Rules

1. Do the course work independently, and to the best of your ability - that way you will learn more.

2. You can work with other students when you have explicit permission from the instructor; of course, studying with them is fine and will help you learn the material as well as make new friends.

3. For exams, you must bring picture ID or you will not be allowed to turn in your exam. Your backpack/other storage device must be placed completely out of sight, and all cell phones and similar electronic devices must be off. Come on time; no one will be admitted to take an exam after the first person has finished and left the lecture hall.

4. I do not give makeup exams, except for extraordinary reasons. If you know in advance you will miss an exam, let me know before it is given. If you miss an exam for illness or because of an official university event (e.g., you are on an athletic team), bring me an official request to be excused or evidence that you were ill. At the time of the final, however, I will let you take an additional (second) exam on material similar to that covered in any one of the previous three exams. If you have missed one of those exams, this system gives you an opportunity to recover. It also allows you to recover if you just did a bad job on one of them; we will give you the higher of the two grades.

5. Assignments not turned in on time will not receive credit.

Grading

1. There are three in-class exams plus a final. The in-class exams are mostly on the material since the last exam, with a few questions from the rest of the course. Each will have 50 questions and be worth 100 points. The final is half on material since the last exam and half on the rest of the course. It will have 100 questions and be worth 200 points. All exams are on a computerized multiple-choice form. Bring a soft pencil to fill in the form.

2. There are three breakout sessions - on spectroscopy, the output of the sun, and radiation. You will complete a report on each of these sessions and turn it in. The three labs/breakout reports will be worth a total of 100 points (35 for spectroscopy, 35 for output of the sun, and 30 for radiation).

3. There will be a library/information resources session and research paper, worth 100 points. In preparation for it, we will do two homework exercises, worth 25 points each.

4. Class attendance will be checked through in-class activities. Each one is worth 15 points.

5. The total possible points for the course is therefore 750 plus your total for in-class exercises. I grade on a strict scale of 90 - 100% is A, 80 - 90% is B, 70 - 80% is C, 60 - 70% is D, and less than 60% is failing.

Grades

I have tried to distribute the grades over a number of small pieces, so having a bad day should not have a large impact on your success. Your grade will be determined as in the following table: