Course outline:
Course objectives: This course has several rather broad goals. They include that you
Reading assignments: Reading assignments for each lecture are given on the course calendar. You are strongly urged to do the reading in advance, since the lectures will assume that you are familiar with the terms used in the text.
Quizzes: Ungraded quizzes will be given on a weekly basis, usually at the beginning of class. These quizzes will be on material which may or may not have been covered in lecture. They are intended to start you thinking about the concepts that will be covered in the workshops later in the week and to inform the instructor and teaching assistants how well you already understand the material. Pretests will not be graded or handed back. However, some credit will be given for completion of the quizzes.
Workshops: There are two one-hour workshops each week in which you will be asked to work on Tutorials and Problem Solving Activities. Attendance is required and will affect your course grade
Tutorials: Wednesday's workshop hours will usually be spent on worksheets from Tutorials in Introductory Physics. You are expected to work in groups of 3 or 4 students. You will need to bring the worksheet volume to each workshop. Completed worksheets will not be turned in, but tutorial homework problems that are closely related to each workshop will be assigned, collected and graded for credit (see Homework below)
Problem Solving: Friday's workshop will usually be spent on problem-solving activities. These worksheets will be handed out in class. You are expected to work in groups of 3/4 students.
Mastering Physics: This semester we will be experimenting with some online homeworks taken from the tutoring system Mastering Physics which comes with the textbook. This software contains multi-part, multi-step physics tutorials and problems that incorporate a range of answer types -- from symbolic math and numerical values through to true/false. To access this software you will need access to a computer with an Internet connection and a web browser such as Explorer or Netscape. The details will be discussed in class.
Homework: There
will be two types of homework
1. Wednesday homework
2. Friday homework
The Wednesday homework assignment will be collected at the beginning of
the Wednesday workshop on the day indicated. There will be one
Wednesday homework per week. Many of the
homeworks will be drawn from the homework volume of
Tutorials in Introductory
Physics. It will be graded by the TA of your section in
a conventional manner. All homework will be checked for completeness and selected
parts will be graded in detail. Solutions to some homework problems will
be provided at the course web site.
The Friday homework assignment is an online assignment from
the Mastering Physics site. A Friday homework will typically be set
once every two weeks. It will be graded
automatically by the system and the results entered into a grade
book for this course maintained on the site. It must be completed
by 11 pm on the date indicated in the schedule (and at the web site).
To enter this site a student must go through a registration
process which will be discussed in class.
In all cases late homework will not be
accepted.
Exams: There will be three eighty-minute exams during the semester. Each exam will focus on material from the three or four weeks prior to the week of the exam but may include earlier material as well. The lowest exam score for each student will be dropped. In addition, there will be a two-hour final. The final exam will be comprehensive. All exams will be closed book. There will be NO makeup exams. Students who do not take the final or who miss more than one of the other exams will not be given a passing grade. Seating arrangements for the exams will be announced in class prior to the exam date.
Regrading requests: If you think a serious error has been made in the grading of your exam, you may request a regrade. To do so, please fill in a copy of the Regrade Request Form (available on the course web page), attach it to your exam, and resubmit at the beginning of the lecture period following the one on which exams were returned. It is important that you do not make any changes or marks on the exam. Please note that you have to have a specific complaint. Unspecified requests for additional points will not be accepted.
Course grade: The course components will contribute to your final grade as follows:
Special accommodation: Students requiring special accommodation because of a disability should contact the Office of Disability Services and make an appointment with the instructor.
You are required to enroll in the accompanying laboratory course (Physics 221). The two courses cover the same subject matter, but you will receive a separate grade for each one
Clinic: Physics teaching assistants will be available for consultation in the Physics Clinic, located in room 113. Clinic hours will be posted on the Physics department web page.
This page maintained by Simon Catterall, last updated 20 August, 2003