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Class times: 17:00 - 19:50 (5:00 to 7:50 PM), Monday and Wednesday, Delaware Campus OSUM (near Orange Road)
Instructor: Gordon Aubrecht, Room 114 Morrill Hall, 740-389-6786, ext. 6250; home 740-369-0992; email aubrecht@mps.ohio-state.edu
Office hours: before class (16:00 to 17:00) in Room 212. We welcome students’ visits.
Required Text: Physics by Inquiry, Vol. I: Properties of Matter (J. Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996; ISBN 0-471-14440-1)
Other required material: Lab notebook (unless you take notes in your book, which is the recommended way to keep your notes)
The course is graded on the basis of 700 points (no curve). To get an A or A-, get better than 90%, or 630 points. To get a B-, B, or B+, score above 80%, or 560 points. Most students (about 85% historically) in this class earn either an A or B. It is possible to fail, if no studying is done, no homework is done well, no diagnostics are reworked, and the exams are blown, although this is not easy!
This course is aimed at helping you create your own understanding of the material. Therefore, everyone needs to participate as much as possible in the experiments and exercises. The teacher is there to provide help and to ask difficult questions to try to make sure you have understood what you are doing. In most cases, questions to the teacher will be answered by other questions. Memorization may have helped you up to this point, but memorization will not be helpful in this class! Pay attention to your experiences.
Former students’ comments about Physics by Inquiry that may help you understand the aims of the class.
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A former Physics by Inquiry student, Liz Skelton, allowed Gordon to paraphrase her suggestions:
1. Get a big binder, cut up the textbook, hole punch it, and put it in the binder.
2. Insert extra lined paper and graph paper for making neater notes and better diagrams (be sure to put the section and date on each extra page) .
3. Put a page divider between each day’s work to make it easier to reference the different sections of the book.
4. There may be “open lab” times where groups can come in between classes and work on their Physics (with someone around to help by appointment). This creates an opportunity for students to get caught up, work on homework together, or work out concepts that may be problematic for them.
5. Laugh as much as possible during class because it should be fun.
The tests are all open book, open note (which is why your notes are best kept in the book).
Do not be tempted to buy a used book, as there is no guarantee that the student who used it before had any idea of what he or she was doing, and the notes written may actually harm your own understanding!
Cellphone policy. We understand that there might be an emergency situation in which you need to be contacted, but it is important to respect your fellow students. Put the phone on vibrate rather than allowing the ringtone to be heard. Please do not use the cellphone for personal calls except for emergencies, and go into the hall to make any such call. Please be advised that no texting is allowed during class. The instructor will confiscate any cellphone used for texting in class for that class.
Laboratory grades are earned by participating actively in the laboratory work for the full period at each class meeting. Students are expected to come in on time, leave on time and actively engage in doing experiments related to class material to earn 4 points for each period. (1 point will be deducted for any person leaving early).
The Question of the Day (QoD) is a short written question based on your previous class work. Each class session will begin when the QoD is handed out promptly at 5:00; it is collected about 10 minutes later. You are encouraged to discuss your answers with fellow group members; however, your answer should be written in your own words. Each QoD is worth a maximum of 3 points. QoDs reward students who arrive on time; therefore, anyone arriving after the QoD is collected is not eligible to complete it. For example, if a student arrives at 5:09, the student must still turn in the QoD by 5:10, or whenever the instructor asks for them. There will be no QoD on midterm days.
The homework will be a group grade: one randomly picked group member will be graded for one of the homework problems each week. There will be two to six homework problems each week. The weekly homework grade will total 10 points: 5 points for attempting every assigned problem (lower if fewer were attempted or if no real attempt was made), given individually, 5 points for the one graded problem, group grade. If a student turns in every homework on time, the student will receive 15 bonus points at the end of the quarter. Homework will be assigned and collected on Wednesdays, unless announced otherwise. Homework is due at the
Journal entries will be read but not graded on content (assuming that there are more than just a few words, not qualifying as an entry). Your original 30 points will be reduced by 5 points for each missing journal entry. Therefore, if more than 6 entries are missing, the total journal grade will be a negative number. On Wednesdays after class, journal entries for the following week will be assigned on the journal website and the email journal is also due in Gordon’s email Fridays each week (unless announced otherwise). Please put your name and preferred email address at the top of each email journal entry, as you may send it from a machine that automatically puts another return address on the file. No handwritten or typed journals will be accepted.
Diagnostic questions are answered by each person both before beginning each textbook section and after completing each section. Before starting the section, students write their answers to the diagnostic questions on the left half of the page. In this first attempt, students work individually (not as a group) and keep their original attempt in the grade book at each table. After completion of the section, students rework their pretest and write their answers on the right half of the page. When reworking, students may consult with other group members. (We suggest that you do the first rework try by yourself, then consult with others if it is returned ungraded.) Each correctly reworked diagnostic is worth 3 points. The actual total number of diagnostic points depends on the number of sections your group completes. (The 30 points above is only an estimate assuming not all 13 sections will have been done by your group.) You are expected to do the reworking at home.
A maximum of one-half of the assigned credit can be given when a missing homework is made up, if there is a valid excuse. There can be no make-up for exams and quizzes. If a quiz or an exam is missed for a valid reason, then the grade for that exam will be created from the average percent achieved on the other quizzes and tests multiplied by the points appropriate for the missed exam. For example, if the second midterm is missed and the average on all other tests is 80%, 0.8 will be multiplied by 75, the midterm maximum score, to create a midterm grade of 59 for the missed midterm, which is then counted as your second midterm grade.
All exams and quizzes are open notes and open book; the emphasis is on reasoning and explaining from experience for answers. Quizzes and exams are graded individually. Solutions to homework, quizzes, and midterms are posted subsequently on homework solutions.
Materials assigned in this course may be kept and analyzed to improve the course and for research purposes. No personal identifiers will be kept; if you have any concerns about this, see the instructor.
Tentative schedule (times approximate):
Note: If you finish a section ahead of schedule, proceed on to the next diagnostic and section.
Additional note: The end of a section is always a checkpoint.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
FINAL EXAM (tentative): WEDNESDAY, 9 December 2009, 17:00 - 20:00 (5:00 PM--8:00 PM)
A review session will be organized, possibly during the same time class would have taken place if it also met on Fridays on the Friday of the last week of class or during what would have been ordinary class time Monday, 7 December 2008, which may also be used to catch up on reworked diagnostics, etc.
We may skip some parts of various sections to reach our goals. Also, some homework assignments will include out of class preparation for checkpoints.
Disability Accommodation: Students with disabilities that have been certified by the Office for Disability Services will be appropriately accommodated. Such students should inform the instructor as soon as possible of their needs.
Students who feel that they need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact Marge Hazelett (740-725-6247) to discuss their specific needs. The Office for Disability Services is located in room 128 Maynard Hall. General Information are available at
Academic Misconduct: It is the responsibility of the University Committee on Academic Misconduct to handle all reported cases of student academic misconduct. The term “academic misconduct” includes all forms of student academic misconduct wherever committed, illustrated by, but not limited to, cases of plagiarism and dishonest practices in connection with examinations. All instances of alleged academic misconduct are reported (by University Bylaw) to the committee. For additional information, see the Code of Student Conduct.
Copying any part of someone else’s work (on quizzes, midterms, or final exams, etc.) and handing it in as your own work is academic misconduct and has serious consequences at this university. Collaboration (getting together with other students to discuss HOW to solve problems) is encouraged. But you must do the work on your own; the only exception in this class is for homework, which you are expected to solve together as a group; however, each student writes his or her own solution after the consensus is reached.
take me to the journal assignments