Lab classes

Hello everyone,

It was a very good lab class today. I totally love the groups that you created for your projects and I love the names! Well done, excellent job. For the next 3 weeks you have two labs to work on plus you need to work on your projects in groups. Our next lab class will be 23 Oct 2006, but you will see me way before that date. Please keep in mind that we have begun to explore the major question of how did the Solar System form. It is very important to keep working on your notes and asking the great questions that you ask in class. A large part of your mid-term exam will be on this question.

Enjoy and happy holidays to those who observe them!

Dr. Connolly

Lab classes

Hello everyone,

It was a very good lab class today. I totally love the groups that you created for your projects and I love the names! Well done, excellent job. For the next 3 weeks you have two labs to work on plus you need to work on your projects in groups. Our next lab class will be 23 Oct 2006, but you will see me way before that date. Please keep in mind that we have begun to explore the major question of how did the Solar System form. It is very important to keep working on your notes and asking the great questions that you ask in class. A large part of your mid-term exam will be on this question.

Enjoy and happy holidays to those who observe them!

Dr. Connolly

Monday 18 September

I hope everyone had a good weekend and was able to get some study time! We will meet for lab today is S301, the same room where we had lab last week. For those of you who missed lecture on Thursday, we finished the second lecture series, which concerned Earth's movement, seasons, phases of the Moon, etc. This week we will start exploring some major issues, in particular the formation of the Solar System.

Wednesday's Lecture

Hello everyone,

Today I lectured on some basic issues, completely lecture series 2 and started on lecture series 3, which concerns other basic issues such as why the Earth has seasons, time, years, phases of the Moon, etc. Do not forget we are now in a room in the D cluster, D322.

Lecture on 13 September

Greetings class,

Did anyone read the Science Times today in the NY Times? If you have it, remember to bring it to class tomorrow. A really exciting article was published.

Do not forget that our classroom has been moved. We are now in D322 for lecture.

The lab class on Monday went very well and I thank all of you for working so hard and finishing!

Sunday night 10 September

Good evening class,

It was very good to meet all all of you on Thursday. What a comfotable lecture room we have, even though it is not a lecture room! Tomorrow is our first laboratory class together. We will have a short general lecture, one lab will be given out that we will work on every week for the rest of the semester, and then we will perform a laboratory on the metric system. Every week we will make a quick measurement outside of a specific shadow, the reasons why will be discussed in class tomorrow. I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and studied hard!

Welcome to the 2006 Fall semester

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the Fall 2006 semester! If you are reading this then you most likely attended the first lecture and we have had our general introduction to the course and astronomy. I am creating this blog to help you. I will post what we did in class after every lecture and I will also post additional assignments for you to accomplish. Thus, you will need to check the blog every week. When I post an assignment, if it does not specifically state so, you are NOT to hand it in to me. You are, however required to keep the assignment in your notebook. You can bet the family future that I will test you on some aspect of the assignments. Since the exams are open notebook essay, if you do your work and record it, you should earn an A in my course. An A+ is not easy to obtain and requires that very extra step of work from you. Part of your grade will reflect how well you follow direction and that you are reading the blog and performing the assignment. Do not worry, I will not have too many of assignment for you to perform. The assignments are presented as supplements to the lecture materials and may be discussed in class. Your participation in the discussion is very important and will also show me who has done the assignments, thus discussions are another way for me to assess your progress throughout the course. For the exams you need to know that the major issue that I will be testing you on is how well you can synthesize the lecture material and clearly express your answer to a problem. The way I design my exams is that you will not just write back to me what is in your notes--that is almost meaningless. We will go over examples of potential test questions in lecture throughout the course. If you write them down, it may help you to study.

Assignment #1: As many of you may have heard, Poor Old Pluto is no longer a planet. The IAU had a vote in August and changed the status of several Solar System objects. You are to (1) research the classic, per-August 2006 definition of a planet (hint: try your textbook, if you purchased the book, if you purchased the book and took off the shrink wrap, if you purchased the book, took off the shrink wrap and decided to open it AND read it), (2) find the IAU web site (International Astronomical Union) and research the new definition of a planet and other bodies, listing all of the part of the resolution that was past, (3) compare and contrast the two definition and express why you think the change occurred. I really want you to think about this issue and write down your thoughts, whatever they are. I am looking to learn what you think and how you came to your decision. Do not attempt to give me what you think I want to know!

At some point in the future we will explore this issue in lecture, but I will not go into all aspects of your assignment.
Dr. Connolly 2 September 2006