AST1002sec3 honors v.1

Planets, Stars,& Galaxies
AST 1002

Honors/Extra Credit Reports:

^{Honors Papers:}

^{In order to receive Honors credit for the AST1002 course, all students
in the university's Honors program must complete a written research
report
that covers some topic in astronomy. The topic chosen should be
something
of interest to the student doing the report, but also something that
allows them to dig much deeper than what we are able to cover in the
regular class. The Honors credit is available in this course whether
the sudent is registered
in an honors or honors augmented section, or registered in a regular
section
of the class, just so long as that student is a member of the FSU
Honors Program.}
^{This is an opportunity to study in much more detail some astronomical
concept
of interest to you that, because of time constraints or other
considerations,
we did not cover in any depth in class.}
^{The rules for these reports are:}

The paper must be typewritten (double-spaced), and between 6-10 pages in length, and must conform to standard research report (MLA or equivalent) style.
You must present the material you have researched by describing what you (and the scientists studying your topic) have learned that is new or interesting, or present the material as an argument between competing points of veiw, where you defend one point of veiw and show why that idea has won out over other ideas. The paper cannot be just a regurgitation of long strings of facts.
The paper must cite at least 6-10 references to books, articles, or other sources of information readily available either at libraries or on the web. When citing these references in your bibliography or footnotes, the citations must conform to the standard rules of style, and be complete enough that the instructor can readily access the same materials. Not more than three of the references used can be from unsubstantiated websites. [Books, journal articles, magazines, or other library references, (or astronomy websites at .edu .or .gov sites) accessed over web do not have this limitation.]
The student will provide the instructor with a title or topic for the paper at a time early in the term (I will request those titles somewhere near the middle of the semester, and give you each about a week to get the topic you have chosen back to me.)
The final copy of the paper must be turned in to the instructor either the last day of class or at the final exam.

Possible topics for your paper could be similar to the following. (This list is not meant to be the only topics you can choose from, but is meant to be a starting point for thinking of possibilities):

the lives and contributions of some particular famous (or not so famous) astronomer,

archeoastronomy, and what we have learned recently through archeological or historic records of what the ancients knew of the heavens,

the advent and use of new techniques or technologies in astronomy (such as 'adaptive optics', light interferometry, etc.)

the next generaton of space- and ground-based telescopes and what can be learned from them,

new discoveries from the robotic study of our solar system (eg. Mars Global Surveyor, Cassini, the Pluto mission, etc.),

astrometry -- the precision measurements of the luminosity,spectra, nad motions of the stars,

the search for and discovery of extrasolar planetary systems,

the new discoveries concerning stellar properties and lifecycles,

the changing models of cosmology,

or how astronomy is viewed from other cultures, ancient and modern.

In many ways the possibilities for your topics are endless -- limited only by your imagination. As an example, one of the most fascinating papers I ever received was an extra credit paper on "Astronomy in the Quran" by a young Islamic student who had just returned from the Hajj. It was a topic clearly of great interest to him, and also showed me a new approach to looking at astronomy. Again the topicyou choose should focus on astronomy that is interesting to you, but in an area that stretches you and makes you dig deeper than we have done in class.

^{Extra Credit Papers:}

^{With the permission of the instructor, anyone in the class may write a
research paper using the Honors paper format above. When used for
extra credit, the paper can count up to approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of a
letter}^{grade, depending on the quality of the work. Any extra credit
papers
must be approved by the instructor
beforehand.}

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Planets, Stars, and Galaxies
AST 1002

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