Class time: 12:00 - 14:50 (12:00 - 2:50 PM), Wednesday and Friday, Room 385 Morrill Hall
Instructors: Gordon Aubrecht, Room 211C Morrill Hall, 740-389-6786, ext. 6250; home 740-369-0992
Carol Bowman, Room 330 Morrill Hall, 740-389-6786, ext. 6319
Office hours WF 11.
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 in this class earn either an A or B. It is possible to fail, if no studying is done, no homework is done well, 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.
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!
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 5 points for each period. (1 point each will be deducted for arriving late or for leaving early).
The homework will be a group grade: one randomly picked group member will be graded for each homework problem. There will be two to four homework problems each week. If a student turns in every homework on time, the student will receive 15 bonus points. 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, journal entries will be assigned on this website and the email journal is also due in Gordon’s email prior to class Wednesdays (unless announced otherwise). Please put your 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 can be accepted.
A pretest will be given before each section unless told otherwise. 5 points will be taken away for each missing pretest; therefore, the total pretest grade could be a negative number if a student misses more than 6 of them.
A maximum of one-half of the assigned credit can be given when a missing homework, a missing journal, or a missing pretest 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. For example, if the second midterm is missed and the average on all other tests is 80%, 0.8 will be multiplied by 80, the midterm maximum score, to create a midterm grade of 64 for the missed midterm.
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.
Tentative schedule:
Jan. 9, 11: Section 1 (page 3--); Section 2 (page 6--)
Jan. 16, 18: finish Section 2 if necessary, Section 3 (page 15--), start Section 4 (page 20--)
Jan. 23, 25: Sections 4 and 5 (page 27--); First Quiz on Jan. 23 (Gordon away)
Jan. 30, Feb. 1: Sections 6 (page 34--), Section 7 (page 38--) and Section 8 (page 42--)
Feb. 6, 8: Section 9 (page 44--); 9.4A, etc. (handout); First MIDTERM on Feb. 6
Feb. 13, 15: finish 9; start Section 10 (page 51--)
Feb. 20, 22: Section 11 (page 55--); Second Quiz on Feb. 22
Feb. 27, Mar. 1: Section 12 (pages 60-65)
Mar. 6, 8: Section 13 (page 66--); Second MIDTERM on Mar. 6 through 12.5
Mar. 12, 14: Section 14 (page 76--) and Section 15 (page 82--)
Note: If you finish a section ahead of schedule, proceed on to the next pretest and section.
Additional note: The end of a section is always a check point.
FINAL EXAM: Wednesday, 19 March 2002, 17:00 - 18:50 (5:00-6:50 PM).
Review for final will probably be on Monday of exam week.
Senior final: Wednesday, 12 March, after class.
take me to the journal assignments