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On the advice of my advisor, I took astromomy 104 to fullfill my science with a lab need. I told her I was not great in science or math and really dreading taking a science. She and several other people assured me that this was a fairly easy class, that would be of interest. Imagine my surprise when I found out halfway through the class that I was Not going to learn the names of, or how to find, any constellations! Instead I found myself taking page after page of math/ scientific problem notes. Yes, there are examples in the book; and I expected we would possibly have to do one or two IN Class. We were given a numerical lab with 4 questions. Not too bad, until I looked at it. The first question has 13 different distance and radius you have to find. Question 2, has two planet masses to find; question 3 only has one section, and question 4 has you find the weight of a person on 4 planets. Okay, still not a lot, if you know more than general math. But the instructor did not make it clear that first you have to convert such things as days to seconds, kilometers to meters, etc. Before you can even fill in numbers to the fornula! Mr. Marchenko keeps referring to this as astro-physics and I believe him! When he does explain it is rapid and over my head. At the beginning of the semester, he had asked what each student wanted to get out of the class. The majority of the answers were like mine, "I want to be able to name and locate planets and different constellations, and spend some time using a telescope." On the tests we have had, we have not even named a constellation. In our observation lab, we spent an hour finding a couple stars, discussing their color, and drawing moon craters. I know no more about constellations and their names or locations than I did before I took the class. Overall, I do not feel this man is teaching an entry level class. I am not the only one feeling this way. Several students are frustrated and feel like we should have been given a warning that this class was going to involve so much math. This class is going to cost me some grade points, and I feel like I have worked my tail off, and learned absolutely nothing of use. He says he can not make us attend classes, but if you miss you don't keep up. He said we could get extra points for taking a quiz, but only if you stay til the end of the class for the quiz. The quizzes are just as bad! Be warned, if you are not a science or math major, do not take this class from this instructor.
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