PHYS1160
INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONOMY
School of Physics
Faculty of Science
Assessment Information
This document is the definitive source for information about the assessments for
PHYS1160. It supersedes any information on the Moodle site, in videos, etc.
If you need clarification of anything here, please first check the Frequently Asked Questions, Course Forum, and Discord Server on the Moodle site.
Note that all specific due dates are in the Course Outline. All assessments are submitted on Moodle.
Use of Artificial Intelligence
You may use Artificial Intelligence software such as ChatGPT to assist you with the short report and written assessment, without attribution (i.e., you don’t need to indicate in your report that you have used this
software). However, please do not use this as a substitute for learning the material, since otherwise you will gain little from doing the course. If your report looks like a bunch of paragraphs from ChatGPT with little
coherent narrative, it is unlikely to receive a good mark.
What sort of references are appropriate?
The short report and written assessments require you to list references for the information you include.
Ideally, these references would be to scholarly articles in journals such as The AstrophysicalJournal, Nature, Science, Publications ofthe AstronomicalSociety ofAustralia, or Monthly Notices ofthe RoyalAstronomical
Society. You can search for such articles using the NASA database at https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/. Simple searches with Google tend to find more popular articles and Wikipedia entries, which can be useful to get
you started, but these aren’t primary sources – including some of them is OK, but it is a red flag if all your references come from the first page of a Google search.
When should I use a reference?
Basically, anytime you are making what appears to be a factual statement you should include a reference to where the information came from, e.g., “The Milky Way Galaxy is 30 kpc in diameter and our Sun is 9 kpc
from the centre (Lindhoven and Smith, 2018)”, and in your reference list at the end:
Lindhoven, A. B, Smith, X. Y., 2018, ApJ, 123, 23-35, doi:10.1122/5.66334.
You can also use the UNSW guide to how to cite using the Harvard referencing method: https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/how-do-i-cite.
Not including references to a short sentence added as a direct quotation, or in support of a factual statement paraphrased from a larger text is considered plagiarism and will be investigated further.
Late submission policy
Students who submit any of their assessments late (except the quizzes, which cannot be attempted after the due time) will receive a penalty of 5%/day late.
Submissions 5+ days late (120 hours past the deadline) will not be marked.
Extensions
Course staff do not approve extensions, these are only available through the formal special consideration process https://specialconsideration.unsw.edu.au/.
If you are having problems getting the quizzes or assignments completed due to some factor please reach out to course staff at the time as we may be able to help. Do not wait until the end of term.
Summary of assessment and alignment to learning outcomes
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Assessments
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Learning Objective
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Quizzes
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Short report
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Experiment
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Written
assessment
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Describe key concepts in astronomy and astrobiology,
including the formation of stars, planets, and galaxies;
the history of life on Earth; and the beginning and
ultimate fate of the Universe
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X
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X
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X
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X
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Synthesise multiple scientific perspectives to
distinguish between scientific fact and pseudoscience
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X
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Search appropriate literature to identify and explain supporting evidence for or against scientific claims
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X
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X
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Justify how, using experimental techniques (such as
simple data analysis), astrophysical phenomena can be
observed and used to demonstrate our understanding
of the Universe
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X
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Communicate concepts in astronomy accurately in
written and verbal forms and at an appropriate level for
general audiences
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X
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Quizzes
Testing your understanding is a vital component to learning. It helps you gauge what you have learned and where there are gaps in your knowledge. In most weeks, you will have a quiz to complete on Moodle. These quizzes are comprised of multiple-choice questions that will test your conceptual understanding of the
material.
The quizzes are worth 10% of the final grade of the course. If there is any discrepancy between percentages and deadlines between this document and the Course Outline, then the Course Outline takes precedence.
Short report
The short report has been designed to help you develop skills, learn the course material, and prepare you for the written assessment later in the term.
You will develop your communication and research skills as you respond to given stimuli.
There is no specific format for the short report. The length (maximum allowed word count) of the short
report is given below. You should write concisely and ensure you satisfy the rubric criteria (outlined below). You may include figures, where necessary, and you must include appropriate referencing. The usualrules on attribution andplagiarism applytothese shortreports. If you plagiarise, the procedures that apply are
outlined in UNSW’s Plagiarism Policy (https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism).
You can submit the report as Word DOCX file, PDF (with readable text, not embedded in images), OpenOffice ODT, or PowerPoint PPTX.
The short report is due 11:59 PM AEST/AEDT FRIDAY in week 4. The short report is worth 25% of the final grade of the course. If there is any discrepancy between percentages and deadlines between this document and the Course Outline, then the Course Outline takes precedence.