Course Description:
The course description, credit hours, and enrollment restrictions can be found at this link.

Purpose and Learning Goals:
Students will be exposed to a broad brush of topics in astronomy with a focus on what has been learned from cutting-edge research in the past decade. Students will become familiar with the night sky, astronomical instruments/measurements, our solar system, the evolution of stars and galaxies, and the history/future of the Universe itself.

Reading:
We will be using: "Astronomy: The Universe at a Glance". It is a very abbreviated version of "Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe (7th Ed.)" by the same authors. You could probably get away with using the old book if necessary. Note that we will be using the version that comes with the Modified Mastering Astronomy software. The ISBN number for the hardcopy (including Mastering Astronomy) is 978-013-442889-5; this is what Pearson sells with an eText for $94.99 and that the bookstore has for $110. You should probably NOT buy it from Amazon as that will either come with no Mastering Astronomy access code or a code that is out of date, in which case you'll need to spend another $64.99 to get the access code. If you don't buy the book (and Modified Mastering access) from the Drexel Bookstore, then I recommend following these instructions.

For anyone looking for more, I recommend Prather et al.'s Lecture Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy (3rd Ed.). It isn't strictly required, but it would be helpful to have. You might also be interested in Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait, but it is also not required reading for the course. Those of you that are particularly interested in learning about the night sky and constellations should buy a copy of a recent Sky & Telescope or Astronomy magazine.

Students are strongly encouraged to at least skim through the readings for each lecture before class in addition to reading the material in detail after the lecture.

Mastering Astronomy:
Please Read. Even if you have not bought the book yet, I need you to have acccess to Mastering Astronomy from Day 1. You will be provided some time in class to do so if you haven't done it already. Access is free for the first 14 days, so don't worry if you aren't sure whether or not you are going to stay in the class. As with purchasing the eText, you will follow these instructions. After you have registered your account (free for 2 weeks) or logged in to an existing account, at the bottom of the page it says "Get temporary access". Click on that and you will be ready to go.

After your initial setup, to access Mastering, please see this link (do NOT do a Google search--it will take you to an old version). The Course ID is "richards61095". You will need access to this weekly.

Lectures:
We will meet for lecture twice a week for 1 1/2 hours. Lectures will consist primarily of information based on the readings. In-class activities (1-2 per lecture) during the lecture will be part of your participation grade (and will count 5% of your final grade). To receive credit for attendance and class participation we will be using Socrative. Please make yourself an account (free) before the first lecture. The classroom ID will be RICHARDS. Logging in from home or for another person will result in a 0 class participation grade for the quarter. However, you will be allowed to miss 2 lectures without any penalty.

Office Hours:
Tentatively set for W 3:30-4:30pm and R 2-3pm. I may have to adjust these after the first week of classes. For those that cannot make those days/times, I can arrange for some online office hours in the evening if there is enough demand.

Homework & Quizzes:
Homework will be given each week on the Mastering Astronomy site (course ID: "richards61095"). The Homework should be done completely on your own as it is meant to prepare you for the Quizzes (and Final Exam). Weekly Quizzes on the previous week's material (reading, lectures, and homework) will be given in the first 5 minutes of lecture every Tuesday. Quizzes will be mostly multiple choice, labeling, matching, true/false, etc. There will be ~9 quizzes during the quarter. I will drop your lowest quiz grade; no make-up quizzes will be given, so don't be late (even by 2-3 minutes) for class on Tuesdays. Homework will be available online from Thursday afternoon until the start of class on Tuesdays.

Exams:
Currently no midterm is planned. A (comprehensive) final exam will be given during a time/date to be decided during the exam week. It will be mostly multiple choice, T/F, etc. questions with a few short answer and drawing problems. For the multiple choice and T/F part, your score will be the average of your own score and that of your group. I'll explain more about this in class.

Grading:
10 point scale (90=A-, 80=B-, 70=C-, etc.) using the following weighting:

• 5% Class Participation (Socrative and group projects during lecture)
• 5% Observing (telescope open house)
• 5% Planetarium visit (at the Franklin Institute)
• 20% Homework
• 30% Quizzes
• 35% Final Exam