Physical Science/Astronomy 100 - Survey of Astronomy
Four Quarter Hours

I. PREREQUISITES
This course has no prerequisite requirements. Physical Science 100 may be used toward fulfillment of the university’s general education requirements. This course may be taken as either Physical Science (PSC) 100 or Astronomy (ASTR) 100 (you cannot receive credit for both PSC 100 and ASTR 100).

II. COURSE DESCRIPTION
Survey of Astronomy is a nontechnical course requiring no physics and very little mathematics background. Topics include:

• the history of astronomy
• the motions of the sun, moon, and stars; constellations
• the nature of light and telescopes
• physical properties of the planets, and moons
• comets, meteors, and meteorites
• the physical properties of the sun and other stars
• the origin and evolution of stars
• the structure of the Milky Way and other galaxies
• pulsars, quasars, and black holes; and
• theories of cosmology and the expanding universe.

III. TEXTBOOK
ISBN 0534381855  Seeds, Michael A., Horizons: Exploring the Universe, 7th ed., The Wadsworth Group, Brooks/Cole (Thompson Learning), 2002

Any other modern introductory astronomy text that covers the above topics can be used. Examples are current editions of:

Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe, Jay M. Pasachoff, Saunders College Publishing
The Dynamic Universe, Theodore P. Snow, Wert Publishing
In Quest of the Universe, Karl F. Kuhn and Theo Koupelis, Jones and Bartlett Publishing.

...available from EdMap's distance-learning online bookstore.

IV. NATURE OF THE EXAMINATION
The examination consists of 100 multiple-choice questions. You will be given three hours to complete the examination. You will be provided with all of the materials necessary to complete the examination; no texts, notes, calculator, or supplementary aids are permitted.

V. METHODS OF STUDY
This course covers all of the Seeds, 7th edition, textbook. At the end of each chapter you will find the following study aids: “Summary,” “New Terms,” “Review Questions,” “Discussion Questions,” “Problems,” “Critical Inquiries for the Web,” and “Exploring the Sky.” All of these can be useful in your study of astronomy.

I would suggest that you read the “Summary” section first before you read the main sections of the chapter. After you have complete your reading of each chapter, reread the “Summary” to see if it all fits into place and then make sure that you understand and can define all of the “New Terms.” Then look over the “Review Questions” and “Discussion Questions” to see if you have grasp the material in the chapter. Remember that all of the questions on the examination will be in the multiple-choice format, so you will not have to write out explanations or definitions but will have to choose the best answer from a list of four or five choices. Then go over the outline “transparency copies” if you decide to use them, and finally reread any sections of the chapter that you still do not understand. Remember that a course like this has about 40 hours of in-class lecture and most students put in about 3 hours of outside study for each hour of lecture. This indicates that around 150 hours of work will be required by the average student to learn this material, so please do not expect to read the textbook once and feel that you are well prepared for the exam. It will take most of you more preparation than that.

The “Problems,” “Critical Inquiries for the Web,” and “Exploring the Sky” sections will also be helpful as a review but you will NOT be asked to do much math or critical analysis on the exam so treat these as a general review of the material and not as examples of the types of questions that will be on the exam itself.

In addition to this Information Sheet, there is also a website (http://www.ohiou.edu/independent/online/PSC100/) which provides an outline of the course material similar to the “lecture transparencies” that I would use in the classroom format at Ohio University. Instead of the diagrams and figures that I actually show to the classroom students, I have indicated similar ones in the Seeds textbook that are especially important for understanding the material and that you can use to help prepare for the examination. The website will be added to and updated over time, and I think the material will be most useful to you for the first several chapters of the textbook, helping you to better understand how the textbook material is organized. The website is supplementary; it is not required for mastering the material for the examination.

A sample of multiple-choice questions for each section of the text are provided below. You should take these sample quizzes to test your readiness for the CCE exam. You can then restudy any material relating to those questions that you miss. There are more questions in Part 2 than in the other parts because it covers more chapters and also because the material on the solar system is covered in another course taught at Ohio University (Physical Science 100D). The material in chapters 16-20 is not covered in quite as much detail as that covered in the first 15 chapters of the textbook. The questions are self-check; answers are provided. DO NOT send them in or bring them to the exam. They are simply for you to self-test your knowledge of the material and prepare yourself for the exam itself. Sample Questions

There is a lot of interesting material covered in this course. I hope that you enjoy your study of astronomy and that it helps you to understand and appreciate the world around you a little better.

VI. GRADING CRITERIA
All examination questions are worth one point. There is no penalty for wrong answers. The final grade will be assigned on the basis of total points according to the following scale: