Astronomy 100:  Classroom Policies

 

Attendance

 Astronomy courses are viewed by many students as rigorous owing to the nature of the material covered.  Such rigor demands maturity of those students enrolled.  Class attendance is neither required nor recorded, but you are held responsible for all material covered in the lecture.  Common courtesy dictates that those in attendance at lecture remain seated for the duration of class.
Lecture Notes PowerPoint notes from lecture are posted on Desire to Learn (D2L).  These notes do not represent an alternative to attending lecture since they can be quite sketchy and many classroom activities will not be reflected at all in the notes.

Laboratory

 Laboratory manuals for Astronomy 100 are available for purchase at the University Bookstore.  Read each exercise (including D2L laboratory notes) over thoroughly before coming to lab and complete the pre-lab assignment.  Pre-laboratory assignments are due at the beginning of the laboratory period.
Missed laboratory exercises cannot be made up.  However, your single lowest laboratory score will be dropped from consideration at the time that final grades are determined.

Examinations

 Three in-class exams will be administered during lecture time at approximately four-week intervals.  The final comprehensive examination will be written on Thursday, Dec 17, at 2:45 pm, in D-101.  The three in-class exams consist of 50 multiple choice questions, while the final comprehensive exam consists of 100 multiple choice questions.  All exams are machine-scored.  For each exam, raw percentage scores of each student completing the exam will be adjusted upward by an amount that brings the top score to 100% (for example, if the top raw percentage score was 92%, then all raw scores would be increased by 8%).

Note that the in-class exams cannot be made up if missed.  However, if your final adjusted exam score is higher than any of your in-class adjusted scores, then the lowest in-class adjusted score will be replaced by the adjusted score that you receive on the final exam.  Thus, a single missed in-class exam will automatically earn a score equivalent to your final adjusted exam score, but a second missed in-class exam will likely be disastrous for your course grade!
Grading Formula Lab reports are worth 30% of your course grade, the three in-class exams are worth a total of 45% (15% each), and the final exam is worth 25%.

Course Grade

For the final course grade, point totals will translate as follows –

A = 90% and above, B = 80 – 89%, C = 70 – 79%, D = 60 – 69%, and F = below 60%.

Depending upon circumstances, these ranges may be adjusted downward, but not upward.  Subjective measures, such as effort or improvement, may be considered in borderline cases.
A Final Note... The grading policies stated here represent a contract between instructor and students.  Any student may challenge his/her course grade if it can be shown that either (a) the instructor never provided grading policies to the class or (b) the instructor failed to follow stated policies.  As a consequence, student requests for exceptions to the grading policies stated in this document cannot be granted.