ASTR 4201: Stellar Astrophysics and Radiation (Fall 2020)

Tuesday & Thursday 10:30-11:50pm on Teams
Instructor: Zach Meisel (email: meisel@ohio.edu)
Office Hour: Tuesday 12:00-1:00pm on Teams, or by appointment
Midterm Exam: In-class, one-on-one, October 15 and 20
Final Exam: Arranged one-on-one, week of December 7

Course Overview

The purpose of this course is to learn the basic astrophysics of stars. To best use the online-format, the live part of class will consist of working on problems and discussing the pre-recorded mini-lectures and assigned texts. Outside of class students will need to watch mini-lectures and read the (free) course textbook, To Build a Star by Ed Brown.

Homework will be group assignments, where each group of a few students will be assigned a few problems, with individual students designated as problem leads. Much of the problem solving will happen in our in-class discussions, though of course it will be important to come prepared to discuss your progress towards a solution. See the Homework Procedure here.Exams will be one-on-one oral exams.

We want to learn about stars and to hopefully have fun while doing it, not to stress about grades. As such, this class will be "ungraded", so individual grades will not be assigned. Rather, a set of expectations are outlined and achieving these will correspond to a given final grade. We will check-in throughout the semester, so each student knows where they stand. My hope is that this will ameliorate some of the inequities that are inherent to the all-online format (and probably to higher education in general!).

Course information, such as lectures, assignments, and supplementary material will be posted here. Check back throughout the semester.

The course catalog description for ASTR 4201 can be accessed here.


Course Materials

Syllabus

Ungrading Guidelines

Homework Procedure

Course Schedule, Lectures, and Assignments

Textbooks:
The course textbook is the open-access book To Build a Star by Ed Brown.

Other not required sources you may be interested in are:




General Information


Academic Honesty

This goes without saying … but I'll say it anyways: you are expected to act in an academically honest fashion. This means abiding by the Ohio University Honor Code and adhering to the Code of Conduct.

If you have any concerns as to what does or does not constitute academic dishonesty, please don't hesitate to ask me.