COURSE SYLLABUS:
Physics
221 Sections B and U
“Physics for
Science and Engineering”
(calculus level physics with
laboratory)
e-mail:
kclay@greenriver.edu
Course webpage: http://www.instruction.greenriver.edu/physics/keith/221
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Office hours: |
Tuesday & Thursday |
10:00 -10:30 AM |
|
|
Tuesday & Thursday |
Noon – 1:00 PM |
|
|
Tuesday & Thursday |
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM |
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Section B: |
SC
117 |
MTThF |
1:30
PM – 3:00 PM |
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Section U: |
SC
117 |
TTh |
6:30
PM – 9:30 PM |
Course
Objectives: Successful students will develop skills in the
following areas.
1. Critical Thinking: The most important and often
the most difficult tasks involved with understanding a physical problem are the
critical analysis of the situation, construction of a suitable mental model,
and identification of relevant and irrelevant details. To make that identification, it is
necessary to consider both what you think you know and how you think you know it. This is what is meant by critical
thinking. Manipulation of the facts
associated with these details is often relatively easy, but we must also learn…
2. Problem Solving: To pass this course, it is not
sufficient to merely learn about physics. It is also necessary to learn to do physics. The problems presented in this course will
require refinement of problem solving techniques you may already have as well
as the development of methods which will most likely be completely new to
you. Still, each method and technique is
simply a tool that must be employed by a creative and practiced problem solver.
3. Technical Writing: Technical achievement is of
little use if it cannot be communicated.
The clear and accurate written expression of ideas, using the combined
languages of English and mathematics is an essential part of this course. Clear and understandable expression is to be
a part of all of the work in the course, but there will be specific writing
assignments associated with lecture material as well as with the…
4. Laboratory Investigation: Laboratory work will be a
very large part of this course. Students
will complete laboratory exercises designed by the instructor as well as
designing and carrying out their own projects which may include laboratory
experiments. Students will participate
in the design and implementation of work that will be carried out by groups of
three or four students. All students
will be tested on their abilities to design, carry our, and interpret
experiments.
5. Team work: The laboratory work will be
completed by teams working together. It
will be the responsibility of each member of the team to see that all members
work together, to see that all members participate, and to see that all members
of the team understand all phases of the work.
Relationship
to Campus-wide objectives:
1. Critical thinking and problem solving skills: If there were only one objective to this course it
would not be the retention of any fact that is associated with the subject
matter called physics. It would be the
development of skills needed to analyze any problem carefully, logically,
analytically and creatively, with a hopeful eye toward the creation of a viable
problem solving strategy.
Critical thinking and problem solving skills will be assessed using graded homework assignments, essays, quizzes, exams, laboratory exercises, and ungraded assessment tests.
2. Mathematical and quantitative reasoning: Successful completion of this course requires
the mathematical modeling of many complicated situations, often using models
which are not intuitively obvious.
Students often comment that physics courses stretch their ability to
translate from the real world to mathematical abstractions and back again more
than any other.
Mathematical and quantitative reasoning skills will be assessed using graded homework assignments, quizzes, exams, laboratory exercises, and ungraded assessment tests.
3. Clarity of communication and written expression: Verbal exposition is often put to its most stringent
test when technical material must be accurately and yet readably described. This course requires written discussion of
highly technical subjects and precisely defined concepts, often blending the
English language with the language of mathematics.
Communication and written expression skills will be assessed using graded homework assignments, essays, essay questions on exams, and presentations and written reports on laboratory exercises.
4. Responsibility: All students will be
responsible for doing their own work and
seriously thinking about what they are doing!
Although it is tempting,
especially in laboratory situations, to allow others to do our work for us, the
successful students will be those who actively participate in all
activities. Previous students have found
it very difficult to make up for lost time in this class, so it is important
for all students to work at least at the same pace as the rest of the class.
Students often believe that brain power alone determines performance in physics class. This is not the case! Before an anonymous in-class test, students were asked to estimate the fraction of the work that they had personally completed. Students who completed less than 80% of the course work averaged only 35% on the exam. Those who completed all of the course work averaged 80%..
5. Aesthetic appreciation: The teacher
of this class freely pursued the study of physics when a career in engineering
or any number of other fields would have been much more lucrative and required
less formal education. The reason for
this was simply a deep and abiding love for the astounding beauty of the
subject matter. Your teacher sincerely
hopes that some appreciation of this beauty will rub off on each and all of his
students, although aesthetic appreciation will not be directly assessed.
Aesthetic appreciation of physics will be assessed in part through the work done in preparing and presenting an in-class work of the students choice and design.
Prerequisites:
2.
Physics 221 Interactive Exercises, by Green River Faculty REQUIRED.
Your instructor wrote most of this himself so it must be good.
Supplemental
Students
often request alternative reading material to supplement their general
texts. Several calculus level physics
texts are available for check out from the Physics Store Room (SC 118). These include textbooks by Halliday and Resnick (2 volumes), Knight, Walker, and Serway.
However:
students should be aware that there is little evidence that time spent reading another book is going to
substantially increase your understanding or your grades. It is much better to spend extra time doing more physics problems, discussing the things that you find
confusing, and asking yourself the
kind of critical thinking questions modeled in the books my McDermott or
Sokoloff and Thornton!
There
are very few facts that you need to
learn for this class. It simply requires
time and effort to really understand and use the facts that you will learn.
Attendance: Attendance is absolutely required for the laboratory component of this course. Students who miss a single lab may lose 10%
of their lab grade. Students who must
miss more than one lab may have difficulty passing the course!
Meeting times: There will be one laboratory period almost
every week. Lab periods will occupy
almost half of the class periods. Students in these classes are often confused
about which classes are classes and which are labs. THIS IS A GOOD THING! You will learn the most by doing and
thinking, not by sitting and taking notes (although you need to do that, too!)
Grades: Most of the lab grade will come from
successful attendance and participation in lab exercises. Some lab work will be collected and graded,
and there will also be one lab “quiz” in which students will need to
demonstrate that they know how to use the equipment. (WARINING: If you allow your lab partners to
do all of the “hands-on” work during lab, you will not pass this quiz!)
Homework
(problem sets):
There will be 8 or 9 problem
sets from SJ assigned throughout the course of the term. There may also be problem sets from other
sources. Some homework assignments will
require the use of a computer either on this campus or at home. You are
not required to do the homework individually!
In fact you are encouraged to work together! Identical homework will be accepted if
each is written in the hand of the author. Photocopies or computer
reproductions will not be accepted. Every attempt will be made to get the
results of the graded homework back to you as quickly as possible, but there
are no guarantees. To facilitate rapid
return of the homework the instructor may select only a fraction of the
assigned problems to grade or a student grader may be used, or quizzes over
assigned homework may be used. The instructor will review and keep
responsibility for the grades assigned.
There will be 8 or 9 quizzes given throughout the
term. Each classroom quiz will contain
one long or several short questions, intended to be easily finished in 30
minutes, however take-home quizzes may also be given and these will in general
be longer and more involved.
Since it is the purpose of quizzes to assess what individuals have learned,
each student must do his or her own work. Copying or cheating on classroom
quizzes will result in failed grades and submission to the campus cheating
policy.
Exams:
Exams
may not be taken late. If you have a problem with the timing of a scheduled
exam, contact your instructor in advance. There will be one
midterm exam roughly five weeks into the quarter (the exact date will be
announced well in advance). It will be
90 minutes long. Students are required
to do their own work on exams. Failure to do so will result in failed
grades and discipline under the policy on cheating. The final exam for will be held at the
times printed in the quarterly course schedule:
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|
Section B |
Wednesday,
December 12th |
1:00 PM – 3:00
PM |
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|
Section U |
Tuesday,
December 11th |
6:30 PM – 8:30
PM |
Class Project:
There will one two-part project required of
all students. Although students may plan and consult together, each student is
required to turn in his or her own work. Identical assignments will not be accepted! Part of the project involves analysis of a physics problem with
computers, and although students who work together will produce similar
results, it is impossible to produce identical computer programs without
copying. Don’t do it! Students turning in identical work will be referred to
the dean and subject to the college policies on cheating.
Attendance and
tardiness:
This class will not be graded on attendance, but students
should be aware that due to the “hands-on” nature of what is done during class,
it is very difficult to pass the class if attendance is lacking. Even students
who do not believe they need to attend usually miss out on learning when they
miss class.
If you must arrive late to class, come in quietly,
sit down, and shut up! Do not start conversations. Do not ask the people around
you what is going on. This is very disturbing to those who are trying to learn.
Extra Credit
Projects:
There will be NO
EXTRA CREDIT PROJECTS THIS TERM!!!
None will be accepted. Don’t
ask. Students who have extra time that
could be devoted to an extra credit project should devote that time to learning
the material in the course. With all of
the books and teaching materials available, there should be a mode of learning
that suits every student. Take advantage
of it and concentrate on learning the basics rather than spending time on
additional subjects
Grades
for this class will be computed numerically based on the fraction of a total of
100 possible points. Grades will be
awarded for the following six components, with the indicated points for each:
|
Note that these point totals are subject to change if the instructor
believes it would be to the benefit of the class (and the grades of the
class) as a whole. |
So how many
points do I need to get an A? To pass?
Numerical
grades will be computed based on the following mathematical formula:
Take your total number of
points. Subtract 56 points (ouch!). Divide by ten.
For
quick reference, you may also look up grades in the following table:
|
Percent of |
Numerical |
|
Percent of |
Numerical |
|
Percent of |
Numerical |
|
Total Points |
Grade |
|
Total Points |
Grade |
|
Total Points |
Grade |
|
97-100 |
4.0 |
|
86 |
3.0 |
|
75 |
1.9 |
|
96 |
4.0 |
|
85 |
2.9 |
|
74 |
1.8 |
|
95 |
3.9 |
|
84 |
2.8 |
|
73 |
1.7 |
|
94 |
3.8 |
|
83 |
2.7 |
|
72 |
1.6 |
|
93 |
3.7 |
|
82 |
2.6 |
|
71 |
1.5 |
|
92 |
3.6 |
|
81 |
2.5 |
|
70 |
1.4 |
|
91 |
3.5 |
|
80 |
2.4 |
|
69 |
1.3 |
|
90 |
3.4 |
|
79 |
2.3 |
|
68 |
1.2 |
|
89 |
3.3 |
|
78 |
2.2 |
|
67 |
1.1 |
|
88 |
3.2 |
|
77 |
2.1 |
|
67 |
1.1 |
|
87 |
3.1 |
|
76 |
2.0 |
|
66 |
1.0 |
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0 - 65 |
Z |
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Students
are strongly encouraged to keep track of their own progress in this class. At any point in the course, students may
compute their average percentage on
completed material and use this table to estimate a grade. Students should note, however, that it is
ultimately your instructor who makes the decision as to how many points each students
actually has! Grading is a subjective
exercise and the grade you receive may not be exactly the one that you calculate for your self.
Every
attempt will be made to let you know what was and was not an acceptable score
on the material that is handed back to you.
Students should be forewarned that grades below 50% are not uncommon on
individual quizzes and taken by themselves are not disastrous (providing there
are other grades to lift the overall average).
An estimate of your current
grade will be distributed after the midterm is returned. Please remember that this is only an estimate.
A
grade of “I” will only be given in
emergency situations and only if at least 75% of the work is completed
satisfactorily. Note that a grade of “I” cannot be given simply to save a grade point
average! There must be a REASON for
requesting an incomplete.
A
grade of “P” or “NC” can only be given if requested in writing at the
registrar’s office before the deadline printed in the quarterly schedule.
Students should know that completion of a course with a grade of “P” is usually
not considered completion of a
prerequisite for another class.
Students are NOT obligated to tell their
instructors when a course is being taken for a P or NC grade!
Late homework,
exams, etc.:
Exams
and quizzes cannot be made up except in extraordinary circumstances. If a student knows that a forthcoming exam
will compete with an urgent scheduling conflict, the student must notify the
instructor in advance! In some cases it will be possible to make
special arrangements for that student.
Homework
will be accepted on the day after it is due, but full credit will not be
given. Roughly 20% of the possible
points will be deducted from homework turned in on the class day after it is due
IF THE SOLUTIONS HAVE NOT YET BEEN DISTRIBUTED!
Due
to the nature of laboratory work, it will often be impossible to make up a late
laboratory. Again, students who know of
their inability to attend a specific lab should tell the instructor in advance. No
late work will be accepted during (or after) the last two weeks of the school
term.
Material Covered:
The
schedule for material covered in this course will be roughly the following:
|
Time (approx.): |
Subject: |
SJ Chapters |
|
WEEK
1: |
Science,
Measurement, and Units |
1 |
|
WEEK
2: |
Coordinates,
Position, and Motion |
2
& 3 |
|
WEEK
3: |
Position,
Velocity, and Acceleration |
2 |
|
WEEK
4: |
Two
Dimensional Motion |
4 |
|
WEEK
5: |
|
5
& first part of 9 |
|
WEEK
6: |
|
5 |
|
WEEK
7: |
Friction
and 2D forces |
5
& 6 |
|
WEEK
8: |
Work
and Energy |
7 |
|
WEEK
9: |
Conservation
of Energy |
8
|
|
WEEK
10: |
Conservation
of Energy & Momentum |
8
& part of 9 |
Material may be added or removed from the schedule
as time and interest allow.
Due to Green River policy, no one who is not either
registered for the class or an employee of Green River will be allowed in the
classroom during lecture or laboratory periods.
