Schedule #	Day	Time	Lab Classroom
76539	Monday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 258
76538	Monday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 264
76543	Tuesday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 258
76542	Tuesday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 264
76541	Monday	7:30-9:20 p.m.	McLane 258
76540	Monday	7:30-9:20 p.m.	McLane 264
77370	Tuesday	7:30-9:20 p.m.	McLane 258
76544	Tuesday	7:30-9:20 p.m.	McLane 264

Lab Safety: PSci 21 lab sessions necessarily take place after dark, because the object of study is the night sky. If safety becomes a concern, the Campus Police provide an escort program. Radio-equipped, uniformed, trained escort officers will accompany persons to their destinations on campus during hours of darkness. Call (559) 278-2132 or 278-8400, or pick up an emergency phone to request an escort officer. Be sure to check their badges before going anywhere with them. The Campus Police also provide car battery assistance and other services. They can be reached in an emergency by calling 911.

Lab requirements: A flashlight is required for map reading at observing sessions. Flashlights with red filters are recommended, for night vision. A clear plastic ruler and a copy of The Stars, by H. A. Rey, are required as well. A scientific calculator is highly recommended. Always bring your blue lab manuals, and read the lab beforehand.

Field trips, also called Range Labs Three times this semester, PSci 21 is scheduled be observing the sky at a dark site a half-hour drive from campus called the CSUFresno San Joaquin Experimental Range. There are directions to the Range on the last page of the blue PSci 21 Lab Manual, and in the Class Notes for Prof. Ringwald's lecture section. It is therefore essential for all students to plan their schedules accordingly, at the beginning of the semester. Evenings this semester to set aside for Range labs are: September 15-16 (or September 22-23, in case of bad weather), September 29-30 (or October 6-7, in case of bad weather), and October 13-14 (or October 20-21, in case of bad weather).

All Range labs will start at 7:30-8 p.m., regardless of whether you are registered for a 5:30 or 7:30 p.m. lab. Plan to stay for two hours, for all labs. All students are responsible for their own transportation to these field trips: the university cannot guarantee it can provide transportation to Range Labs.

These dates are subject to change due to poor weather. After noon on the days of the labs, before going out to the Range, check the weather report on Prof. Ringwald's voicemail (559-278-8426) or the PSci 21 web page (http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/psci21.html) in case there have been any such last-minute changes.

We do not cancel labs for bad weather. If the weather is bad, we will meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264) at the regular lab times (5:30 p.m. or 7:30 p.m.).

Lab Attendance: Attendance at all labs is mandatory. Students must attend the labs in the lab section in which they are registered: exceptions will be made only by written consent in advance by the instructor of the lab section in which the student is registered, and even then, only for a compelling reason, such as a job interview or an illness documented by a physician's note. If any student must miss a lab for such a compelling reason, or if the student does have written consent from the instructor of the lab section in which the student is registered to miss a lab, then the part of the lab grade that lab would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the lab grade will be counted as 100%. Advance or make-up labs cannot be given under any circumstances, because of the availability of lab equipment, and also because many astronomical phenomena (including the Moon and the stars) are not always observable, which is why the labs are scheduled at the times they are.

If any student misses a lab and does not provide that student's lab instructor a written copy of evidence of a job interview or of a physician's note documenting an illness before the last day of instruction, or if any student attends a lab other than the one in which that student is registered without prior written consent of the instructor of the lab section in which that student is registered, that student will receive a zero for the lab. Any student with three or more unexcused absences from lab will receive an F for the entire PSci 21 course, which includes the lecture section. Astronomy labs start on September 8 or 9.

TENTATIVE Lab Schedule (updated 2014 July 14). Always read the lab description (in the blue Lab Manual) before lab and be ready for a quiz.

