NATS 1740A: ASTRONOMY (SU 2024)
FINAL EXAM: FORMAT AND EXPECTATIONS
When and Where:
• Wednesday, Aug. 14th, 7-10pm (‘Toronto Time’) (3 hours)
• In eClass, goto the new FINAL EXAM section at the top of the course homepage. At the start of the exam, you will see two items:
o ‘ Final Exam – Articles and Instructions’ file, revealing the 3 articles to be used for this exam.
o ‘ Final Exam – Submission of Answers’ link, opening a TurnItIn assignment submission link for you to submit your typed responses into, within the exam time window above.
• Make sure you have the necessary technology (computer with stable internet connection) available exactly when you need it for this exam.
• Late penalty policy: any exams submitted after the original deadline will be deducted a late penalty of 1 mark (out of 30) for every 10 minutes past the deadline, within the first hour after the deadline; no further exams will be accepted after 1 hour past the original ending time.
Exam Format and Settings:
• This exam is based on Lessons 13-23, and all connection points should be made to concepts explicitly covered in these lessons.
• You will be presented with 3 (three) different media science news articles to read, each with a suitable word
count range (around 1,000 words approximately, to maximize content opportunities for making multiple connection points to our lessons), from sources such as www.ScienceDaily.com andhttps://phys.org/space- news/, published outside of our research project’speriod.
• For each article, you will then complete a typed response (in a Word file on your own computer) containing:
o 3 (three) connection points between the article and our lesson materials (lesson notes/slides and/or readings, over single or multiple different lessons covered this term). Each connection point should:
Have a clear title given for the connection point, including the general scientific concept being connected between the article and the lesson (eg: life stages of stars) , and a specific reference to the lesson materials (eg: lesson 17, section 7.4 The Birth of Stars in the textbook/ebook)
Be written fully in your own words! Copying sentences, in part or in full, from the articles themselves and/or lesson materials constitutes plagiarism, as does copying/sharing answers between classmates; this in turn may result in deductions ranging in severity. Using other aides like Google Translator is highly discouraged, as it can lead to copied material being selected from the web, and resulting in plagiarized content submitted by the student. Instead, after reading each article and identifying the scientific concepts for your connections, try putting the articles away and writing your connection points completely on your own, with proper English grammar and writing style.
Demonstrate meaningful insight into the scientific material presented in the article and
covered in the lessons, by explaining clearly how your stated scientific concept in the connection point – as first explained in our lesson materials – is now also being investigated in the scientific research being reported in the assigned news article. Compare-and-contrast type analysis is a good technique to use here, by first comparing the similarities in the scientific concept (between the lesson materials and news article), and then contrasting any possible differences between them as well, such as new or unexpected or contradicting results discovered in the research compared to the previous knowledge on that topic (as covered in the lessons) . Make sure there is adequate discussion of both the news article and textbook readings/lessons in each connection point.
Be between 50-150 words long as a general guide. (Higher grades will be assigned for higher
quality of connection points presented, and not simply for meeting the minimum word count.)
• Once you have completed all your responses, with 9 separate connection points to lesson materials created in total, you will then submit the Word file to the TurnItIn submission link.
• All students will be expected to maintain full academic integrity in the exam by composing their own original responses, which will in turn be reviewed for any possible plagiarism by the TurnItIn software (for example) .
Although all students will be reading and responding to the same articles, their responses to them should still nonetheless be individual and unique, just as they would beat an invigilated, paper-based exam on campus.
Each student is also expected to complete this exam individually and by themselves. The Senate Policy on Academic Honesty is an affirmation and clarification for members of the University of the general obligation to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty. Any instances of plagiarism and/or other breaches of
academic honesty policy maybe subject to further investigation and possible consequences as outlined in this policy.
• Policy on Generative AI:
Students are not permitted to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in this course. Submitting any work
created through the use of generative AI tools will be considered a violation of York University’sSenate Policy on Academic Honesty . If you do not know whether an online resource or tool can be used in this course, please contact your instructor for guidance. For more information, please reviewAI Technology & Academic Integrity: Information for Students .
Example of a Connection Point
Article: Radioactive elements maybe crucial to the habitability of rocky planets
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201110151156.htm
Connection Point 1: Internal heat of Earth; Lesson 12; Chapter 13.1 A Travel Guide to the Terrestrial Planets
Both the news article and the textbook section 13.1 discuss internal heat of Earth as being a crucial factor in determining our planet’s physical characteristics and geological processes like plate tectonics and the magnetic field, which in turn help make our planet the habitable world that it is. The amount of internal heat in Earth , and how it makes its way out of from the dense hot inner core to the cooler less dense surface regions of Earth, is emphasized in textbook Section 13.1, sub-heading ‘Core, Mantle, and Crust’ . Earth’s amount of heat and escape route creates ‘just right’ temperatures and type of mantle materials for plate tectonics to be able to work on our surface, as discussed in Section 13.2, sub - heading ‘Earth’s Interior’ . By contrast, as reported in the new modeling research in the news article, different amounts of internal heat in other planets could lead to impaired processes of this heat escaping, and in turn affecting the creation of proper magnetic field and plate tectonics.
Other possible topics for connection points in this article (related to other sections in textbook as well):
• focusing more specifically on how too much heat from too many radioactive elements can shutdown the geodynamo effect, thus ruining the magnetic field
• importance of a magnetic field to protecting the planet’s atmosphere