Meeting times: Tuesday 6:10 – 7:00 PM, 7:10 – 8:00 PM, 8:10 – 8:55 PM in Sci 201

Instructor: Abby Fuller

Office: Hensill Hall 220 (through a door, labeled ‘To HH 219-223’)

Hours: Tuesday 4:30 – 5:30 PM in HH 220, after class or by skype appointment

E-mail: afuller (at) stars.sfsu.edu (include ‘[Astro 115-4]’ in the subject heading)

Phone: 415-338-1782 (no voicemail)

Class Website: http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/~afuller/astro115/115.html

Required Texts: Horizons: Exploring the Universe by M. Seeds, Tenth Edition, and

Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy, by J. Adams, E. Prather,
T. Slater

Text Website: http://www.brookscole.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?

fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9780495113584&discipline_number=19

Course Schedule ID: 12204, Course Enrollment: 160

Grading policy:

Midterms 2 x 20% = 40%

Quizzes (one is dropped) 5 x 3% = 15%

In-class Participation (lecture-tutorials) = 5%

Homeworks 10 x 1.5% = 15%

Final = 25%

_______

100%

Course Rules:

Astronomy is interesting and exciting! I will ask you questions to make you think. Be prepared to think independently and participate in every class!!

There will be no makeup quizzes or exams. Quizzes and exams are not necessarily curved. Your lowest quiz will be dropped. You are responsible for getting the course information and assignments if you are absent. If you miss more than 1 class, you may be dropped, since we only meet once per week. Do not assume that I will bring assignments to the next class. Plan on meeting me during office hours, if you missed an assignment or missed picking up returned homework. Homework cannot be turned in late, except when you have been ill and have EMAILED me BEFORE the due date. Again, because this class only meets once per week, if you get behind it will be very hard to catch up.

Tardiness and re-entrance to the class disturb it. Make plans to be in your seat on time when class starts and after breaks. Use the facilities before or after class or during breaks. If you have an extreme circumstance, come in the back entrance and sit near the door. If you are on-time, please leave the seats near the back door for late-comers. Especially the first two weeks of school, there may not be enough seats for all of the students, so I encourage you to come early to get a seat.

Cell phones must be TURNED OFF during classtime and office hours. If you answer your telephone in class or send a text message to someone in class, this could be grounds for PERMANENT EXPULSION from the class and I will take your phone, returning it at the end of the SEMESTER.

Homework rules: On the top right corner of the paper, write your last, first name (e.g. Fuller, Abby or Smith, Joe). Write under it the class section (115-4), the number of the homework assignment (1-10) and the due date. Write only on one side of a page, so that the page is less likely to wrinkle and significantly easier to read. (If you’re worried about the trees, use paper from the recycling bin in a computer lab. I don’t mind if there’s something typed on the back side.) Staple your homework. DO NOT turn in a paper with torn holes or frillies. These make the homework assignments hard to stack (remember there are 160 of you in this class). After the first assignment, points will be deducted for failing to follow these rules.

I recommend photocopying your work for three reasons:

1. While it’s very rare, I have lost some homeworks for as long as a week before, especially if it is returned to me for correcting (because the grader or I made a mistake).

2. I don’t know how fast we’ll be able to get homeworks back to you. I would like to get them back within a week, but we’ll see how it goes over the course of the semester.

3. If you are sick and turn in late homework, or if you find a mistake and need to turn in the homework again to be corrected, you will not necessarily see it again for several weeks, if at all.

Cheating: DON’T do it!! If you are caught, I will prosecute fully, up to and including expulsion from the university, if necessary.

You may certainly work with your friends on homework. I will take time at the beginning of the first several classes to allow you to meet your neighbors and make friends, but the solutions should be your own and in your own words. (This includes NOT copying from the text.) If I have evidence that you and someone else copied each others’ homework, you may both/all receive 0 points for the assignment on the first instance and there may be further steps taken if there is another instance. This is true for both/all of you regardless of who did the work and who did the copying.