Lecture Schedule

Homework Schedule

Practice Exams

Laboratory Schedule

Course Description

An integrated treatment of the major principles of the natural world. The course follows the development of the universe from its origin to the formation of early Earth. The course also explores the evolution of scientific thought from its origins through the scientific revolution to its prominent role in modern society. Topics include observational astronomy, mechanics, energy, light, thermodynamics, cosmology, and properties and behavior of matter from sub-microscopic composition to macroscopic geological phenomena. Laboratory work is required. Four credit hours.

Prerequisites

Proficiency in mathematics

Tillery, Enger and Ross, Integrated Science, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Your grade for the course will be determined by the following:

The dates for the three hourly exams are as follows:

Exam I	9/21 (Monday)
Exam II	10/12 (Monday)
Exam III	11/16 (Monday)
Final	12/10 (Thursday at 1:30 pm)

Laboratory

You must attend the laboratory section for which you are registered. An unexcused absence will result in a grade of zero. If you will miss a laboratory due to a college-sponsored activity, you must make arrangements for making up this work at least one week prior to the absence.

Attendance

Homework problems will not be collected or graded.  You may work with your classmates and discuss the problems, but I strongly discourage simply doing the homework as a group. You will not be taking the exams as a group, and struggling with the homework problems independently is often what leads to a thorough understanding of the material. Of course, I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

The quizzes will be VERY similar to homework problems and are given to ensure you keep up with the material. If you can do the homework problems, you can certainly do the the quizzes.

Science on the Web

Starry Messenger PDF from Bard

Starry Message Website on Ancient Astronomy from Cambridge

Galileo Project from Rice University

On-line conversions

Heavens Above Cool webpage with Star Charts and info

HubbleSite You won't believe the pics

NASA Universe 101 Required Reading

WMAP Story of the Big Bang told through Cosmic Background Radiation

Mars Rover Home Page

Sky and Telescope

Plate Tectonics 1

Plate Tectonics 2

Academic Honesty

The following is a quote from pg. 21 of the student handbook. "In taking tests and examinations, doing homework or laboratory work, and writing papers, students are expected to perform with honor. In written and oral work for college courses, students will be held responsible for knowing the difference between proper and improper use of source materials." The same rigorous standards for academic honesty held throughout the college will apply for every assignment, including laboratory reports, in this class. Submitting work that is not your own without proper citation is plagiarim, and will be dealt with through the associate dean's office and possibly through student judiciary.

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavor to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingeniuos, he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations. He will never be able to compare his picture with the real mechanism, and he can not even imagine the possibility or the meaning of such a comparison.

- Albert Einstein, from Evolution of Physics, 1938