Class time: 12:00 - 14:50 (noon to 2:50 PM), Wednesday and Friday, Room 384, Morrill Hall, OSUM
Instructors: Gordon Aubrecht (aubrecht@mps.ohio-state.edu), Room 114 Morrill Hall, 740-389-6786, ext. 6250; home 740-369-0992
Office hours are 11 o’clock Wednesday and Friday and by arrangement.
Carol Bowman, Room 330, Morrill Hall, 389-6786, ext. 6319, bowman.79@osu.edu, Office Hours: by appointment
Required Text: Physics by Inquiry, Vol. II: Electric Circuits (J. Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996; ISBN 0-471-14441-X)
Other required material: Lab notebook (unless you take notes in your book, which is the recommended way to keep your notes)
OSU’s policy mandates that the university address needs connected to disabilities. Any student who feels the need for an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me in a confidential environment to discuss specific needs. We will coordinate arrangements for accommodations for such students with Prof. Hazlett’s office.
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 (well over 60% historically) in this class earn either an A or B. About one-third get other grades. It is possible to fail, if no studying is done, no homework is done well, no pretests 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.
######
A former Physics by Inquiry student, Liz Skelton, allowed me 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 are “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. No texting is allowed during 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 to 2 points 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 noon; 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 3 points. QoDs reward students who arrive on time; therefore, anyone arriving after the QoD is collected is not eligible to complete it. If a student arrives at 12:09, the student must still turn in the QoD by 12:10, or whenever the instructor asks for them. There will generally 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 Fridays, 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 40 points will be reduced by 5 points for each missing journal entry. Therefore, if more than 8 entries are missing, the total journal grade will be a negative number. On Fridays, journal entries will be assigned on the journal website and the email journal is also due in Gordon’s email Fridays by midnight (unless announced otherwise). Please put your name, group, 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 can 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 out of class 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 80, the midterm maximum score, to create a midterm grade of 64 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 class experience for answers. Quizzes and exams are graded individually. Solutions to homework, quizzes, and midterms are posted subsequently on homework solutions.
You will want to bring a calculator to class.
Any 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.
Note: If you finish a section ahead of schedule, proceed on to the next diagnotic and section.
Additional note: The end of a section is always a checkpoint.
Tentative schedule:
Week 1: March 26, 28: Section 1 (page 383--); Section 2 (page 390--)
Week 2: April 2, 4: Section 3 (page 397--); start Section 4 (page 406--); First quiz on April 4 (end of class, about 50 min)
Week 3: April 9, 11: finish section 4; start Section 5 (page 418--)
Week 4: April 16, 18: finish Section 5 (page 418--); start Section 6 (page 426--); First MIDTERM on April 18 (end of class, about 90 min)
Week 5: April 23, 25: finish Section 6
Week 6: April 30, May 2: Section 7 (page 430--); start Section 8 (page 445--); Second Quiz on May 2 (end of class, about 50 min)
Week 7: May 7, 9: finish Section 8 (page 445--); Section 8a [voltage around multiple loops]; start section 9 (page 455--462)
Week 8: May 14, 16: Section 9 through 9.6 and 9.10 (skip 9.7 to 9.9); start section 10 (page 462--)
Week 9: May 21, 23: finish Section 10; start Section 11 (page 478--); Second MIDTERM on May 23 (end of class, about 90 min)
Week 10: May 28, 30: finish Section 11; Section 12 (page 485--)
FINAL EXAM (tentative): WEDNESDAY, 4 June 2008, 12:00 - 15:00 (noon to 3:00)
A review session will be organized probably on Monday of exam week, which can 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 preparation for checkpoints out of class, particularly Sec. 10.4 to 10.14
take me to the journal assignments