MHC Mission Statement:

Mount Holyoke College reaffirms its commitment to educating a diverse community of women at the highest level of academic excellence and to fostering the alliance of liberal arts education with purposeful engagement in the world.

Course Goals to Serve this Mission:

As an educator, I aspire to empower students with the skills they need for clear and critical thinking, effective communication, respect and understanding of diversity, appreciation of the aesthetic values of life, and a career or advanced study and life-long learning in their chosen field of interest. With this course, I present the study of the solar system as an interdisciplinary science requiring the study of the planets, satellite, asteroids, and comets from within the context of astronomy, geology, chemistry, and physics. I strive for my students to learn to employ quantitative concepts and mathematical methods, analytical thinking, and demonstration of the sensibilities, understandings, and perspectives of a person educated in a liberal arts tradition (particularly as these sensibilities relate to the natural environment). In support of Mount Holyoke's overarching mission stated above, I aspire to prepare my students to make informed decisions as stewards of the Earth in their roles as voters, consumers, and contributing members of society.

Catalog Description:

In this course you will discover how the forces of nature shape our understanding of the cosmos and explore the origin, structure, and evolution of the Earth, moons and planets, comets and asteroids, the Sun, other stars, the Milky Way, other galaxies, and the Universe as a whole, all while marveling at the spectacular beauty and diversity of the heavens.  Lectures, readings, in-class activities, and bi-weekly homework and quizzes will combine to help you truly understand the physical processes at work in the Universe while improving your ability to solve problems, think critically, and communicate effectively. 

Statement of General Goals and Objectives:

As the instructor of a large introductory class such as this one, I have a number of goals for you as students.  Of course I would like you to learn and most importantly understand the material, but that is only part of the picture.   I also want to expose you to new ways of thinking about things and give you the opportunity to experience science for yourself.   “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”  Throughout this class I hope that you will:
1. Observe & notice the world around you and take the time to think about what you see.
2. Ask lots of questions (This is worth mentioning again - if something is unclear or if you just want to know more, you should always feel comfortable to ask.)
3. Develop a picture of the universe and where we fit into it.
4. Learn that science is accessible to you and can be a powerful tool for life-long           learning in any field.
5. Learn to think critically about the ways in which scientific concepts are presented in popular media.
6. Have fun!

Finally, I am well aware that everyone learns differently.  Consequently, this course has been constructed using a variety of different formats so that each of you has the opportunity to learn the material in a manner that is relevant and engaging to you.  In addition, you will have the opportunity to figure out your preferred learning style (if you don’t already know.)   All I ask in return is that you come to class, keep an open mind, ask lots of questions, and seek help if/when it is needed.   If you follow these guidelines you should have no trouble succeeding in this class (and your other classes as well.)

Contacting Darby:

By far the easiest way to reach me is by email: mdyar@mtholyoke.edu. On the subject line of your email, please begin with "AST 100" or "AST 101" -- I usually do a sort each morning, and will answer those emails first! My formal office hours will be Tuesday and Thursday from 10-11, but if you need to see me any time, just email me to set up an appointment. My office is in 217 Kendade Hall, and the phone number there is 538-3073.

Class Meeting Time and Location:

Tuesday and Thursday, 11-12:15 or 1:15-2:30, in room L2, Cleveland Hall.  Both lectures will be essentially the same, so you can come to either section. Note: the morning and afternoon classes will be different, but equal.

Help Sessions & T.A.s:

Help sessions will be conducted by our T.A.s at a time to be announced.  The T.A.s are also available to answer questions on email but PLEASE don't send the same question to all of the T.A.s.  Just pick one!!  Your T.A.s are:
Knudson, Jacqueline               knuts20j
Brown, Elizabeth                    brown26e
Fratoni, Claire                         frato20c
Yanislava, Petrova                  petro20y
Quach, Thu                             quach20t
Moye, Lauren                          moye20l
Williams, Molly                       willi29m
Hoang , Anh                           hoang20a
Eklund, Sara                           eklun20s
Silver, Alisa                             silve20a
Coon, Gloria                           coon20g

Help sessions will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 6:30-8:30 in the "fishbowl" room on the 2nd floor of the Kendade balcony, overlooking the atrium. You can also contact the TAs at other times if you have questions.

