSL). A good approach is to first print the homework form, browse the chapter again as you look over the questions, and then pencil in your responses. You may wish to keep your marked-up copy of the form as a back-up. If you must use an unstable internet connection (e.g. dial-up), it is recommended that you initially type your response to each item into a computer file with word or notepad, and then paste into the internet form for submission.
If you later realize that part of your submission was missing or wrong, it is acceptable to resubmit part or all of the homework. Include a comment indicating the reason for a second submission.
For some of the lab work, we will use Starry Night digital planetarium software. You are expected to become competent with this software.
You may borrow the Starry Night installation disk from prof. M. to install this program on your home computer or notebook.
Much of the work that will be done in completing laboratory activities will require the student to complete graphs and make calculations. For these reasons you MUST bring to each lab session a ruler and a calculator. Your final report should contain conclusions that you made while working on the project. The format expected for the report will be specified for each lab.
Part of the work for this course will be night observations of planets, stars, etc. Students will be notified about that approximately a week in advance of scheduled observing sessions. Observations can only be done in nearly cloud free regions of the sky. Therefore, all observing sessions are contingent upon a nearly clear sky, and will be canceled if the sky is cloudy at the time the observing session is scheduled to begin. Prof. M. will update a voice recording at 672-1785 to announce cancellations and to provide his latest assessment of the prospects for a clear sky.
There will be a total of 1000 points possible. Students earning 920 points or more will receive a grade of A; a B corresponds to 820-919 points; a C to 700-819; a D to 501-699; and an F to 500 points or less.
You may calculate your standing in the class at anytime by dividing your current blackboard point total by what is possible at the time of your calculation, multiplying by 1000, and comparing to the grade specifications given above.
Prior to midterm, interim grades of "F", "X", or "EA" may be issued. Interim grades are used for informational and warning purposes only; they are not part of your permanent transcript and have no effect on your GPA. An interim grade of "F" indicates poor academic performance. An "X" means "no show". An "EA" means "excessive absences". At midterm, all students will be assigned a standard interim grade of A, B, C, D, or F using the calculation described in the previous paragraph.
You will be asked to sign an attendance
log for each session. The attendance sheet will indicate the number
of unexcused absences for each student.
If your absences exceed 10% of the total contact hours, you are eligible to
receive an
INTERIM GRADE of EA.
If you come to class late, or leave early without prior permission, you will
receive a half-day unexcused absence.
Plagiarism is an act of academic misconduct at FSU. It will not be tolerated in this course. Acts of plagiarism are subject to the disciplinary measures specified in the FSU Student Handbook.
It may be appropriate in a some cases to include verbatim copy of a passage from your text or from the Internet in a homework response. This should not normally constitute the entirety of your response, and should be given only with attribution.