# ASTR 474 Course Materials Review Report

Status: Approved for review release. Not yet approved for instructional use.

## Review Scope

Reviewed against the 400-level computational/scientific rigor and provenance requirements in the current course-materials-review skill and the ASTR470/ASTR472 benchmark reports. Inspected the syllabus, 14-week schedule, manifest, all 14 lecture slide/note pairs, seven labs, seven problem sets and their solutions/assessment instructions, source/data documentation, build scripts, environment pins, and generated outputs.

## Initial Blocking Findings and Corrections

The initial review identified six blocking issues. They have been corrected as summarized below and were independently rechecked in the latest reviewer pass:

1. **Final assembly and status:** Created this review report and the course index; curriculum calendar card links to the index. Status records are currently synchronized to `Needs correction` pending the final reviewer re-run.
2. **Schedule alignment:** Replaced the misleading seven-row schedule with a 14-week calendar (one numbered lecture module per week) and mapped each lab/problem set after the actual lecture span it uses: L01-02, L03, L04, L05-06, L07-08, L09-12, L13-14. Updated the syllabus and cadence rationale accordingly. No activity now precedes the content it assesses.
3. **Solution keys:** Replaced generic repeated reference answers with question-specific worked solutions, including derivations, numerical values, units, assumptions, diagnostics, and uncertainty/interpretation as applicable. Reviewer sampled keys against prompts, including PS06.3's fit parameters, uncertainty, chi-square, degrees of freedom, and residual RMS.
4. **JPL provenance:** Reconciled the JPL Horizons DE441 state-vector source, query metadata, target/center, epochs, time scale, frame, vector type, units, access status, and file digest across the computation code, data README, and reference log. Live request failure and carried/stored-data limitations are explicitly disclosed; no unsupported live-verification claim remains.
5. **Reproducibility:** Corrected clean-environment build instructions, supplied a working package validator, generated the missing `hydro_profile_128.csv`, and added checksum generation/verification. The repository `.venv` (CPython 3.14.6, pinned NumPy/SciPy/Astropy/REBOUND) successfully ran the full build and validator; nine generated-data checksums verified both before and after the build.
6. **Lecture-note depth:** Expanded notes to lecture-specific derivations, algorithm traces, worked examples, output interpretation, limitations, and targeted study questions. Reviewer checked notes at approximately 1,350-1,480 words each and found the added technical development substantive rather than slide paraphrase.

## Independent Review Checks

- The reviewer checked schedule/artifact mapping and found the 14-week plan, syllabus cadence, lab spans, problem-set spans, and due weeks consistent.
- All 14 slide decks contain 13 slides with distinct visual-reasoning topics; mechanical inspection found no repeated generic diagram signature or production-facing captions.
- Independently checked representative results: 1-AU orbital period conversion; N-body energy-error ratio; shock-resolution trends; radiative-transfer exact/approximate values; and Monte Carlo standard error. No discrepancies were reported.
- No OpenStax exercises are claimed as assigned; the problem sets are identified as original. (ASTR472's numbered-exercise correction does not apply here.)
- JPL vectors remain subject to a human primary-source spot-check before instructional use; their source/query limitations are stated rather than overclaimed.

## Final Reviewer Verdict

After the review report was added, the index was linked to it, and the status records were synchronized, the final reviewer re-review returned **Approved for review release**. The reviewer confirmed that the report link resolves, the report/index/manifest statuses agree, counts and local links are complete, schedule and provenance corrections remain consistent, representative PS06 arithmetic is sound, and generated-data checksums pass. The separate full clean build and validator run also passed in the repository's pinned `.venv` before this final review.

## Residual Caveats Before Instructional Use

- Human instructional approval remains required.
- Independently spot-check the saved JPL Horizons DE441 state vectors/query metadata against the primary Horizons source before classroom use.
- Confirm dependency availability for the institutional Python environment; tested pins are recorded in `requirements.txt`.
- Complete accessibility, local academic-integrity, grading, and accommodation review.

Last updated: 2026-09-25