Required Textbook and Reading Assignments:

The required textbook is: Universe, The Definitve Visual Guide, 2008 edition, edited by Martin Rees (DK Publishing). Copies are available in the Odyssey Bookstore, and also from on-line booksellers. I expect you to read the assigned sections BEFORE the class for which they are assigned. Other reading is posted as links on the schedule page of the website.   You should check this page often!

On the first day of class, I will pass out the following form for each of you to fill out.Student Information Sheet:

If you miss that class, please print out the form, fill it in, and then bring it to my office (223 Kendade; if I'm not there, thumbtack it to my door). It will tell me how to reach you, and help me get to know you a little better.

Class Attendance (Cut) Policy:

Your presence in the classroom is not only cordially requested but required if you wish to succeed in this course.  Lectures will include extensive visual presentations with many images, videos, and animations that are not in the text.  In addition, we will have a number of in-class activities and discussions.  All of this material is fair game for homework and quizzes upon which your entire grade is based.  If you don’t come to class, you will find it very difficult to do well!  If this isn’t enough motivation, know that homework is due in class and late homework is not accepted.  If you are not in class to hand it in, you will get a zero for that homework.  E-mailed homeworks will not be accepted. Further, quizzes are also given in class and there are NO make-up quizzes. 

The only valid excuse for not taking a quiz or handing in a homework assignment late is when a student has been ill for a long period of time, has suffered a death in her immediate family, or has been dealing with other severe personal problems, that is, extraordinary or emergency situations that justify a student's absence from class. In such cases, please contactme as soon as possible; I may ask to see a letter from the Dean’s Office (which you should get anyway in such situations). If you are sick or absent, the missed assignment or quiz can be dropped (one per semester per student).

Exam Dates:

There are no exams per se in this class. There will be quizzes in alternate weeks, and they will be cumulative.

Evaluation Policies and Grade Determination:

Your final grade in this class will be based on the numerical sum of all your grades, with quizzes and homeworks counting roughly equally. I will automatically drop the lowest of these grades, so if you do well on everything early on, you won't even have to take the last quiz. Homework assignments will alternate with weeks with quizzes. All homework assignments will be posted on the web site. Dates for quizzes will also be posted there, and announced in class. I expect that the quizzes will be no more than two pages long, and will take less than 30 minutes to complete.

You may be wondering WHY I am doing the grading this way. Over the past summers, I have read some new research about assessment strategies in college level teaching. The consensus is that infrequent exams (i.e., mid-terms and finals) do not encourage effective learning, nor do they measure much except what students are able to cram into their short-term memories long enough to regurgitate on exams. My goals for you in this class revolve around life-long learning and understanding of how the universe works, so I'm not interested in what you can retain in the short term. Rather, I am constructing this class in such a way that concepts will build upon one another and become interrelated. So you will be learning things in a cumulative manner. By giving bi-weekly quizzes instead of infrequent exams, I hope to obtain a better record of how much you understand, as well as reduce the stress level at the end of the semester.

The numerical scores of everyone in the class will be totaled at the end of the semester, and that final set of scores will be used to create a grading curve. Thus, it will be difficult to give you a specific letter grade for any specific evaluation. The final curve will not be harder than 90-100%=A, 80-90%=B, 70-80%=C, 60-70%=D, etc. – and based upon history, the curve will probably be a lot more generous than that scheme.

Schedule

Click here to see the lecture schedule for this class. Note that it is very much subject to change, because I adjust it to reflect the interest of the class. The amount of time I spend on each topic depends on how interested you are in it. Please get in the habit of checking the web site for updates.