Students from all sections will be welcome to attend these supplemental activites in place of or in addition to their usual labs, but unlike regularly scheduled classroom labs, attendance is not required. Therefore, while we allow makeup opportunities for excused absences from regularly scheduled classroom labs (see the lab announcement for what constitutes an excused absence for a lab week), we do not allow makeup opportunities under any circumstances for missed supplemental labs. Below are details for four possible ways to make up for missed labs and/or get extra lab credits this semester.
On the dates Mon Feb 10, Tue Feb 11, Wed Feb 12, Mon Feb 24, Tue Feb 25 and Wed Feb 26, all students will have an opportunity to attend a supplemental lab at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (located at 1600 Gendy St, zip 76107). The entrance you will take to the museum is on the East side of the museum. Once inside the museum, the planetarium will be up at the top of the staircase on your left. Give yourself 5-10 extra minutes to get your bearings once you are near the museum, because all of the parking lots and gates and one-way streets can be confusing.
All students who wish to attend these labs are responsible for providing their own transportation to the site. There is a parking fee of 7-10 dollars for parking in the lots next to the museum. If you wish to avoid that fee, you may be able to park along the street in the neighborhood west of the museum across Montgomery Street where signs permit it, but you will need to arrive early enough to find a space and walk the extra distance.
In order to attend one or both of these optional labs, just sign up on the sheets on the bulletin board outside of SWR 360 (these signup sheets will appear during the week prior to each supplemental lab). You will also need to complete and turn in a "Student Release Form", which will be available in a bin below the signup sheets. You will not be allowed to attend any event at the planetarium unless you have completed this form and either (1) left it in the bin next to where you got it, (2) turned it to your TA or (3) turned it in to your lecture instructor and signed up for one of the nights. Only 70 students will be allowed to sign up for any given night. You can sign up for a planetarium night as long as there are spaces available. TA's will hold on to the sign up sheets until about 100pm on the day of the lab.
The first planetarium lab week will occur on Mon Feb 10, Tue Feb 11 and Wed Feb 12. The second planetarium lab will occur on Mon Feb 24, Tue Feb 25 and Wed Feb 26. You may attend two planetarium labs in all, just not two during the same week. The labs will occur in the evening starting at 600pm sharp. Please arrive on time (allow time to park and walk to the museum doors). If you arrive late, you will not be able to enter the exterior doors of the museum (it is normally closed during the time our lab is scheduled), and you will not get credit for the supplemental lab. The lab should be finished within one hour and 15 minutes of the start time. You need only to attend the entire lab (your name MUST be checked off the sign-up sheet as you exit to ensure you get credit) to receive a "100" lab grade and credit for a lab completed.
Observing Labs (Mar 2-5 weather permitting)
On the nights of Mon Mar 2, Tue Mar 3, Wed Mar 4 and Thu Mar 5, there will be an observing lab (weather permitting) held starting at 800pm in the parking lot northwest of University Christian Church. If you walk north about 200 yards along Rogers street from Ed Landreth Hall, then the parking lot will be on your left (we will be on the southwest corner of the intersection of Rogers and McPherson). This lab activity will last for about an hour. You need to bring something to write with and a small light source. I will provide the worksheet. Only 50 students will be allowed to sign up for any given night (of the 4 possible nights). TA's will hold onto the signup sheets for these labs until 2pm of the same day of the lab. Like the planetarium labs, you will not receive credit if you arrive late.
The observing lab will only be held if the weather is clear is enough to see the stars. If it is mostly cloudy, rainy or worse, then no lab will be held. If there is any uncertainty about whether or not there will be a lab on a given evening, I will broadcast an email about the lab status to all students. If no lab is held, you need simply to sign up on some other night (if a night is cancelled, I will hold a make-up night one week later but not during Spring Break). To get credit, you need to show up on time, participate in the lab, and turn in the appropriate lab worksheet to be graded and returned to you later. Dress warmly!
Sunset Lab
This is a supplemental lab that I want you to do on your own time, if you choose to do it. There are two parts to this lab, each worth about half of the credit.
For part one, I want you to take photographs of the setting sun each day from the exact same location using the exact same settings on your camera (same zoom so that the horizon is identical each day). The time for taking the photograph must be precise. Your photo needs to occur just as the last bright part of the Sun disappears over the horizon. That way, the sun's brightness won't wash out the rest of the photo, but at the same time, it will still be bright enough at that point on the horizon that you will be able to tell exactly where the Sun's last light occured. Your camera may do this, but in case it does not, be sure to note the exact time (to the nearest minute) and the day that you took your photo.
You will not be able to photograph the sunset each and every day. Part of that is your own time constraints and part of that is weather-related (don't bother taking a photo if you cannot see the sunset location due to clouds). I will ask for a minimum of 12 photographs taken over a span of at least six weeks, preferably spread out with a few days between each photo. This means Thursday Febraury 27 is the absolute last day that you can start this lab. You need to print out those photos, note the time and date for each photo and also provide a map of the location from where you took the photos.
For the second part of the lab, take one of your photos and figure out on the photograph based on horizon landmarks and maps where is true west. Mark the location of true West on this photograph, then mark and date the locations of the various sunsets you have photographed, showing the North-South drift of the sunset location along the horizon over the duration of your experiment. Next, draw a (big, full page) horizon diagram from Fort Worth showing the North Celestial Pole, the Celestial Equator and the daily paths of the Sun at different times of the year (the diagrams we have shared on D2L should help). On the western horizon of your diagram, mark out the range of sunset locations you photographed.
Turn both parts of your assignment to your lab TA (or Dr. Ingram) by noon on Thursday, April 9 in order to get two lab credits for this lab assignment. You will only get credit for a lab completed if you score at least 60% on this lab.