E-mail: ringwald[at]csufresno.edu and replace [at] with @
Phone: (559) 278-8426 |
Office hours (between January 15 and May 9): MW 1-3, F 1-2.
If students need to see Dr. Ringwald outside office hours, please call or e-mail first.
Office: McLane Hall, Room 11, in the new Building J (or "J-wing").
This is across the outdoor "hall" from McLane 149, 151, and 161 (near the Women's Room).
You don't need an appointment to come in during office hours.
This is time set aside for students, when Dr. Ringwald will be in.
You can get homework help, free tutoring, or review sessions before exams, personalized just for you.
(1) To serve that most essential purpose of a good education: to show you what lies beyond the horizon, in space and in time.
Lecture meeting times and location: Schedule 41351 (Section 03),
MWF 12-1 p.m., McLane 162. All students must also register separately for
below. Astronomy labs start on the third week of class, on January
28 or 29.
January 21 (Martin Luther King Day),
February 18 (Presidents Day),
March 17-21 (Spring Break),
March 31 (César Chávez Day).
Required Course Texts (which should be available at Kennel
Bookstore, in the University Student Union):
(1) PSci 21 Class Notes, by F. A. Ringwald.
(2) The PSci 21 Lab Manual, by F. A. Ringwald and S. White.
(3) The Stars, A New Way to See Them, by H. A. Rey.
(4) The Elements of Style, by W. Strunk Jr. and E. B. White.
Required Course Equipment:
(1) A clear plastic ruler.
(2) A flashlight (preferably with a red filter for night vision, although the lab instructors should have red plastic for this).
Recommended Course Texts and Equipment (which should be regarded as
required, for any student who is going for an A):
(1) Discovering the Essential Universe (3rd edition), by Neil F. Comins (2006), which I'll refer to as Comins. [***NOTE FOR FALL 2008: Change to Astronomy 6th ed. by Dinah Moche]
(2) The Science Class You Wish You Had, by David and Arnold Brody, which I'll refer to as Brody [***NOTE FOR FALL 2008: remove, since out of print.].
(3) A scientific calculator (that can display scientific notation, and can calculate exponents).
If you can't afford books: You may borrow copies of any of the texts from the Circulation Desk at Madden Library (559-278-4024), for two hours at a time. Making copies, especially from the Lab Manual or the Class Notes, can be useful for homework assignments.
Course web page:
Course grades will be awarded for the following final
85.0-100% = A; 70.0-84.9% = B; 55.0-69.9% = C; 40.0-54.9% = D; 0-39.9% = F.
These percentages will be computed with the following weights:
| Homework, including:|
 The Math Exercise, due Friday, February 1.
 The Timekeeping, Angles, and Classical Astronomy Exercise, due Friday, February 8.
 The Constellation Study Sheet, due Friday, March 7.
 The Moon Phases and Eclipses exercise, due Friday, March 28.
 The Exercise on Why the Sky is Blue, due Friday, April 11.
 The Writing Exercise, due Friday, April 18.
 The Research Paper Titles and 150-to-250-word Summaries (see the Writing Guide),
 The Cosmic Calendar on Three Number Lines, due Friday, May 2.
Two Mid-term Exams (50 multiple choice questions in 45 minutes),
the lower of which will be dropped, tentatively scheduled for
Friday, February 15 and Friday, April 4.
Laboratory, for which every student must register
for a section, separately from this lecture section.
Research Paper, over 1200 words long and with a reference list (see the
Writing Guide), due Wednesday, May 7, the last day of
||35% || Final Exam (100 multiple choice questions in 115
which will be comprehensive (covering all material in the entire PSci 21 course),
on Wednesday, May 14, from 1:15 to 3:15 p.m. in the regular classroom (McLane 162).
TENTATIVE Course Schedule (updated 2008 April 14).
Always do the readings before class:
|Week||M||W||F||Read by Wednesday of next week|
|1||1/14: No class||1/16: Introduction and Course Syllabus||1/18: Powers of Ten, Scientific Notation, Metric System (Comins 1-1 and Appendix B)||Comins 1-1 (pages 1-4) and Appendix B (page A-10); Class Notes pages 1-38; and this entire syllabus.|
|2||1/21: Holiday||1/23: Units Conversions, The Light-Year, Look-Back Time (Comins 1-1)||1/25: Proportions; A Brief Tour of Space and Time (Comins 1-1)||Rey, pages 9-35, 66-72, 108-121, and 127-135; Comins 1-2 to 1-7 and 2-1 (pages 4-15 and 24-26); Class Notes pages 39-61.|
|3||1/28: The Cosmic Calendar (Comins 1-1)||1/30: Classical Astronomy and Seasons (Comins 1-2 to 1-7, Rey)||2/01: Classical Astronomy and Seasons (continued); Homework 1 due (The Math Exercise: see Class Notes, pages A3-A4)||Comins 2-2 to 2-8 (pages 26-38); Brody Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, and 3; Class Notes pages 62-82.|
|4||2/04: Scientific Method (Comins 2-1)||2/06: Scientific Method (continued) (Brody Introduction)||2/08: Motion, from Copernicus to Galileo (Comins 2-2 to 2-5; Brody 1 and 2); Homework 2 due (Timekeeping, Angles, and Classical Astronomy: see Class Notes, pages A5-A8)||Re-read the Class Notes pages 1-89; Lab 1; Rey's book; Brody Introduction and Chapters 1-3; and Comins Chapters 1-1 to 1-7 and Chapters 2-1 to 2-8 and Appendix B.|
|5||2/11: Motion, from Galileo to Newton (Comins 2-6 to 2-8; Brody 3)||2/13: Newton's laws of motion (Comins 2-7 and 2-8; Brody 3)||2/15: Mid-Term Exam 1, covering the Class Notes pages 1-89; Lab 1; Rey's book; Brody Chapters 1-3; Comins Chapters 1-1 to 1-7 and 2-1 to 2-8.||Comins 3, Appendix C (pages A-10 to A-11), and Appendix F-3 (page A-31); Brody 4 and 5; Class Notes pages 90-100.|
|6||2/18: Holiday||2/20: Atoms, Isotopes, and Radioactivity (Comins 3; Brody 4 and 5)||2/22: Matter, Energy, and the Laws of Thermodynamics (Comins 3)||Comins 3; Brody 4 and 5; Class Notes pages 101-112.|
|7||2/25: The E/M Spectrum (Comins 3)||2/27: Thermal radiation and the Doppler Effect (Comins 3)||2/29: Telescopes (Refractors vs. Reflectors)(Comins 3); Drawing Exercise due (see Class Notes, pages A9-A10)||Comins 2-9 to 2-15 (pages 38-53) and 4; Brody 15; Class Notes, 113-119.|
|8||3/03: Telescopes (Aperture, Resolution, and Magnification)(Comins 3); CCDs, Eyes, and Cameras; Small Telescopes (Comins 3)||3/05: The Solar System (Comins 2-9 to 2-13)||3/07: The Solar System (continued); Extrasolar Planets (Comins 2-14 to 2-15); Homework 3 due (The Constellation Study Sheet: see Class Notes, page A11-A12)||Comins 1-8 to 1-11 (pages 15-22), 4, and 5 and Appendix E-2 (pages A-25 to A-26); Rey, pages 136-138; Class Notes, 120-133.|
|9||3/10: Planet Earth (Comins 4 and Brody 15)||3/12: Moon Phases and Eclipses (Comins 1-8 to 1-11, and Rey, pages 136-138)||3/14: The Earth's Moon (Comins 4 and Appendix E-2)||-|
|-||3/17: Spring Break||3/19: Spring Break||3/21: Spring Break||Comins 5 and 6; Class Notes pages 134-144.|
|10||3/24: Mars (Comins 5)||3/26: Small Bodies (Comins 6)||3/28: Mercury, Venus, Atmospheres (Comins 5); Homework 4 due (The Moon Phases and Eclipses exercise: see Class Notes, pages A13-A14)||Re-read Comins Chapters 3 to 6, 1-8 to 1-11, and 2-9 to 2-15, and Appendices C, E-2, F-3, and F-4, Brody Chapters 4-5 and 15, Rey pages 136-138, and pages 90 to 144 of the Class Notes.|
|11||3/31: Holiday||4/02: The Outer Solar System (Comins 5)||4/04: Mid-term Exam 2, covering Comins Chapters 3 to 6, 1-8 to 1-11, and 2-9 to 2-15, and Appendices C, E-2, and F-3, Brody Chapters 4-5 and 15, Rey pages 136-138, and pages 90-144 of the Class Notes.||Comins 7 and Appendix F-4 (page A-14); Brody 6; Class Notes pages 145-148; also Comins 8 and 9; Class Notes pages 149-156.|
|12||4/07: The Sun (Comins 7 and Appendix F-4)||4/09: The Sun and Nuclear Physics (Brody 6)||4/11: Stars (Comins 8); Homework 5 due (Why the sky is blue: see Class Notes, page A15)||Comins 10; Brody 7 and 8; Class Notes pages 154-162.|
|13||4/14: Stars: spectral types and luminosity classes (Comins 8)||4/16: Stellar evolution (Comins 8)||4/18: Interstellar Matter and Star Formation (Comins 9); White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars (Comins 10); Homework 6 due (The Writing Exercise: see Class Notes, pages A17-A18)||Comins 11; Class Notes pages 163-173.|
|14||4/21: Black Holes and Relativity (Brody 7 and 8)||4/23: Black Holes and Relativity (continued)||4/25: The Milky Way; Galaxies and Hubble's Law (Comins 11); Research Paper titles and summaries due (see the Writing Guide, on pages 9-14 of the Class Notes)||Comins 12 and Appendix A (pages A-1 to A-9); Brody 9 and 10; Class Notes pages 174-188.|
|15||4/28: Cosmology (Comins 12; Brody 9 and 10)||4/30: The Deep Universe||5/02: Life Beyond Earth (Comins Appendix A); Homework 8 due (The Number Line of the Cosmic Calendar: see Class Notes, pages A19-A20)||Comins Appendix A (pages A-1 to A-9); Brody Epilogue; Class Notes pages 189-191; start re-reading the Class Notes, Comins, Rey, and Brody.|
|16||5/05: Life Beyond Earth (Comins Appendix A)||5/07: The Most Influential Scientific Findings of All Time (Brody Epilogue); Research Paper due (see the Writing Guide, on pages 9-14 of the Class Notes)||-||Re-read the Class Notes (pages 1-191), Comins (Chapters 1 to 12 and Appendices A, B, C, E-2, F-1, F-3, and F-4), Brody (Chapters 1-10 and 15), all assigned parts of Rey's book, and all labs, especially the lab on The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram.|
|Schedule #||Day||Time||Lab Classroom||Lab Instructor|
|41353||Monday||5:30-7:20 p.m.||McLane 258||Mr. Bellis|
|41355||Monday||5:30-7:20 p.m.||McLane 264||Mr. Locke|
|41361||Tuesday||5:30-7:20 p.m.||McLane 258||Ms. Kurimoto|
|41363||Tuesday||5:30-7:20 p.m.||McLane 264||Mr. Locke|
|41357||Monday||7:30-9:20 p.m.||McLane 258||Mr. Bellis|
|41359||Monday||7:30-9:20 p.m.||McLane 264||Mr. Locke|
|41365||Tuesday||7:30-9:20 p.m.||McLane 258||Ms. Kurimoto|
|41367||Tuesday||7:30-9:20 p.m.||McLane 264||Mr. Locke|
Lab Safety: PSci 21 lab sessions necessarily take place after dark, because the object of study is the night sky. If safety becomes a concern, the Campus Police provide an escort program. Radio-equipped, uniformed, trained escort officers will accompany persons to their destinations on campus during hours of darkness. Call (559) 278-2132, or pick up an emergency phone to request an escort officer. Be sure to check their badges before going anywhere with them. The Campus Police also provide car battery assistance and other services. They can be reached in an emergency by calling 911.
Lab requirements: A flashlight is required for map reading at observing sessions. Flashlights with red filters are recommended, for night vision. A clear plastic ruler and a copy of The Stars, by H. A. Rey, are required as well. A scientific calculator is highly recommended. Always bring your blue lab manuals, and read the lab beforehand.
Field trips: Three times this semester, we will be observing the sky at a dark site a half-hour drive from campus called the CSUFresno San Joaquin Experimental Range. There are directions to the Range on the last page of the blue PSci 21 Lab Manual, and in the Class Notes for Dr. Ringwald's lecture section. It is therefore essential for all students to plan their schedules accordingly, at the beginning of the semester. Evenings this semester to set aside for Range labs are: February 4 or 5, February 11 or 12, February 25 or 26 (or March 3 or 4, in case of bad weather), March 10 or 11, and March 24 or 25 (or April 7 or 8, in case of bad weather). Range labs will start at either 5:30 or 7:30 p.m.: check the schedule.
For all Range labs, plan to stay for two hours. All students are responsible for their own transportation to these field trips: the university cannot guarantee it can provide transportation to Range Labs.
These dates are subject to change due to poor weather. After noon on the days of the labs, before going out to the Range, check the weather report on Dr. Ringwald's voicemail (559-278-8426) or the PSci 21 web page (http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/psci21.html) in case there have been any such last-minute changes.
We do not cancel labs for bad weather. If the weather is bad, we will meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264) at the regular lab times (5:30 p.m. or 7:30 p.m.).
Lab Attendance: Attendance at all labs is mandatory. Students must attend the labs in the lab section in which they are registered: exceptions will be made only by written consent in advance by the instructor of the lab section in which the student is registered, and even then, only for a compelling reason, such as a job interview or an illness documented by a physician's note. If any student must miss a lab for such a compelling reason, or if the student does have written consent from the instructor of the lab section in which the student is registered to miss a lab, then the part of the lab grade that lab would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the lab grade will be counted as 100%. Advance or make-up labs cannot be given under any circumstances, because of the availability of lab equipment, and also because many astronomical phenomena (including the Moon and the stars) are not always observable, which is why the labs are scheduled at the times they are.
If any student misses a lab and does not provide that student's lab
instructor a written copy of evidence of a job interview or of a
physician's note documenting an illness before the last day of
instruction, or if any student attends a lab other than the one in which
that student is registered without prior written consent of the
instructor of the lab section in which that student is registered, that
student will receive a zero for the lab. Any student with three or more
unexcused absences from lab will receive an F for the entire PSci 21
course, which includes the lecture section. Astronomy labs
start on the third week of class, on January 28 or 29.
|1||January 14-15||First Quarter|
|No Lab (Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday)|
|3||January 28-29||Last Quarter|
Lab 1, Star Names, Maps, and
Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264). Bring flashlights!
|Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do:|
Lab 3, The Mystery Constellations.
|5||February 11-12||First Quarter|
|Meet at the Range at 5:30 p.m. NOTE revised time!|
Do: Lab 4, Introduction to Telescopes.
|No Lab (Presidents Day holiday)|
|7||February 25-26||Last Quarter|
|Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do:|
Lab 6, Spectra, Fingerprinting the Elements.
Meet at the Range at 7:30 p.m.|
and do: Lab 2, Dark-Sky Observing Lab A .
|9||March 10-11||First Quarter|
|Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do:|
Lab 7, The Basics of Optics and Telescopes.
|No Lab (Spring Break)|
|10||March 24-25||Last Quarter|
Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do:|
Lab 9, The Hunt for Micrometeorites.
|11||March 31 - April 1||New|
|No Lab (César Chávez Day holiday)|
|12||April 7-8||First Quarter|
Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do:|
Lab 5, the Revolution of the Moons of Jupiter
Lab 10, The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram:
Meet in the lab classrooms.
[NOTE TO LAB INSTRUCTORS: Please grade all labs, record the grades, and return the labs to all students during the April 21 and 22 labs.]
Lab 11, Life Beyond Earth: Meet in the lab
After briefing in the lab classrooms, we will see
Search for New Worlds at the Downing Planetarium.
[NOTE TO LAB INSTRUCTORS: Please brief your classes first,
then bring them to the planetarium
at 6:15 p.m. (for the 5:30 labs)
and at 8:15 p.m. (for the 7:30 labs).]
|15||April 28-29||Last Quarter|
|Lab Final Quiz (covering all labs, except for Lab 12) and|
Lab 12, Classification of Galaxies assigned: Meet in the lab classrooms.
|Lab 12, Classification of Galaxies due.|
Return and discuss the Lab Final Quiz, to prepare for the Final Exam: Meet in the lab classrooms.
Don't miss class. Listening to lectures and participating in discussions are much more effective than reading someone else's class notes.
Because PSci 21 is such a large class, Dr. Ringwald will not be able to accept late work under any circumstances, even from students with a compelling reason to be late, such as an illness documented by a physician's note. In cases in which students do have a compelling reason to be late, and only in such cases, Dr. Ringwald will mark missed work as "excused," which will mean that the part of the course grade for which that work would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the grade will be counted as 100%.
If there is any concern that a family emergency or other risk event, such as a broken printer, might arise that would hinder any student from handing in assignments during the first five minutes of the class on the due date, Dr. Ringwald highly recommends completing the assignment early.
If Web access is still a problem, students should come to Dr. Ringwald's hours or make an appointment to meet at some other time with Dr. Ringwald, and Dr. Ringwald will let these students use his computer. Dr. Ringwald therefore won't accept excuses such as "I couldn't use the Internet" or "My browser wasn't Java enabled."
Sorry, but Dr. Ringwald cannot give make-ups for mid-term exams, nor can Dr. Ringwald give mid-term or final exams in advance, not even for students who have legitimate reasons for being absent. Legitimate reasons for being absent include, but are not limited to, job interviews, illness documented by a physician's note, deaths in the immediate family that can be documented, or participating in University-sponsored activities, such as athletics or theatre. If any student must miss a mid-term exam, the student should remember that only the higher of the two mid-term exams will count. If any student must miss both mid-term exams, the part of the course grade for which the mid-term exam would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the grade will be counted as 100%.
This is really the only possible solution, since it takes about eight hours of Dr. Ringwald's time to prepare one of his cheat-proof exams, each of which must be different for every student who wants a make-up exam or an exam in advance. (In the past, students who were allowed to take make-up and advance exams abused the privilege by attempting use the situation to cheat.) It is therefore quite impossible for Dr. Ringwald to give make-up exams or exams in advance without substantial additional cost in his time. Scheduling make-up exams or exams in advance, in classes as large as PSci 21, is also not feasible: during Dr. Ringwald's first semesters at Fresno State he did allow make-up and advance exams, and quickly found it impossible to accomodate every student who wanted them. Fairness left no choice but to end the practice altogether of giving make-up exams and exams in advance, and never make exceptions.
If any student must miss the final exam for a very compelling reason, such as an illness documented by a physician's note, that student will receive a grade of I (incomplete) for PSci 21 for the semester. It will then be that student's responsibility to contact the university administration within the first 15 working days of the next semester to make the necessary arrangements to remove the I grade. See the California State University, Fresno General Catalog for regulations concerning the Incomplete (I) grade. Only students who can document a very compelling reason for missing the final exam, such as an illness documented with a physician's note, will be eligible for incompletes: other students missing the final exam will get a 0% on the Final Exam.
