10/30/08 - The due date for the Moons of Jupiter Lab has been changed to 11/13. The "Activities" page has been revised to reflect changes in how the lab works. Make sure you have a copy dated 10/30/08 at the bottom. The PC's at the Instructional Computing Labs should have the lab downloaded and working by Monday.
10/21/08 - The second hour exam on Wednesday 10/29 will cover material from Chapters 5-8, plus numerical aspects of Chapter 4.
9/25/08 - Note the International System of Units
9/22/08 - Review suggestions: (1) Key words listed at the end of each chapter, (2) Questions with answers at the back of the book, namely Ch 1 quest. 24-32, 34-38; Ch 2 quest. 28, 33, 46, 49, 50, 52; Ch 3 quest. 31, (3) Homeworks 1-3, (4) Online quizzing.
9/17/08 - The first hour exam on Wednesday 9/24 will cover material from Chapters 1-4, except numerical problems will only be from Chapters 1-3.
9/10/08 - The weather tomorrow, Thursday 9/11, is likely to be partly sunny. So all discussion sections will meet at the Upwells site. Proceed north from Green Street, first to the Grainger Engineering Library. Then cross Springfield Ave. (at the crosswalk) and continue north until you reach a broad, circular plaza.
9/5/08 - I have told several of you that an option for purchasing a textbook would be to buy the ebook directly from the publisher. But their web site makes it VERY difficult to do that. So here is where you need to go to buy an ebook. There is even a technical support phone number!
9/4/08 - Note the statement at the end of the Activities page regarding Extra Credit for nighttime observing. Night observing starts next week, 9/8/08.
9/4/08 - Yesterday the Web links were not working when I tried to start off class with a display of Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting "Starry Night" accompanied by Don McLean's beautiful song "Vincent" written in tribute to Van Gogh and his painting. Use the above links to do this yourselves. The song (.ram format) lasts 4:50 and requires RealPlayer (a free download). There are probably versions in other audio formats, but you would need to track them down yourselves.
9/3/08 - Since it is highly likely to rain tomorrow, discussion sections will meet in their regular classrooms. The visit to Upwells is rescheduled for next week.
9/2/08 - The Illini Union Bookstore tells me that they have placed about 40 additional copies of the textbook on the shelves.
8/26/08 - The textbook publisher offers free student Web resources at http://www.whfreeman/universe8e. These include online self-quizes, animations, .... Some of these I will use in class. Make the most of these resources!
8/25/08 - I will post copies of my Powerpoint slides on the class Schedule page. But much of what I do and talk about will not be on Powerpoint. I will use some external Web sites. For example, if the campus Internet was working, in today's lecture we would have visited Transneptunian objects, Days of the week, and Joke. All Web pages I visit in lecture will be found on the class Links page.
The textbook for this class is Universe: The Solar System by Freedman and Kaufmann. It is available either as a normal (paper) book or as an eBook (one semester access to the eBook is included free if you buy a new copy of the normal book). New copies in the local bookstores should also come with a free "Starry Night" CD (not required for the course).
Each student will also need an I-Clicker (new or used), available at the bookstore. In some cases it may come bundled with the textbook. Your I-Clicker must be registered, after you use it on the first day in class, by going to www.iclicker.com/registration and providing the required information.
The contents of the syllabus, class materials, and lectures for this class are copyrighted. They are intended for the students' private use and may not be reproduced without the permission of the professor.