Week	Dates	Moon	Lab
1	August 18-19	Last Quarter (Aug 17)	No labs
2	August 25-26	New (Aug 25)	No labs
3	September 1-2	First Quarter (Sep 2)	No labs
4	September 8-9	Full (Sep 8)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 1, Star Names, Maps, and Constellations.
5	September 15-16	Last Quarter (Sep 15)	Meet at the Range at 7:30-8 p.m., and do: Lab 2, Dark-Sky Observing Lab A. In case of poor weather: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 3, The Mystery Constellations.
6	September 22-23	New (Sep 24)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 3, The Mystery Constellations (or Range, if cancelled last week: meet at the Range at 7:30-8 p.m. do: Lab 2, Dark-Sky Observing Lab A).
7	September 29-30	First Quarter (Oct 1)	Meet at the Range at 7:30-8 p.m., and do: Lab 4, Introduction to Telescopes. In case of poor weather: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 5, Spectra, Fingerprinting the Elements.
8	October 6-7	Full (Oct 8)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 5, Spectra, Fingerprinting the Elements (or Range, if cancelled last week: meet at the Range at 7:30-8 p.m. do: Lab 4, Introduction to Telescopes).
9	October 13-14	Last Quarter (Oct 15)	Meet at the Range at 7:30-8 p.m., and do: Lab 6, Dark-Sky Observing Lab B (or A if previously undone). In case of poor weather: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 7, The Basics of Optics and Telescopes.
10	October 20-21	New (Oct 23)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 7, The Basics of Optics and Telescopes (or Range, if cancelled previously: meet at the Range at 7:30-8 p.m. do: Lab 6, Dark-Sky Observing Lab B [or A if previously undone]).
11	October 27-28	First Quarter (Oct 30)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 8, The Hunt for Micrometeorites.
12	November 3-4	Full (Nov 6)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 9, The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram. [NOTE TO LAB INSTRUCTORS: Please grade all labs, record the grades, and return the labs to all students during the November 17 and 18 labs.]
13	November 10-11	Last Quarter (Nov 15)	No labs
14	November 17-18	New (Nov 22)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: Lab 10, Life Beyond Earth. After briefing in the lab classrooms, we will see a show at the Downing Planetarium. [NOTE TO LAB INSTRUCTORS: Please brief your classes first, then bring them to the planetarium at 6:15 p.m. (for the 5:30 labs) and at 8:15 p.m. (for the 7:30 labs).]
15	November 24-25	First Quarter (Nov 29)	No labs
16	December 1-2	Full (Dec 6)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264), and do: The Lab Final Quiz, covering all labs except for Lab 11. Also: Lab 11, Classification of Galaxies will be assigned, to be due next week.
17	December 8-9	Full (Dec 6)	Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 and 264): Lab 11, Classification of Galaxies is due. Also: return and discuss the Lab Final Quiz, to prepare for the Final Exam.

Please note:

Don't miss class. Listening to lectures and participating in discussions are much more effective than reading someone else's class notes.

This class will observe the five-minute rule: if I am five minutes late, you may go home. If you are five minutes late, you may go home. Don't be late: if you are, the instructor will require you to leave the classroom.

Prof. Ringwald often uses e-mail to communicate with students, and please feel free to send e-mail to Prof. Ringwald. Please allow Prof. Ringwald at least 24 hours to respond to e-mail, particularly if it requires careful thought, and longer during weekends, although Prof. Ringwald almost always answers e-mail within 48 hours. However, Prof. Ringwald does not accept assignments that are sent by e-mail.

Because PSci 21 is such a large class, the instructor will not be able to accept late work under any circumstances, even from students with a compelling reason to be late, such as an illness documented by a physician's note. In cases in which students do have a compelling reason to be late, and only in such cases, the instructor will mark missed work as "excused," which will mean that the part of the course grade for which that work would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the grade will be counted as 100%.

If there is any concern that an absence from class due to a university-sponsored event such as sports, theatre, or ROTC, or a family emergency, or that any other risk event such as a broken printer or computer drive might arise that would hinder any student from handing in assignments during the first five minutes of the class on the due date, the instructor highly recommends completing the assignment early. Assignments will not be accepted late for any reason.

Last-minute technical problems, such as broken printers or computer drives, happen when students wait until the last minute to complete an assignment. There is really no excuse for late work, because at a typing speed of 30-40 words per minute, it takes less than an hour to type and print even the longest PSci 21 assignment. Equipment failure at the worst possible time therefore isn't a plausible excuse, and will not be accepted as a valid excuse. There are computers and printers on campus that students may use, and students ought to make backups and print out drafts, to prevent this. If students don't even have an hour to spare to do their work, they have problems the PSci 21 instructor can't help.

If any student in PSci 21 turns in work early or at any other time that does not suit the student, the student may not go through the other students' papers, in order to find and recover their work. This is a violation of other students' privacy, and it is also a form of cheating, and is a quite serious matter: if a student does not stop going through the other students' paper immediately when told by the instructor, that student will get a zero for that assignment, and may also be punished for cheating (see below). The instructor will return the submitted paper to the student when the other papers in that stack are returned to the other students in the class.

If Web access is still a problem, students should come to the instructor's office hours or make an appointment to meet at some other time with the instructor, and the instructor will let these students use the instructor's computer. The instructor therefore won't accept excuses such as "I couldn't use the Internet," or "My browser wasn't Java enabled."

The instructor will be photographing this class several times. This is too get to know the class, and during exams, to prevent various forms of cheating. These photos will NOT be made public.

Sorry, but the instructor cannot give make-ups for mid-term exams, nor can the instructor give mid-term or final exams in advance, not even for students who have legitimate reasons for being absent. Legitimate reasons for being absent include, but are not limited to, job interviews, illness documented by a physician's note, deaths in the immediate family that can be documented, or participating in University-sponsored activities, such as athletics, theatre, or ROTC. If any student must miss a mid-term exam, the student should remember that only the higher of the two mid-term exams will count. If any student must miss both mid-term exams, the part of the course grade for which the mid-term exam would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the grade will be counted as 100%.

Concerning funerals or family emergencies: I am sorry, and I don't want to seem hard or mean, but I will need documentation of attendance at any funeral or family emergency, which includes the dates the student is gone. This is necessary because I am being asked to give a student an exception that could be seen as favoritism which affects her or his grade, and I need to be able to show why I allowed that. Other excuses that will be accepted for being marked "excused" for exams, labs, or assignments include paper copies of a physician's or counselor's note for the student or a legal dependent, the cover sheet from a hospital discharge, a police record in which the student is listed as the victim of a crime, a summons for jury duty, or official documentation for military service requirements.

Sorry, but if any student must miss a Final Exam due to religious reasons, such as observing a bona fide religious holiday such as Ascension Day, that student will need to take an Incomplete (I grade) (see above): NO EXCEPTIONS. If any student miss miss a Mid-Term Exam due to religious reasons, such as observing a bona fide religious holiday, the part of the course grade that Mid-Term Exam would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the grade will be counted as 100% (see above): NO EXCEPTIONS.

This is really the only possible solution, since it takes about eight hours of the instructor's time to prepare one of the instructor's special, mathematically formulated, cheat-proof exams, each of which must be different for every student who wants a make-up exam or an exam in advance. (In the past, students who were allowed to take make-up and advance exams abused the privilege by attempting use the situation to cheat.) It is therefore quite impossible for the instructor to give make-up exams or exams in advance without substantial additional cost in the instructor's time. Scheduling make-up exams or exams in advance, in classes as large as PSci 21, is also not feasible: during the instructor's first semesters at Fresno State, make-up and advance exams were allowed. It quickly became obvious that it was impossible to accommodate every student who wanted them. Fairness and the sheer number of requests left no choice but to end the practice altogether of giving make-up exams and exams in advance, and never make exceptions.

If any student must miss the final exam for a very compelling reason, such as an illness documented by a physician's note, that student will receive a grade of I (incomplete) for PSci 21 for the semester. It will then be that student's responsibility to contact the university administration within the first 15 working days of the next semester to make the arrangements to remove the I grade. See the California State University, Fresno General Catalog for regulations concerning the Incomplete (I) grade. Only students who can document a very compelling reason for missing the final exam, such as an illness documented with a physician's note, will be eligible for incompletes: other students missing the final exam will get a 0% on the Final Exam.

The above paragraph means that if any student's parents or anyone else buys that student a plane ticket or otherwise arranges for that student to leave the Fresno area at the end of the term, the party who bought the ticket or made these arrangements is responsible for knowing when the Final Exam for this course is, and that students are not allowed to miss the Final Exam for this course for any reason other than an illness documented by a physician's note, or else that student will get a 0% on the Final Exam. Another, plainer way of stating this is: If you choose to go on vacation during the academic year, or someone chooses it for you, too bad. I don't get to go on vacation during the academic year.