This includes children, friends, visiting students, and prospective
students. The only exceptions that will
be made will be in the cases of students who require the assistance of others
for the completion of essential classroom tasks or for students who are
registered for another section of Physics 221 but have made arrangements with
their teachers to attend at a special time.
Physics students are encouraged to make use of
tutoring services should they find the need for outside help. As of this writing, Green River has not chosen an
official physics tutor but there are many talented students available. Physics help may be found in the tutoring
center on the second floor of the Holman Library. Students who have trouble with the
mathematics associated with their physics work may find additional help in the
Again, you are strongly encouraged to use your
classmates as sources of outside help. There is ample evidence that talking to your
classmates is the best source of clarification and understanding because it
will force YOU to think through your own difficulties, often removing confusion
and solving problems at the same time!
When all else fails, remain calm, sit back, and THINK!
Official
class breaks are required for all class periods of length two hours or
longer. Since our class meetings are
between one and two hours long, class breaks are optional, and official class breaks will usually not be scheduled!
However,
if you need to leave the classroom, stretch, take a break, please do so. This is much better than falling asleep during
class and disturbing your neighbors with an annoying “thud” when your head hits
the table. Try to take your breaks in a
manner that disturbs your colleagues as little as possible.
You
should know that Green River policy officially prohibits the answering of pagers and
cellular phones during class periods.
Although your instructor understands that emergencies may occasionally
arise when sick family members or other crises are concerned, a repeated
pattern of classroom interruption by electronic gadgets will be considered
grounds for discipline.
Discipline:
Disruptions: In accordance with Green River
policy, students who disrupt the academic atmosphere of the class will be asked
to leave and will be referred to an academic dean for further action. Disruptions of academic atmosphere include
any behavior that interferes with the ability of faculty or other students to
perform the work necessary for this class.
Comments, discussions, or actions
of a racist, sexist, or otherwise degrading nature will absolutely not be
tolerated.
Cheating: Students who are caught
cheating will similarly be referred to an academic dean for further
discipline. The results of this
discipline can range from failing the assignment in question to failure of the
class and probation or expulsion from Green River.
Many of students cheat and most of them do not get caught. However, those that do are in universal
agreement: cheating is not worth the risk.
Please
keep in mind that you are in college to learn, and if you are cheating you
ultimately only cheat yourself out of learning and skills that you would
otherwise get from this class. You don’t
need to cheat to pass the class. Don’t
do it.
Any student who needs special accommodations because
of a disability, needs emergency medical information kept on hand, or requires
any other special accommodations to be shared with me in the event of a
building evacuation, please contact me at extension 4248. If you need an alternative medium for communicating,
or are particularly dependent on any one specific medium, please let me know
before class so that appropriate accommodations can be made.
If you believe you qualify for course adaptations or
special accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act, it is your
responsibility to contact the Disabled Students Services Coordinator in the LSC
and provide the appropriate documentation.
If you have already documented a disability or other condition which
would qualify you for special accommodations, or if you have emergency medical
information or special needs I should know about, please notify me during the
first week of class. You can reach me by
phone at 833-9111, extension 4248. Or,
you can schedule an office appointment to meet me in the SC Office Building,
office number 221 during my posted office hours or at another mutually
determined time. If this location is not
convenient for you, we will schedule an alternative place for the meeting. If you use an alternative medium for
communicating, let me know well in advance of the meeting (at least one week)
so that appropriate accommodations can be arranged.
SYLLABUS QUIZ (Due Thursday)
NAME:
____________________ (please print)
PHYSICS
221 Section: ___________
Instructions: Read the syllabus, answer the questions below, and
sign the form at the bottom indicating that you have read the syllabus. Return this to the teacher on Thursday.
When
are Keith’s office hours? Where is his
office? Name one thing he has a picture of on his office door.
What
score will be awarded to a physics 221 student who gets a score of 90% on a
homework assignment that was turned in one day late?
Of
the graded assignments of Physics 221 (other than quizzes and exams), for which
assignment(s) are you…
required to work together?
allowed (but not required) to work together with identical assignments accepted?
allowed only to plan and consult
together with no identical assignments accepted?
What
is the name and room number of the room in the SC building where additional
physics textbooks can be found and used by the students?
When
is the deadline for applying for a Pass/Fail grade? (Check the quarterly schedule.)
Would
a grade of “Pass” help you toward your career goals? (Okay, you don’t need to
answer this here, but you should know the answer for puposes of your own
educational planning.)
I
have read the syllabus for Physics 221.
Signed,
_____________________________
__________________________
(Signature
of student) (Date)