Reading Questions

20% of your grade in this course will come from questions about the reading assignments, which you can do while you're reading.

Hopefully you've completed the "DO THIS FIRST: How to Use the Textbook" activity. Make sure to do that by Wed. 10pm during Week 1, so that you don't get dropped from the course.

In that activity, I gave a link to download the PDF version of the textbook, and tips for reading that large PDF file (such as by using the free program Adobe Acrobat Reader).

As I mentioned in the instructions for that task, you should get comfortable with reading a PDF file in a PDF-reader program, while also having Canvas open in your browser. Spend a little time figuring out the best way for you to comfortably switch back and forth between the PDF reader and your web browser. If you're lucky, maybe you have a large monitor, and you can look at both programs at the same time. If you have a smaller screen, like a laptop, you'll want to get comfortable switching between programs.

(Tip: Both of the popular operating systems - Windows and Mac OS X - have keyboard commands to switch between programs. Try Alt-Tab in Windows, or Command-Tab [or Cmd-Shift-Tab] in OS X.) Alternatively, you can click on their icons in the Taskbar or the Dock.)

Now, assuming you've gotten comfortable with reading the PDF and coming back here to the browser, let's get to the first reading assignment!

During this first week, we'll read Chapter 1 in the textbook. Most weeks we'll read one chapter.

I decided to break Chapter 1 into four (4) "chunks":

Chunk 1: The Scientific Method - Sections 1.1 through 1.3
Chunk 2: Light-Years and Light Travel Time - Sections 1.4 and 1.5
Chunk 3: A Tour of the Universe - Sections 1.6 through 1.8
Chunk 4: Cosmic History - Section 1.9

In case anyone is having trouble dealing with the full PDF of our textbook, I've cut out each of the four "chunks" and made them available as downloadable files. You'll find them in the Parts that follow this page.

Some of you will be able to work on the course a little bit each day. Others will have jobs that only allow them to work on the class on weekends. Some students will have situations that are in between those two situations. I hope breaking the reading assignments and the Reading Questions into "chunks" will help people who can work on the course nearly every day.

I'll probably do this "cutting into chunks" business again in Week 2. I might try making the Reading Questions into one big quiz starting in Week 3, but I'd like to hear your feedback during the first two weeks. Give this week's "chunk" method a try, and if you feel like it, email me your thoughts on whether I should keep doing it when we get to Week 3.

Now, to get started, go to Part 1 of this week's reading questions...