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Grade Summary

Laboratory Exercises 12 65%

Astronomy Project 6 35%

Total 18 100%

Letter	Percent	Letter	Percent
A	100-93 %	C	76.5-73 %
A-	92.5-90 %	C-	73.5-70 %
B+	89.5-87%	D+	69.5-67 %
B	86.5-83%	D	66.5-63 %
B-	82.5-80 %	D-	62.5-60 %
C+	79.5-77 %	F	59.5 % below

* A grade of “Credit” is awarded for work equivalent to all grades which earn 2.0 or more grade points (A through C). “No Credit” is awarded for work equivalent to all grades which earn less than 2.0 grade points (C – through F). –pg 438 SDSU General Catalogue.

Make-ups and Absences:

You are expected to be at every lab. However, if you are unable to make it to a lab, and you notify me before the start of lab, you will be able to makeup it up. You are only allowed to makeup 1 lab throughout the semester, during the day designated as the final day. If you do not wish to makeup a lab, you will be able to use the missed lab as you dropped lab.

Astronomy 109 Lab: Syllabus

Astronomy Project: The astronomy project is called Constellation Observations and is located on page 103 of your lab manual. Please see the lab for details. The project is due ON or BEFORE the beginning of class on November 15^th. Late projects will not be graded.

Extra Credit:

The Ruben H. Fleet Science Center puts on a Planetarium show during the first Wednesday of each month. A 250-500 word summary and response to a program will count for half a lab. Another extra credit suggestion is a 2-3 page response on your opinion on whether Pluto should be considered a planet or not, worth 1 lab grade. Other suggestions for extra credit are open and must be astronomy related. Extra credit must be turned in no later than two weeks before finals.

Plagiarism:

Please do your own work! You may work together but the introduction and conclusion must be done separately. Please do not simply copy down the introduction found in the lab manual. Any plagiarized, cheated, or improperly collaborated work submitted will be given a zero and you may fail the course. If you do get any information, for the project or extra credit, from outside sources, please cite it.

Word for word from the SDSU General Catalogue (pg 448-449)

Plagiarism is formal work publicly misrepresented as original; it is any activity wherein one person knowingly, directly, and for lucre, status, recognition, or any public gain resorts to the published or unpublished work of another in order to represent it as one’s own. Work shall be deemed plagiarism: (1) when prior work of another has been demonstrated as the accessible source; (2) when substantial or material parts of the source have been literally or evasively appropriated (substance denoting quantity; matter denoting qualitative format or style); (3) when the work lacks sufficient or unequivocal citation so as to indicate or imply that the work was neither a copy nor an imitation. This definition comprises oral, written, and crafted pieces. In short, if one purports to present an original piece but copies ideas word for word or by paraphrase, those ideas should be duly noted.

--Lindey, Alexander. Plagiarism and Originality, 1952.

San Diego State University is a publicly assisted institution legislatively empowered to certify competence and accomplishment in general and discrete categories of knowledge. The president and faculty of this university are therefore obligated not only to society at large but to the citizenry of the State of California to guarantee honest and substantive knowledge in those to whom they assign grades and whom the recommend for degrees. Wittingly or willfully to ignore or to allow students’ ascription of others’ work to themselves is to condone dishonesty, to deny the purpose of formal education, and to fail the public trust.

The objective of university endeavor is to advance humanity by increasing and refining knowledge and is, therefore, ill served by students who indulge in plagiarism. Accordingly, one who is suspected or accused of disregarding, concealing, aiding, or committing plagiarism must, because of the gravity of the offense, be assured of thorough, impartial, and conclusive, investigation of any accusation. Likewise, one must be liable to an appropriate penalty, even severance from the university and in some cases revocation of an advanced degree, should the demonstrated plagiarism clearly call into question one’s general competence or accomplishments.