PREREQUISITES: None. Students who have taken any college-level astronomy classes are discouraged from taking AST 100.
INSTRUCTOR: James Lattimer, james.lattimer@stonybrook.edu, ESS 449, Office Hours MW 1:00 - 2:00; or as requested by Zoom.
GRADING: In this course, students give a single
20-minute presentation concerning a recent discovery or activity in
astronomy which counts for 50% of your grade. A letter grade will be
assigned. I have pre-assigned presentation dates for each enrolled
student. To prevent too many talks on the same or similar topics, you
have to reserve your topic in advance by emailing your request to me
at least one week ahead of time (failing to reserve a topic by email
less than one week in advance will result in a penalty to your
presentation score). The presentation schedule is kept on this
webpage, see below. It will be revised continuously as new information is received, so check frequently.
The threshold scores for letter grades are as follows: A 95-100;
A- 90-94; B+ 87-89; B 83-86; B- 80-82; C+ 77-79; C 73-76; C- 70-72; D+
65-69; D 60-64; F < 60. These are threshold conversions only. Actual
final scores needed to earn a certain letter grade may be lowered if
warranted based on class averages. In other words if your score is
95% you would earn not less than an A, but I may set the threshold for
an A to a lower score after all talks, summaries and attendances have
been recorded.
In addition to my own perceptions, I will convey the peer summaries
(in anonymous form) to provide feedback to speakers to help their
future presentations, so be considerate and attentive.
You should prepare your presentation, which should last roughly 16-
to 20-minutes, as a powerpoint or adobe acrobat pdf file which must
be emailed to me at least 1 day before your talk; points will
otherwise be deducted. If your talk is emailed to me even earlier,
I will be able to review your presentation and offer suggestions or
corrections in time for you to make modifications. Presentation
slides will be posted on the course website after the presentation
is delivered. Normally, you would log in on the classroom computer
and access your talk for presentation, but I will bring my laptop
and your emailed copy could be used as backup. Many students find using Google Drive is convenient for their presentations.
You should
practice your talk and make sure it works online (including
any videos). It is your responsibility to make sure your talk
projects properly, and it affects your grade if it does not. Be prepared to answer questions during and following your talk (this will not take away from your talk time).
Your grade is based, in part, on how well you keep to your 20-minute time limit, the
accuracy and quality of your presentation, and your contact with the
audience during your talk. If you are asked to respond to questions
during your talk, you will receive additional time to compensate; plan
your talk to last between 16 and 20 minutes. I will end your talk
after 25 minutes elapse (NOT including questions) so there is enough time for two presentations per week. Be
prepared for a few questions during and following your talk.
Grades for presentations and summaries will be posted on Brightspace.
I will be available by email and in person during posted office hours;
prearranged Zoom meetings by request for other times is also possible.
PRESENTATION SCHEDULE: I arbitrarily preassigned
selected dates for each presentation, which are shown below. This is
now preliminary and will be revised as students add and drop the
course; it will be finalized by the middle of February. I will alert
you if it is necessary to change your talk date during this period.
If necessary, the time scheduled for the final exam for our class
period, Friday May 16 at 2:15PM, will be used for overflow (we will
finish as soon as possible and not use the entire period, but this
will depend on the number of talks).
You may switch presentation dates with another student if the two
of you agree and both provide me the new information at least 2 weeks
in advance. (I will need emails from both of you to confirm the
change.) Topics are reserved by email, and they will be posted with
the speakers' names on the schedule as soon as possible when received.
Speakers' slides will also be posted following the presentation. If
you accidentally select a topic already chosen, I will alert you to
change your topic. This schedule is subject to change, especially
during the first few weeks, because of adds/drops, so check it
regularly. I will directly inform students of any changes to
their presentation dates occurring after February 15.