The CourseTextbook* (not required, but useful) Lecture Schedule: Study Guides: My Lecture PowerPoints
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Other Course Resources
Useful Links Phil Plait's YouTubes "Crash Course" in Astronomy MIRA's excellent set of Lecture notes on modern Astronomy Useful Links from Cabrillo on
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Instructor: Rick Nolthenius (...call me Rick!)
Office:
706a
Office Hours:
Monday 11:00am-12 noon
Thur 6:15-7:15pm in 706a or the observatory
Welcome, AstroHeads! Note that this is a transfer-level
science course and we're here to understand our universe and the reasoning
and techniques behind the science of astronomy at a level comparable to similar
courses at UC or CSU (albeit without mathematical problem solving). With 15
weeks to work with we'll be able to cover the whole solar system well. However
we'll not cover the supplementary chapters. We'll be concentrating on scientific
method, the physical laws, motions in the sky, the structure and origin of
the solar system, a bit on climate and Earth's climate change as well. We'll have time for questions and discussion, a day at the
planetarium (if CoVid gets solved), slides, and videos.
Text: "The
Cosmic Perspective - The Solar System - 4th or later editions"
I have insightful thoughts on the subject of
scientific method and the nature of clear thinking. We'll use my own "Chapter
0" for this area.
What I'm here for: Encourage clear thinking, healthy skepticism (not the same as cynicism!), an appreciation for a scientific mindset, turn you on to the joys of discovery and your true connections to the cosmos.
Study
Guides
Please note - a 3-unit lecture course is required to contain material requiring 2 hours of home study for every hour of in-class lecture. That means that, including the lecture itself, you should be spending 9 hours per week on this course. I expect that you will study hard and you should expect that a university-level transfer science class will require you to study hard, regardless of what, personally, is your mastery level going into the course. Paying good attention and doing focused reading and you should do fine with less time than above. .
In this syllabus you'll
be getting two study guides. One covers each of the text-oriented quizzes,
and the other covers the comprehensive final exam. In the study guide,
for each quiz you'll see about 8-10 sections listed, one for each of the
questions on that quiz. Note that only a fraction of the sections in the
book are covered on the exams. You do not have to master the entire book
to do well. But you DO need to master the sections covered on exams, which
may mean reading the entire chapter (or
"unit" as they call them in this text) to get oriented and pick
up the basic context. Then, focus more study time on the sections corresponding
to the questions.
Grades
Grades
are a bummer! But, the law says I've got to assign them. Remember that
they just reflect your performance, not your intelligence, human worth,
likeability, or anything else. Since nearly all of your grade comes from
multiple choice exams, you get the advantage of lucky guesses even when
you don't know the answers. IMPORTANT
STRATEGY - I don't deliberately try to trick you; you'll do worse if you
try and "psych
out" the questions. Read the question, note
your first instinct, and then read again more carefully and DON'T change
your instinctual answer without a solid reason. The questions are assembled by my software
and there is absolutely no correlation nor anti-correlation between which
letters a,b,c,d are the right answer! It's truly random!
My quizzes and exams are drawn randomly from a test bank of approximately 400 multiple choice questions which I've carefully written myself. Before each semester I look again at every question and do any revisions needed. Any given semester's class will see only a fraction of these questions on their quizzes and the final. About 55% of these questions can be answered directly from material in the text by simply reading, grasping, and remembering. Another 27% are drawn instead mainly from material in my lectures, most of which is still somewhat related to text material. Again, these require only remembering from your careful notes. Finally, there is another 18% of questions which will require you to not only understand your reading and/or notes, but to use your reasoning to make inferences and draw new conclusions. So like all good exams, there's a mixture of easy, moderate, and harder questions.
* Quizzes: 70%.
There will be 6 "lecture quizzes" covering lecture and textbook material
(about 8-10 multiple choice questions each), and 3 "video quizzes"
(~13-26 multiple choice's). The "lecture quizzes" are closed-book.
On the videos you should definitely take notes, and you may use these notes
and only these notes while taking the video quizzes. Your lowest 2 quizzes (including
video quizzes) scores will automatically be dropped. If you miss two quizzes, then those will be the two low scores that are dropped from your scoring. For any additional missed quizzes,
you take a 30%. There are no makeups. The
average of your remaining quizzes will be your quiz score, and accounts
for most of your course grade.
* Final Exam 30%: About 50 multiple choice questions on lecture/ text material only (not the videos). You'll have at least 3 hours to do both Quiz #6 and the Final Exam, totalling about 60 questions.
* CLASS PARTICIPATION: My computer will give a final numerical
percentage score for you. Then, when I actually assign the letter grades at
the end, I will look at how close you came to making the next higher grade
and then remember how interested and involved you were during the lectures.
It's like a bit of extra credit for "attitude". Of course, I'll
never ever give you a lower grade than your scores indicate.
