There will be one required written report for this course. It may be either a research paper or the “Local Astronomy Exploration” paper. You may begin this assignment at any point but it is due Wednesday, April 14th. This assignment will count for 15 percent of your grade. Remember to type either assignment, I won’t take hand written papers.
Research Paper:
May cover ANY aspect of the material in this course or you may choose another area in astronomy. All topics need to be approved by the instructor. The report should be at least 5 pages in length, typed, double spaced, and contain citations to reference material. I expect you to explore the topic using sources other than your text book, come to me for advice on where to look. I also want you to have another classmate, parent, or friend review it. I want the reviewed copy and the final copy. I will grade you on content, grammar, and spelling so run it through the checker on your word processor.
Local Astronomy Exploration:
- Find 5 local astronomy resources in the community – planetariums, observatories, local clubs, museums, universitys, etc.
- Write a one paragraph description of where and what each resource is and specifically what it does. I expect an address and name of organization for each resources, this is not part of the paragraph.
- Now pick one to visit, go to a talk, attend an observing evening, you choose. Write a 2 page report on the event you attended, make sure to include obvious things like the name of the group, a description of the event, the date of the event, your feelings on the event, what you learned, what questions you still have, etc.
- Combine the report and description of the 5 resources you found.
Labs include 5 in-class exploratory learning exercises and 2 on-your-own time internet observing assignments. The internet observing labs require you to track down astronomical objects on the internet, the sites linked to the right as well as Wikipedia are very good sources. Each internet observing lab requires you to find three DIFFERENT types of objects and fill out this form Internet Observing Lab. I expect the description of each object to be detailed enough to show me you have researched it on one of the astronomy sites or Wikipedia.
You are strongly encouraged to contact your instructor if you are having any trouble completing the labs. labs are 15 percent of the grade.
Click on the image to buy it at Amazon.com, note you will NEED a Mastering Astronomy account for this course.
Site Last Updated on Thursday, July 29th 2010.