Reading:
The text for this class is Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe (6th Ed.) by Chaisson & McMillan. Note that this is the short version of Astronomy Today, by the same authors. (You are welcome to use the 5th edition instead if you prefer to buy the book used; however, note that this will mean that you won't have access to the book's website or the study aids at the publisher's "Mastering Astronomy" site.) For anyone looking for more, I recommend Prather et al.'s Lecture Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy (2nd 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.

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.

Those of you that are particularly interested in learning about the night sky and constellations should buy a copy of a recent Sky & Telescope magazine.

If you want to save some money on the text, you might try the e-book. See http://www.coursesmart.com/givecoursesmartatry?xmlid=9780321612236&__instructor=2327081.

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).

Office Hours:
Tentatively scheduled for Wednesdays and Fridays from 3:30-4:30pm. For those that cannot make those days/times, I will have online office hours in the evening (by appointment only, but generally Mondays at ~9:30pm). This is through Wimba Classroom; follow the link is at the bottom of the main BbVista4/WebCT page for this class.

Homework & Quizzes:
There will be no formal, graded homeworks. However, some web-based tutorials and practice problems will help you with the weekly quizzes. The practice problems will be posted to the BbVista4/WebCT site.

There will be a short (~10 minute) quiz at the start of class once each week (usually Tuesday) on the past week's material. To encourage doing the reading before lecture, one or two questions will be on new material (but can be answered by having skimmed the reading). Quizzes will be mostly multiple choice, labeling, matching, true/false, etc. Quiz questions will be drawn directly (or nearly so) from the "homework". There will be ~9 quizzes during the quarter. I will drop your lowest quiz grade; no make-up quizzes will be given.

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 (group projects during lecture)
• 5% Observing (telescope open house)
• 5% Planetarium visit
• 50% Quizzes and Homework
• 35% Final Exam