deletions | additions       diff --git a/Lab assignments.tex b/Lab assignments.tex  index ff630a4..2b37639 100644  --- a/Lab assignments.tex  +++ b/Lab assignments.tex 
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\subsubsection{Lab assignments}  After completing the in-class exercise, students use the rest of the lab period to work on their lab assignment, with the assistance of their group members and circulating instructors. Students are not expected to complete their labs during the lab period, but since they  have the necessary software installed  on their own laptops to complete the labs at home or in group study sessions. Students usually have one week to complete the lab, and they  submit their work via Dropbox a dropbox  on D2L. \href{https://d2l.msu.edu/}{D2L}.  Written lab reports are provide  opportunities for students to practice scientific writing and hone their skills skill  at communicating complex ideas. The lab assignments in AST~208 have been completely rewritten over the past two years, and development is ongoing. The lab now seeks to communicate learning goals through authentic research experiences, using the tools astronomers regularly use (e.g., Python, DS9, observatory archives). A central goal of the lab is to foster independence in our students, in both defining and tackling problems. For this reason, labs are often perceived as open-ended and loosely defined, and instructors direct students towards google rather than handing out cleanly-defined documents containing the answer. Another goal of the lab is to communicate what astronomy is like as a career, and how the science of astronomy is accomplished. We integrate discussion of current research questions and the day-to-day tasks astronomers undertake into the lab activities, and devote a lab session to a Q\&A about graduate school and career paths.  The lab assignments in AST 208 have been completely rewritten over the past two years, and development is ongoing. The lab now seeks to communicate learning goals through authentic research experiences, using the tools astronomers regularly use (e.g., Python, DS9, observatory archives). A central goal of the lab is to foster independence in our students, in both defining and tackling problems. For this reason, labs Here  are often perceived as open-ended and loosely defined, and instructors direct students towards google rather than handing out cleanly-defined documents containing the answer. Another goal of the lab is to communicate what astronomy is like as a career, and how the science of astronomy is accomplished. We integrate discussion some examples  of current research questions and the day-to-day tasks astronomers undertake into the lab activities, and devote a lab session to a Q\&A about graduate school and career paths. AST 208 labs (see also Fig.\ \ref{fig:hst}).  Here are some examples of current AST 208 labs (see also Fig.\ \ref{fig:hst}):\\  \textbf{The \begin{description}  \item[The  Hyades Star Cluster:} Cluster:]  Students receive photometry and parallax measurements from the \emph{Hipparcos} satellite for stars in the Hyades cluster, and must determine the distance, age, and metallicity of the cluster through isochrone fitting. This lab serves as an introduction to the Python programming language, and provides experience in manipulating arrays and making plots. It also illustrates how models and observations can be used together to determine fundamental astrophysical properties. \end{description}  \textbf{Understanding and Reducing CCD Images:} Detectors are as important to data quality as telescopes themselves, and students learn about the most common detector in astronomy, the charge coupled device (CCD), by making ``sythetic images" with an ice cube tray (the CCD) and confetti (the electrons; Fig.\ \ref{fig:ice}). Students then move on to manipulating real CCD images obtained at the Campus Observatory, correcting them for common imperfections via bias, dark, and flatfield correction, and then combining images to make aesthetically-pleasing 3-color images of interesting sources.