You may participate in the FSU Astronomy Open House event on on 4/9/08 for up to 20 points of extra-credit. Here is the report form.
There were 4 As, 3 Cs, 3 Ds, and of those who took the test on 2/29, 3 Fs. If your grade was less than a C, a meeting with the instructor is mandatory.
You may study FSU's Foucalt Pendulum for up to 20 points of extra credit. Here is the Pendulum Study Worksheet.
You may obtain up to 12 points of extra-credit for a "constellation report". Here are details.
Our text is
Astronomy Today by Chaisson & McMillan, either the
5th edition,
or the
6th edition.
You must have either the 5th or 6th edition of this text for this class.
You should not expect to obtain a grade better than a D without purchasing the text.
Here is more information about the text including links to purchase it on-line.
There is no prerequisite to this course. Students may enroll in ASTR 112 before or after completing ASTR 111, but the recommended sequence is 111 first and 112 second.
Professor M.'s office is in room 319 of the Lyons Science Building.
You may visit him
during his
office hours,
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.
See the class schedule for the date by which you are expected to read each section of the text. Any material in these sections of the text may appear in the in-class tests and/or the comprehensive final. If you want to obtain a grade better than a D, you should read all assigned sections of the text.
Homework for ASTR 112 will be assigned for nearly every class lecture meeting (expect when an in-class exam is scheduled). The homework is to be submitted on-line using the form linked from the schedule. The submission deadline is 60 minutes before 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 300 class points.
Unless Professor Mattox's homework server at http://astro.uncfsu.edu/PS/ 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 NSCI 110 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 NSCI 110 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.
Because of the instability of Internet connections, it is recommended that you first print the homework form, read the chapter again, pencil in your homework responses, and then complete the form on-line and submit it. Keep your marked-up copy of the form as back-up. If your internet connection is marginal (e.g., dial-up from home), it would be best to initially type your response to each item into a computer file with word or notepad, and then cut and paste into the 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.
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.
Part of the work for this course will be night observations of 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 672-1652 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 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.
You will be asked to sign an attendance
log for each session. The attendance sheet will indicate the number
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 which denotes EXCESSIVE ABSENCES.
If you come to class late, or leave early without prior permission, you will
receive a half-day unexcused absence.
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.