No food or beverages are allowed during exams.

If for any reason any student leaves the classroom while an exam is being given, that student may not re-enter the classroom as long as that exam is still taking place. The student's leaving the exam will be taken to signify that the student has finished that exam. This includes trips to the bathroom, so plan ahead. The instructor regrets it has to be this way, but in the past students have attempted to cheat while doing this.

If a student absolutely must make a trip to the bathroom before finishing a mid-term exam, the student will be excused from the exam, just as if the student was sick. If a student absolutely must make a trip to the bathroom before finishing the Final Exam, the student will be given an Incomplete (I) grade for the semester, just as if the student was sick. The student will then be responsible for resolving the I grade next semester, in the manner described in the Fresno State General Catalog.

Any student who arrives late for an exam, at any time after the majority of the other students are seated in their assigned seats, will have her or his grade on that exam lowered either by twenty percent or by one percent for each minute that student was late, whichever comes to more. Don't be late for exams.

Any student who turns in an exam at any time over one minute after the end of the exam period in which the exam was given (for example, any time after 1:51 p.m., in an exam period that ended at 1:50 p.m.) will get a zero on that exam. Finish exams promptly.

During exams, the instructor will be happy to answer any questions about the content of the exam in progress. Since the instructor needs to supervise the exam, the instructor will not have time to discuss students' grades or assignment deadlines until after the exam is over. The instructor will not accept any assignment that any student hands in while any exam is in progress, unless it is the exam in progress.

When taking exams, every student is required to sit in the assigned seat listed in the seating chart given with the exam. Not doing so, without the explicit permission of the instructor, will earn a 0% for the exam.

All students are required to remove sunglasses and earphones of any kind during all exams, because they have in the past been used to aid cheating. Any students caught cheating, in this or any other way, will receive an F for the entire PSci 21 course.

If students want to know their mid-term grades, the mid-term exams indicate them reliably. During 2007 Spring, 83% of PSci 21 students got a grade for the entire course within one grade of what they scored on the higher of the two mid-term exams, plus all extra credit for the semester.

The instructor will be happy to fix any errors that occur in the grading. If after any errors are fixed, students still want to contest their grades, the students are required to do so in writing. This written request must be typed and must be a minimum of half a single-spaced page of 12-point type for exam or Final Exam questions, and a minimum of one single-spaced page of 12-point type for the overall grade. It is to be submitted one time, either to the instructor during office hours, or to the instructor's mailbox in McLane 173. See Grade Protests in the California State University, Fresno General Catalog: this must be done before the end of the fourth week of classes, during the semester immediately following the semester in which the contested grade was awarded.

(a) understand or seek clarification about expectations for academic integrity in this course (including no cheating, plagiarism and inappropriate collaboration)

(b) neither give nor receive unauthorized aid on examinations or other course work that is used by the instructor as the basis of grading.

(c) take responsibility to monitor academic dishonesty in any form and to report it to the instructor or other appropriate official for action.

Instructors may require students to sign a statement on exams and assignments that "I have done my own work and have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work." (This section on the honor code was a required syllabus policy statement by Fresno State.)

DO NOT EVER copy and then paste anything with a computer, without enclosing it in quotes and citing a reference. This is plagiarism, and the first instance of it that the PSci 21 instructor or lab instructor finds will earn any student who does it a grade of F for the entire PSci 21 course.

DO NOT EVER take papers from the Internet, and turn them in as your work. This is now easy for professors to detect, with www.plagiarism.org. Modifying someone else's paper slightly, or changing the word order, or stringing someone else's paragraphs together, even if they're cited, are also forms of plagiarism. Remember, always: you are responsible for anything with your name on it. Never turn in homework assignments that are exact copies of someone else's work: if you collaborate with other students, write up your results separately.

To prevent plagiarism, the instructor will be scanning both the paper titles and summaries and the research papers themselves. If the instructor finds any work that is plagiarized, the student will receive an F for the entire PSci 21 course. The instructor may also send the plagiarized work to the Dean and other university authorities (e.g. coaches) and recommend the student be expelled from the University—or the degree be revoked, if the student has graduated. Do NOT plagiarize!

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