Astronomy Lab Syllabus - PH 231

Dr. Mark P. Turski
239B Boyd Hall
535-2749, email - mark.turski@plymouth.edu
Home page - http://oz.plymouth.edu/~sci_ed/Turski/
Office Hours: by appt
Text: Shawl, Robbins, & Jefferies (2000). Discovering Astronomy - Activities Manual and Kit 4th edition

The laboratory activities are composed of three basic types of activities: observations of the sky, experiments on the nature and properties of light and using astronomical photographs to make measurements and form conclusions.

The goal of these activities is: (1) to allow students to better understand the measurement process, (2) the processes scientists use in forming conclusions, (3) the theoretical nature of astronomy and, (4) to gain an appreciation and understanding of the natural world.

Assignments
1. Student are required to complete the following labs in the DA - Activities Manual:
Kit Activities 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 4-5, 4-6, 12-1, 12-2
2. Students are required to complete the following handouts:
1. Finding North, 2. Finding Your Latitude, 3. Finding Your Longitude, 4. Sun Thingie
3. Students must complete any one other Kit Activity in the DA - Activities Manual.
4. Students must find an astronomy activity from the internet or resource book and complete the activity. I must approve it before hand.

You must be able to work in an unsupervised environment. The activities require celestial measurements to be take at all hours of the day and evening. If you are working every day at noontime you need to make arrangements to do some of these labs. If you have problems call, email (the best method) and we will set up a time to meet.

Each of the labs will be graded in the following manner.
The data is complete and Dr. Turski can read and understand it - 60 points
The remaining points 40 points are determined by the number of questions you need to answer; e.g. if there are four questions each is worth 10 pts.

Grades
Final grades will be assigned according to the following scale:

100 - 94 - A 93.9999 - 90 - A-
89.9999 - 87 - B+ 86.9999 - 83 - B 82.9999 - 80 - B-
79.9999 - 77 - C+ 76.9999 - 73 - C 72.9999 - 70 - C-
69.9999 - 68 - D+ 67.9999 - 66 - D 65.9999 - 65 - D-
<65 - F
 


I DO NOT SCALE and There is NO Extra Credit!