Schedule #	Day	Time	Lab Classroom	Instructor
35190 (07-LAB)	Monday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 258	Mr. Bellis
35189 (09-LAB)	Monday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 264	Mr. Kharat
35194 (11-LAB)	Tuesday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 258	Mr. Harness
35191 (13-LAB)	Tuesday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 264	Mr. Kharat
35904 (15-LAB)	Wednesday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 258	Mr. Kharat
35195 (17-LAB)	Wednesday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	McLane 264	Mr. Briggs
37524 (18-LAB)	Thursday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	Virtual Synchronous	Ms. Harrison
35831 (19-LAB)	Monday	7:30-9:20 p.m.	McLane 258	Mr. Bellis
35193 (23-LAB)	Tuesday	7:30-9:20 p.m.	McLane 258	Mr. Harness
35192 (25-LAB)	Tuesday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	Virtual Synchronous	Ms. Harrison
35906 (27-LAB)	Wednesday	7:30-9:20 p.m.	McLane 258	Mr. Briggs
36056 (29-LAB)	Wednesday	5:30-7:20 p.m.	Virtual Synchronous	Ms. Harrison

Virtual synchronous labs for PSci 21 are essentially homework assignments. Each week during which PSci 21 labs are scheduled (see lab schedule below), each student will need to fill out the worksheets at the end of the assigned lab writeup in the PSci 21 Lab Manual. Each student will then need either to scan or to photograph their completed worksheet, and then attach this (preferably as a single pdf-format file) to an email. Each student will then need to send this email to the student's PSci 21 lab instructor, by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday of the week during which the lab will be run. Labs with answers simply typed into email will also be accepted, for labs that have answers can be typed into email. For example, drawings such as the star maps at the end of the lab on the Mystery Constellations can't be typed into email, so they need to be sent as email attachments.

In-person labs for PSci 21 will be real labs with lab instructors available to help. In-person labs for PSci 21 will meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264) at the regular times (5:30 p.m. or 7:30 p.m.) on the days of the labs. PSci 21 lab instructors should discourage students from attending any lab sessions other than the one in which they are registered. We tried this in the past, and we found that it just isn't possible to keep accurate records for classes as large as PSci 21. Most in-person labs will be due as paper copies, to be filled out and torn out of the PSci 21 lab manuals, by the end of each lab time each week (which would be 7:20 p.m. for labs meeting at 5:30 p.m., and 9:20 p.m. for labs meeting at 7:30 p.m.).

Attendance: For in-person labs, attendance to all labs is mandatory. You must attend the labs in the lab section in which you are registered: exceptions will be made only by written consent in advance of the instructor of the lab section in which you are registered, and even then, only for compelling reasons (e.g. job interview or illness documented by a physician's note). If you must miss a lab for a compelling reason, 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%. If you miss a lab without a compelling reason, or without written consent in advance from the instructor, or if you attend a lab other than the one in which you were registered without prior written consent of the instructor of the lab section in which you are registered, you will receive a zero for the lab. Any student with three or more unexcused absences from lab will receive an F in the entire PSci 21 course, which includes the lecture section.

If you are ill or an emergency arises beyond your control and you cannot attend lab please contact your lab instructor. Valid absences can be excused, and that part of the grade voided, so that the remainder of the grade will be counted as 100%. Still, even for valid, excused absences, we can't give make-up or advance labs. This is because most labs use equipment (or views of the ever-changing sky) that will only be available for the week they're scheduled to be used.

Lab Safety: In-person astronomy lab sessions necessarily take place after dark, since 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 278-2132, 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, and 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.

TENTATIVE Lab Schedule (updated 2022 January 24). Always read the lab description (in the blue Lab Manual) before lab and be ready for a quiz.

Week	Dates	Moon	Lab
1	January 17-20	Full (January 17)	No labs: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
2	January 24-27	Last Quarter (January 25)	No labs
3	January 31- February 3	New (February 1))	No labs
4	February 7-10	First Quarter (February 8)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264) and do: Lab 1, Star Names, Maps, and Constellations. Virtual synchronous lab sections: Do Lab 1, Star Names, Maps, and Constellations.
5	February 14-17	Full (February 16)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264) and do: Lab 2, The Mystery Constellations. Virtual synchronous lab sections: Do Lab 2, The Mystery Constellations.
6	February 21-24	Last Quarter (February 23)	No labs: President's Day holiday
7	February 28- March 3	New (March 2)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264), and do: Lab 4, The Basics of Optics and Telescopes. Virtual synchronous lab sections: Do Lab 12, What's the Difference between Energy and Power?
8	March 7-10	First Quarter (March 10)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264), and do: Lab 6, Spectra: Fingerprinting the Elements. Virtual synchronous lab sections: Do Lab 13, Roman Numerals.
9	March 14-17	Full (March 18)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264), and do: Lab 7b, Kepler's Third Law. Virtual synchronous lab sections: Do Lab 7b, Kepler's Third Law.
10	March 21-24	Last Quarter (March 25)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264), and do: Lab 7c, How Many Stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy? Virtual synchronous lab sections: Do Lab 7c, How Many Stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy?
11	March 28-31	New (April 1)	No labs: César Chávez Day holiday
12	April 4-7	First Quarter (April 9)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264) and do: Lab 9, The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram. Virtual synchronous lab sections: Do Lab 9, The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram. [NOTE TO LAB INSTRUCTORS: Please grade all labs, record the grades, and return all labs to the students during the April 18-21 labs.]
-	April 11-14	Full (April 16)	No labs: Spring Break
13	April 18-21	Last Quarter (April 23)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264) and do: Lab 10, Life in the Universe. Virtual synchronous lab sections: Do Lab 10, Life in the Universe.
14	April 25-28	New (April 30)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264) and do: The Lab Final Quiz, covering all labs. Virtual synchronous lab sections: The Lab Final Quiz, as a take-home quiz. [NOTE TO LAB INSTRUCTORS: Assign Lab 11 (Classification of Galaxies) as homework, to be due during the May 9-11 labs.]
15	May 2-5	First Quarter (May 8)	In-person sections: Meet in the lab classrooms (McLane 258 or 264). All students (in-person and virtual) do in advance: Lab 11, Classification of Galaxies, which will be due during the times of the May 2-5 labs, and won't be returned. [NOTE TO LAB INSTRUCTORS: Return and discuss the Lab Final Quiz, to prepare all students for the Final Exam.]
16	May 9-12	First Quarter (May 8)	No labs

Please note:

If a student must miss a class, it is the student's responsibility to get the notes from another student. It is also that student's responsibility to check on announcements made while absent. To do this, check this syllabus and the notes taken by another student: the instructor may not remember everything offhand.

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.

The PSci 21 instructor will not allow or accept assignments slipped under the office door, or delivered to McLane 173 (the Department of Physics office), or emailed, or faxed, because they get lost so easily. Any such assignments will be marked "late" and given zero credit, even if turned in on time or early.

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 traffic or 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 internet 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."

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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!

University Policies -- The following University policies can be found at:

• Adding and Dropping Classes
  
• Cheating and Plagiarism
  
• Computers
  
• Copyright Policy
  
• Disruptive Classroom Behavior
  
• Honor Code
  
• Students with Disabilities
  
• Title IX

• Associated Students, Inc.
  
• Dream Success Center
  
• Learning Center Information
  
• Student Health and Counseling Center
  
• Writing Center

• Phys 151 Observational Astronomy (to be offered 2022 Fall). Prerequisite: Phys 4C.
  
• Phys 150 Astrophysics (to be offered 2023 Spring). Prerequisite: Phys 4C.