Important note: If you miss the final, here's what'll happen. If you've
already got a good reputation with me for working hard and the other Astro
3 section's final still hasn't been given, you may sit in and take their exam (same
text and course, but different questions... I can't let you take the same
exam you missed, for security and fairness to those who were there). Unfortunately,
that means a different final than your study guide was tailored for (but still the study guide for the other section is available to you above). If your
class has the last final exam time so there is no chance to sit in on the
other class's final, I will look at your average quiz grade, lower it by 1
grades, and assign that as your final exam grade. Or, if your grades
are otherwise good and you let me know right away, I can give you an "incomplete".)
Example; your average quiz score is a middle"B", but you miss the final.
You will get a middle "C" score for your final... So, don't miss the final!
Grading Scale: Letter grades will be assigned from your total cumulative
percentage as follows:
A......80% and above
B......70% - 79%
C......60% - 69%
D......50% - 59%
F......below 50%
Credit; 60% and above.
At the end of the semester my computer takes the weighted average of all your work, plus extra credit, and gives a final percentage out of a total possible 100%. Only then do I assign a letter grade. Write down your quiz scores as you go along so you can calculate what your grade would be at that moment. Please note that Canvas Quizzes has a limited ability for me to alter scores. I have my own grading rubric; sometimes I must throw out a quiz question, or it accidentally has 2 right answers (Canvas can't deal with more than 1 right answer to multiple choice questions). If your % score is different than what Canvas shows, I'll make that clear in communicating with you and the class. I expect the average course grade will be in the B range. That includes a lot of students with imperfect study habits. However, people of all kinds have all earned "A" grades when they come to lecture, do the reading, and ask questions about material they don't understand.
Exam
Policies
In order to speed scoring and to sample a larger range of questions, I give only multiple choice quizzes/exams which you'll do on Canvas quizzes. Your lowest two scores will be dropped, and that may include missed quizzes, without affecting your grade. The dates of the quizzes are on the schedule above. It's possible we might have to delay a quiz if we fall too far behind, but I will never ever give a quiz BEFORE the stated time I put into the schedule.. Remember, I consider any exam you take, in principle, as a fair sample of your mastery. The only reason I drop two is to not penalize the occasional, tragic, legitimate miss. Beyond those two, a missed quiz is recorded as a 30%. Write down your scores and keep a running average so you'll know how you're doing. Just drop your lowest two exams, add up the total possible's, add up your number correct's, divide one into the other, compare to the scale above. Those used to rote factoid-ized learning may be surprised and find my exams will stress grasping the logical connections. But remember, I like to hear questions! I know some of this material is rather abstract and I don't expect everyone will get it the first time; but only YOU can identify what you don't understand. Don't let your shyness get the better of you! The more involvement and questions you put forth, the more fun I (and we) have.
* Dropping the class: It is the student's responsibility to drop a class. If you just stop showing up and don't tell anyone, you'll likely end up with an "NC" on your record. This has happened too many times. Don't let it happen to you!
--Last day to withdraw is (see schedule of classes)
--Last day to go for
Pass/No Pass is (see schedule of classes)
Once the withdrawal
cutoff has happened, there's nothing I can do to keep you from getting
a grade for the class - Our dean says she will not sign grade changes
to "W" for forgetful students.
* Pass/No Pass: The counselors can tell you if you can
or should take this class Pass/No Pass. The purpose of Pass/No Pass
is to allow students to take non-essential classes "for fun",
without grade pressure. It's tempting to use it as an "out" to
make sure you never get a D or F, but that ruins the value of grades in
evaluating performance, hence they give the early deadline. So, you need
to tell me by the deadline if you decide to go for Pass/No Pass.
How
to Approach this Course
The ideal class "esprit de corps" would be informal and conversational... more a discussion than a "lecture", but focused on science, clear thinking, and astronomy. In the Fall '20 CoVid era, while I still welcome conversation and impromptu question asking, my experience so far is that Zoom and Canvas don't make that very easy, what with the satellite delays, audio feedback from student's phones and computer mics, etc. I accept that that's going to be a bit of an inhibitor, but still welcome your impromptu feedback.
Added
Attractions
**** Nolthenius-brand
dry humor to lighten the proceedings!
The Real Science of Current Climate Change
Astrology and the Evidence
TeachAstronomy - a free online text and related materials (a work in progress - still the early stages of development).
My
essay; On Teaching
TED: lectures from famous thinkers online
YouTube video interviews with Great Scientists on the Big Questions
Students needing accommodations should inform the instructor. As required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), accommodations are provided to insure equal access for students with verified disabilities. To determine if you qualify or need assistance with an accommodation, please contact ACCESSIBILITY SUPPORT CENTER (Formerly DSPS), Room 1073, (831) 479-6379.
Student Learner Outcomes
1. Analyze claims for scientific accuracy and support: Rules of evidence, Occam's Razor, and principles of clear thinking.
2. Synthesize from the basic laws of physics why our solar systems components look the way they do.
3. Contrast our solar system with others, and assess the selection effects inherent in modern methods of solar system discovery.