Outline of "Summer Session Solar System Astronomy "

Course material can be found online at URL

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/summer_solar/summer_solar.html

Instructor

Michael Richmond
Building 76 = CAR, Office 1274
Office phone: 475-2538
FAX: : 475-5988
E-mail: mwrsps@rit.edu

Lectures

There are no "lectures" delivered at fixed time. All the course materials are available for your inspection on these webpages.

However, the materials are organized into "lectures" based on topics. There are three lectures listed for each week of class (except the first week, because July 3 is a holiday). Within each week, the material in lecture "A" should be studied on Monday, "B" on Wednesday, and "C" on Friday. Please keep up with the schedule. Each lecture has an associated quiz, which must be completed before 5 PM the following day. See the section on homework below for a description of the on-line system used for these quizzes.

Office Hours

I will be available to discuss items with students via a Zoom session at the following times 

   Monday     5:00 pm -  6:00 pm  EDT   =  21:00 - 22:00  UT
   Tuesday    7:00 pm -  8:00 pm  EDT   =  23:00 - 24:00  UT
   Wednesday  9:00 am - 10:00 am  EDT   =  13:00 - 14:00  UT
   Thursday   6:00 pm -  7:00 pm  EDT   =  22:00 - 23:00  UT
   Friday     3:00 pm -  4:00 pm  EDT   =  19:00 - 20:00  UT

You can find a link to these Zoom sessions on the "Zoom" tab of our myCourses page.

In addition, you may contact me in order to set up an appointment at other times.

Homework

We will use an on-line system for homework and quizzes. It allows you to submit answers and see at once if you are right or wrong; if wrong, you may try again a limited number of times. To access the system, go to the appropriate link on the main course web page.
In order to use the on-line homework and quiz system, you need to know your login name and your initial password. Your "login name" should be the same as your last name, but with lowercase letters only; something like richmond. Your initial password should be the final 4-digits of your student RIT student ID, so if your ID is 456781234, the initial password would be 1234. Include all zeroes: if your ID is 456780012, then your initial password will be 0012. You can change your password from the default after you log in for the first time.

Video explaining how to use the homework system

Answers to the homework problems will appear after the due date. Because the answers will be visible to everyone at that time, I will accept no late homework.

Sky/lab projects

On the main course webpage, after the list of homework assignments, there is a section called "Sky/Lab projects." These are small projects you can do at home which illustrate concepts from the lectures. Six projects are listed, but you need only to complete three in order to gain full credit for this component of the course. You may submit one additional project for extra credit.

Grading

There are several components to the final score in this course. The list below is not definitive, but a rough guide to the importance of each component. 

   24  percent  quizzes associated with each lecture of material
   25  percent  homework 
   21  percent  sky/lab projects
   30  percent  final exam 
    7  percent  one optional extra sky/lab project; see note below
   -----------
  107  percent

Course grades are based on a total of 100 percent.

Because the solutions to homework problems and quizzes will be made available immediately after each is due, you may not hand in such work after the due date. In order to make up credit for missed homework or quizzes, you may turn in one additional sky/lab project, in addition to the three required ones. You may submit this extra project for extra credit even if you have not missed any homework or quizzes, if you wish.

At the end of the course, I shall calculate the total score for each student. Based on the overall distribution of scores in the class, I may use the traditional means of assigning letter grades to scores ("A" for greater than 93%, "A-" for 93% to 90%, "B+" for 90% to 87%, etc.); or I may slide the grade boundaries downward to some degree.

Textbook

There is no required textbook for this course.

However, if you prefer a reference which goes into more detail, and covers more topics, than this course, you might consider The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider and Voit. I'll be using the Seventh Edition when making references to reading assignments and figures, but I suspect that earlier (and later) editions will contain much the same information. If you have access to a different textbook on the solar system, you might be able to search through it to find material which complements the items discussed in class.

We will not be using the homework system packaged with "The Cosmic Perspective" .

Other resources

If you have any special needs, you must inform me during the first week of classes. Otherwise, I may not be able to make arrangements in time to help you. Please contact me via E-mail.

Please read RIT's Policy on Academic Integrity , section D08.0 of the Policies and Procedures Manual. I will follow this policy strictly if there is any evidence that students have violated it; that is, if there is any evidence of cheating, duplicate submission, or plagiarism.

This page maintained by Michael Richmond. Last modified Jun 22, 2020.