Spring 2020 Syllabus Astronomy 30500

ASTRONOMY 30500 PR                   METHODS IN ASTRONOMY                 City College Spring 2020

COURSE NUMBER 44814

CUNY POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Academic Dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, and expulsion, as provided in the 2019-2020 CCNY Undergraduate Bulletin.

Definitions and Examples of Academic Dishonesty

Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information, notes, study aids, devices or communication during academic exercise. The following are some examples of cheating, but by no means is it an exhaustive list:

• Copying from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy your work.

• Unauthorized collaboration on a take home assignment or examination.

• Using notes during a closed book examination.

• Taking an examination for another student, or asking or allowing another student to take an examination for you.

• Changing a graded exam and returning it for more credit.

• Submitting substantial portions of the same paper to more than one course without consulting with each instructor.

• Preparing answers or writing notes in a blue book (exam booklet) before an examination.

• Allowing others to research and write assigned papers or do assigned projects, including use of commercial term paper services.

• Giving assistance to acts of academic misconduct/dishonesty.

• Fabricating data (all or in part).

• Submitting someone else’s work as your own.

• Unauthorized use during an examination of any electronic devices such as cell phones, palm pilots, computers or other technologies to retrieve or send information.

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. The following are some examples of plagiarism, but by no means is it an exhaustive list:

• Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source.

• Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging the source.

• Using information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the source.

• Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments.

• Internet Plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, and “cutting and pasting” from various sources without proper attribution.

Obtaining Unfair Advantage is any activity that intentionally or unintentionally gives the student an unfair advantage in his/her academic work over another student.  The following are some samples of obtaining an unfair advantage but by no means is it an exhaustive list:

• Stealing, reproducing, circulating, or otherwise gaining advance access to examination materials.

• Depriving other students of access to library materials by stealing, destroying, defacing, or concealing them.

• Retaining, using or circulating examination materials which clearly indicate that they should be returned at the end of the exam.

• Intentionally obstructing or interfering with another students’ work.

Falsification of records and official documents. The following are some examples of falsification, but by no means is it an exhaustive list:

• Forging signatures of authorization.

• Falsifying information on an official academic record.

• Falsifying information on an official document such as a grade report, letter of permission, drop/add    form, ID card, or other college documents.

ASTRONOMY 30500 PR                       METHODS IN ASTRONOMY                      City College Spring 2020

COURSE NUMBER 44814

Monday and Wednesday 2:00 to 3:40 PM – Room MR 3

                Dr. Michael Lubell                                E-Mail: mlubell@ccny.cuny.edu                                              Office Hours

Mark W. Zemansky Professor of Physics             Telephone: 212-650-5610                                         Tu 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

                   Office: MR 325              Join me on LinkedIn & Follow me on Twitter @mslubell                   Th 4:00 – 5:00 PM

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Designed to fulfill the 30000-level core science requirement, the course covers the fundamental physical laws that underlie the motions of heavenly bodies, including Newtonian mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity, planetary, stellar and galactic evolution; the methods, techniques and instruments used by modern astronomy, including the Hubble Space Telescope and planetary space probes.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

• To understand the physical principles that govern the origin and behavior of the universe and its elements, including the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, the planets, stars, galaxies and galactic clusters.
• To develop an appreciation for the history of astronomy, beginning with ancient civilizations and ending in the modern era.
• To gain an understanding of the experimental techniques that scientists use to investigate astronomical phenomena, including terrestrial and space-based optical telescopes, radio telescopes and space probes.
• To develop an appreciation for the phenomena that make astronomy such an intriguing and dazzling science, including supernovas, pulsars and black holes.
• To grasp the extraordinary nature of the body of knowledge scientists have developed in astronomy and cosmology and to appreciate how much still remains to be discovered and explained.
•  

COURSE OUTCOMES

Demonstration of the mastery of objectives through verbal communication and written examinations.

COURSE FORMAT

The course will meet twice a week for 100 minutes each. Classes will consist of Power Point presentations and discussions. Although the class is very large, students are expected to participate by posing and answering questions interactively. Homework will be assigned for each class. Lectures will be posted on “Blackboard.”

RESOURCES

The required text is Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy, 9^th Edition by Thomas T. Arny (McGraw Hill, New York, 2019), digital version highly recommended and available by registering at McGraw Hill Connect: https://connect.mheducation.com/class/m-lubell-pr-spring-2020-tu-th-200---340-pm. Extra credit for completing digital reading. If you use an earlier print edition, be sure to get the homework questions from the 9^th edition.

GRADING

Total points will be based upon the following: Exam I 30 points, Exam II 30 points, Final Exam 60 points, augmented by bonus points for Class Participation and homework questions through McGraw Hill Connect. Exams I & II will have 30 multiple-choice questions each; the Final Exam will have 60 questions. On each exam half the questions will come directly from the assigned “Test Yourself” questions in the text. The remaining questions will stress information contained in the lectures. Two unexcused absences per third will be allowed without penalty.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Michael S. Lubell is the Mark W. Zemansky Professor of Physics at the City College of the City University of New York (CCNY) and Chair of the Aspen Institute/PBS NewsHour Partnership on Science and Society. Dr. Lubell earned his B.A. (1963) from Columbia University and his M.S. (1965) and Ph.D. (1969) from Yale University. He was a member of the Yale faculty from 1971 to 1980 before joining the Physics Department at CCNY in 1980, where he was Department Chair from 1999 to 2006. From 1994 to 2016 he also served as Director of Public Affairs of the American Physical Society. He has held fellowships from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst. He has also held concurrent positions at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Texas-Austin, the Santa Barbara (Kavli) Institute of Theoretical Physics and Universität Bielefeld. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and his biography appears in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering and Who’s Who in American Education.

Dr. Lubell's publications comprise more than 300 articles and abstracts in scientific journals and books covering subjects in high-energy physics, nuclear physics, atomic, molecular and optical (AMO) physics, energy research and science policy. His use of polarized electrons to probe fundamental processes in atoms, nuclei and nucleons is internationally known. His science research interests now center on AMO studies of quantum chaos and simple molecular systems, energy efficiency and innovation. He has delivered more than 150 invited lectures and has appeared often on radio and TV in North America and Europe. He is one of the experts most frequently quoted by the national and scientific media on science policy issues and is credited as being one of the pioneers of science advocacy in Washington. He has served on many scientific advisory committees inside and outside government. Dr. Lubell has also been a newspaper columnist and a regular contributor to Roll Call and The Hill, two Capitol Hill newspapers. He has been active in local, state and national politics for more than forty years and has served as an advisor to members of Congress and state and national officials. His new book, Navigating the Maze: How Science and Technology Policies Shape America and the World was published last summer.

ASTRONOMY 30500 PR

COURSE NUMBER: 44814

SPRING 2020

Tuesday and Thursday 2:00 PM to 3:40 PM – Room MR 3

COURSE SCHEDULE