How This Course Runs
This is a hybrid course — mostly online, with one 65-minute in-person session each week. Here's the rhythm:
The unit's Problem is bigger than a normal week — it's the capstone that pulls the whole unit together. Timing and format for each Problem will be announced as we approach it.
How Your Grade Is Built
Your grade splits between Summative work (Projects and Problems) and Formative work (Activities).
Activities are formative and completed online. They're all weighed the same — no single activity is worth more than another.
Projects happen in person, lab-style. Problems are each unit's capstone — bigger in scope, and weighted like it.
How Points Work
An Activity is the baseline point value. Everything else is set relative to it:
Baseline unit of points. Completed online, graded on completion & quality.
1×Same point value as an Activity, but Summative — it's lab-style, done in person.
1×Worth three Projects. It's the unit's capstone — no answer key, and the weight should say so.
3×Course Structure
Descriptive Astronomy runs a single 14-week semester, built from six units. Each unit follows the same shape: two Activity → Activity → Project subunits, then a unit-closing Problem.
A Few Ground Rules
Online activities are due before your unit's in-person session that week — they're what gets you ready for the lab.
Projects happen in person, lab-style. Sixty-five minutes goes fast — come having done the prep, not starting cold.
Activities can be redone anytime before the unit closes. Projects can be revised until the following class session.
Use AI to learn, not to skip learning. If you turn in something you can't explain, that's treated as plagiarism.