The above paragraph means that if any student's parents or anyone else buys that student a plane ticket or otherwise arranges for that student to leave the Fresno area at the end of the term, the party who bought the ticket or made these arrangements is responsible for knowing when the Final Exam for this course is, and that students are not allowed to miss the Final Exam for this course for any reason other than an illness documented by a physician's note, or else that student will get a 0% on the Final Exam.
If for any reason any student leaves the classroom while an exam is being given, that student may not re-enter the classroom as long as that exam is still taking place. The student's leaving the exam will be taken to signify that the student has finished that exam. This includes trips to the bathroom, so plan ahead. If the student must leave the classroom because of a medical problem that can be documented with a physician's note, the student will be excused without penalty from the exam, using the same procedure as when a student is ill. Dr. Ringwald regrets it has to be this way, but in the past students have attempted to cheat while doing this.
Any student who arrives more than two minutes late for an exam will have her or his grade on that exam lowered either by twenty percent or by one percent for each minute that student was late, whichever comes to more. Don't be late for exams.
During exams, Dr. Ringwald will be happy to answer any questions about the content of the exam in progress. Since Dr. Ringwald needs to supervise the exam, he will not have time to discuss students' grades or assignment deadlines, until after the exam is over. Dr. Ringwald will not accept any assignment that any student hands in while any exam is in progress, unless it is the exam in progress.
When taking exams, every student is required to sit in the assigned seat listed in the seating chart given with the exam. Not doing so, without the explicit permission of the instructor, will earn a 0% for the exam.
All students are required to remove sunglasses and earphones of any kind during all exams, because they have in the past been used to aid cheating. Any students caught cheating, in this or any other way, will receive an F for the entire PSci 21 course.
If students want to know their mid-term grades, Dr. Ringwald finds that mid-term exams indicate them reliably. During 2007 Spring, 83% of PSci 21 students got a grade for the entire course within one grade of what they scored on the higher of the two mid-term exams, plus all extra credit for the semester.
Dr. Ringwald will be happy to fix any errors that occur in the grading. If after any errors are fixed, students still want to contest their grades, the students are required to do so in writing. This written request must be typed and must be a minimum of half a single-spaced page of 12-point type for exam or Final Exam questions, and a minimum of one single-spaced page of 12-point type for the overall grade. It is to be submitted one time, either to Dr. Ringwald during his office hours, or to his mailbox in McLane 173. See Grade Protests in the California State University, Fresno General Catalog: this must be done before the end of the fourth week of classes, during the semester immediately following the semester in which the contested grade was awarded.
(a) understand or seek clarification about expectations for academic
integrity in this course (including no cheating, plagiarism and
(b) neither give nor receive unauthorized aid on examinations or other
course work that is used by the instructor as the basis of grading.
(c) take responsibility to monitor academic dishonesty in any form and
to report it to the instructor or other appropriate official for action.
Instructors may require students to sign a statement on exams and
assignments that "I have done my own work and have neither given nor
received unauthorized assistance on this work." (This section on the
honor code was a required syllabus policy statement by Fresno State.)
DO NOT EVER take papers from the Internet, and turn them in as your work. This is now easy for professors to detect, with www.plagiarism.org. Modifying someone else's paper slightly, or changing the word order, or stringing someone else's paragraphs together, even if they're cited, are also forms of plagiarism.
To prevent plagiarism, Dr. Ringwald will be copying both the research paper titles and summaries and the research papers themselves. If Dr. Ringwald finds any work that is plagiarized, the student will receive an F for the entire PSci 21 course. Dr. Ringwald may also send the plagiarized work to the Dean and other university authorities (e.g. coaches) and recommend the student be expelled from the Universityor the degree be revoked, if the student has graduated. Do NOT plagiarize!
Dr. Ringwald will be photographing this class several times, to get to know the class, and during exams, to prevent various forms of cheating.