Course Policies

1. Come to class

The lectures will help you master the material. In addition, we will occasionally have you do in-class exercises, and you will not get credit for them if you do not come and do them

2. Take notes: you can print out a note outline for the four course sections from the syllabus. Bring it to class and fill in as much of the outline there as you can - fill in the rest from the notes while you study.

3. Study the lecture notes. They include sets of questions that you should be able to answer - if you select the wrong answer, you will be linked back to the part of the notes you should study.

4. Review your written notes, any breakout exercises, and the questions within the lecture notes to help prepare for exams. In particular, we have collected review questions into a single file for each exam, to give you better practice! (see the syllabus for the links)

5. Relax and have a good time. Astronomy is interesting, and the course will give you a chance to sample it and enjoy it! In fact, the notes have a lot of additional material we hope you will sample.

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. You must bring picture ID or you will not be allowed to turn in your exam. 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. We do not give makeup exams, except for extraordinary reasons. At the time of the final, however, we 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 (unless prior arrangements have been made).

(cartoon from Gary Larson, The Far Side)

We hope the course will increase your interest in astronomy, and if it does you are lucky because you are in the middle of one of the world's greatest astronomy research centers. There is lots that you can do to learn more: