Welcome to Pre-MAP!

Welcome to the Pre-Major in Astronomy Program (Pre-MAP)! This website will serve as the page for the Fall 2015 Pre-MAP cohort (Cohort 11). If you are looking for the general Pre-MAP homepage please see here. The goal of the Pre-MAP seminar is to have the opportunity to do real scientific research while at the same time providing the essential tools necessary to excel as a scientist and researcher. In addition to the seminar itself we will have social events throughout the year to build community between the Pre-MAP cohorts and the astronomy department as a whole.

Your Instructor (TA)

I’m Kristen Garofali, the instructor for the Fall 2015 Pre-MAP seminar. See my website for more information about me and my research. My office hours for this quarter are Monday 2:30-3:30 and Friday 3:30-4:30, or by appointment.

Your Academic Mentor

In addition to the TA for this class, there will also be an academic mentor. The academic mentor’s job is to be a resource for you throughout the academic year—that means he is available even after Pre-MAP is over! He can help you with homework, picking out which classes to take, or even just general advice about how to navigate your undergrad. In addition to being present for many of the class sessions to help with in-class assignments, the mentor will also hold regular office hours where you are free to drop in with any questions. Think of the mentor as an all-purpose TA for your undergrad career—use him to chat about anything!

The academic mentor for the Fall 2015 Pre-MAP seminar is Brett Morris. Office hours for Brett are TBD as well.

Course Synopsis

The first half of the seminar will consist primarily of developing the basic toolset necessary to being research. This includes learning how to program and how to critically read scientific publications. The second half of the seminar will be primarly guided research with a mentor and class partner. Throughout the quarter there will be talks related to professional development.