THE SOLAR SYSTEM CLASS SYLLABUS

Tuesday	Thursday
08/26 *** PRE-TEST *** Film – CosmosI –Shores of the Cosmic Ocean Chapt_1&2 –Celestial Sphere - Coordinates	08/28 Chapt_2 – Apparent motion of Sun and stars - Seasons – Time – Chapt_3 - Precession
09/02 Chapt_3 – Phases of the Moon - eclipses - Eratosthenes & Aristarchus - sizes & distances	09/04 Chapt_4 - Ptolemy & Copernicus – Tycho & Kepler
09/09 Chapt_4 - Galileo *** HomeWork#1 Due ***	09/11 Chapt_4 - Newton - laws of motion -  theory of gravitation
09/16 Chapt_5 – Light & Atoms. The electromagnetic spectrum. Absorption and emission - energy level diagrams	09/13 Chapt_6 – Visible and non-visible spectrum telescopes
09/23 Film - CosmosIII – The Harmony of the Worlds *** HomeWork#2 Due ***	09/25 *** Exam_1 (Chapts 1 - 6) ***
09/30 Chapt_7 - Survey of the solar system Chapt_8 – Origin of the solar system	10/02 Chapt_8 – Origin of the solar system Chapt_9 – Earth – Structure – Plate tectonics
10/07 Film – Origins1 Disk 1 (Earth)	10/09 Film – CosmosIV – Heaven&Hell
10/14 *** Fall Break ***	10/16 *** Fall Break ***
10/21 Chapt_9 - Earth – carbonate cycle - atmosphere - magnetic field	10/23 Chapts_10,11 - The Moon and Mercury *** HomeWork#3 Due ***
10/28 Chapt_12 - Venus – structure – atmosphere – runaway greenhouse effect	10/30 Chapt_13 - Mars – structure, surface features – atmosphere *** HomeWork#4 Due ***
11/04 *** Exam_2 (Chapts 7-13) ***	11/06 Film - Sail on Voyager
11/11 Chapt_14 - Jupiter - Saturn – structure – atmosphere	11/13 Chapt_15 - The Galilean satellites - Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.
11/18 Chapt_15 – Rings & Satellites of Saturn	11/20 Chapt_16 – Uranus & Neptune - Pluto & Charon *** HomeWork#5 Due ***
11/25 Chapt_17 - Asteroids – meteorites, showers & comets	11/27 *** Thanksgiving Break ***
12/02 Chapt_18 - The Sun – Age - nuclear fusion - Structure	12/04 Film – CosmosIX – The Lives of Stars *** HomeWork#6 Due ***
12/09 *** Exam_3 (Chapts 14-18) *** *** Make Up HW Due ***	12/11 *** Make Up Exam (All Chapters 1 – 18) ***

Reading:

· Text: Universe - The Solar System, 3rd Ed., Freedman/Kaufmann

· We will cover the material in your text at the rate of about 1+ chapters per week.

· Make sure that you understand the Key Words and Key Ideas listed at the end of each chapter.

· Use the questions from the Review, Advanced and Discussion Questions at the end of each chapter as study guides for the exams. Answer as many of the questions as you can on your own and you will be familiar with most of the ones that you will see on exams.

· Note that there is a link to practice exam questions.  Make sure you can answer them.

· Make sure you read the material before coming to lecture. The single biggest mistake students make in science classes is failing to read the material first before coming to lecture. I do not simply regurgitate the text in my lectures.  I try, in my lectures, to explain and reinforce what you have already read.  If you fail to read the material ahead of the lectures, they will probably be completely unintelligible to you (they might be anyway).

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