Clicker (Remote Transmitter)
Available in the bookstore
Physics 1020: The Physics of Everyday Life
Spring 2005
You will need:
Ø Text: How things work; the physics of everyday life, L. Bloomfield 2nd edition
Ø Calculator: Bring this to class and lab
Ø A Clicker for use in class, available in bookstore.
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Clicker (Remote Transmitter) Available in the bookstore |
!! EVERYONE MUST REGISTER A CLICKER !!!!!
(Go to course homepage to register.)
Office: Gamow 1023
Telephone: 303-735 6082
E-mail: noah.finkelstein@colorado.edu
For info on Noah and his research see http://spot.colorado.edu/~finkelsn
Learning Team:
TA's:
James McCollough: mccollou@Colorado.EDU and
Chandra Turpen: Chandra.Turpen@colorado.eduLearning Assistants:
Ward Handley, Akiko Komura, Zoltan Sternovsky
Prerequisites: Physics 1010
Ø Students who took Physics 1010 prior to Fall 2002 or who have not taken Physics 1010 need to talk with Noah F. as soon as possible. These students should also look at the Physics 1010 homepage (http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phys1010/) to see what was covered during that course.
Course Homepage with all course information:
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phys1020/
Important Times and Dates:
Lecture: Tuesday and Thursday, 11-12:15, Duane G125
Labs: There are 4 labs, one paper and one presentation. Check lab schedule for dates.
Location: Duane G2B87 (enter through G2B90 and walk to the back room… past the Physics Help Room)
Section -011: Tuesdays, 4-5:50 PM
Section -012: Thursdays, 4:00-5:50 PM
Section -013: Wednesdays, 2:00-3:50 PM
Section -014: Wednesdays, 11:00-12:50 PM
Problem Solving Sessions:
Location: At back or behind the Physics Help Room (Duane G2B90).
Thursdays, 3-5 PM
Fridays, 2-5 PM
Office Hours: Noah Finkelstein : Tuesday 3p - 4pm in his office
Thursdays, 3-4 PM Problem Solving Session.
Also by appointment or email.
Hour Exams: Tuesday, February 1, 7:30-8:30 PM in G-125
Tuesday, March 1, 7:30-8:30 PM in G-125
Tuesday, April 5, 7:30-8:30 PM in G-125
Final: Final Exam is Saturday, April 30, 10:30a - 1:00p. If you have three final exams that day, the deadline for making arrangements for rescheduling is February 18.
Computer Resources:
There is a computer lab available in Duane G116 M-F 8AM - 5:30 PM (next to the Math/Physics Library). You will need the Student Identikey you received during orientation in order to make use of this lab. Computers are also available in physics help room and problem solving sessions.
Useful websites:
Ø http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet/ has many of the interactive applets used in class
Ø http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phys1020/ has all the important course information.
Ø http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/HTW/ has many questions and answers by Bloomfield about the physics of how things work.
Ø http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/index.pl has interactive material on electromagnetic waves and various other topics.
Overall Course Goals:
1. To see how much of everyday life is governed by physics principles.
2. To understand that the universe is predictable rather than incomprehensible.
3. To appreciate how scientific understanding (particularly physics) is based on careful experiments.
4. To learn to think logically in order to solve problems.
Guiding principles:
1. People understand concepts better by seeing them in action and thinking about them than by hearing them explained.
2. Understanding physics (and solving problems that test that understanding) is a learned skill, like cooking, or playing basketball or the violin. It takes time, effort, and practice.
3. People learn best by thinking about topics and discussing them with others.
4. Students learn most when they take the responsibility for what is learned.
In keeping with these principles, there will be a substantial number of homework problems each week. You will have considerable difficulty completing them if you follow nonexpert problem solving approaches and/or you work alone. However, if you work with other students and develop an “expert” approach to problem solving, the homework problems should take you less time and effort, and you will learn a lot from doing them. Although you are encouraged to work out the solutions to problems together with other students, you are required to write up the answers in your own words. So each student’s wording should be unique to them. Typically you will need to spend between four and six hours outside of class to master the material.
There will be a number of things done to help you develop good problem solving skills. First, you have a handout “A logical approach to problem solving” which you should read carefully and use (also available on this website). Second, many of the problems will be designed to help you learn good techniques, and finally, there will be several problem-solving sessions Thursdays and Fridays where you will be able to conveniently get together with other students to work on homework. Members of the learning team will be present at these sessions to provide “coaching” on problem solving methods. You are encouraged to come to these to work with other students and get coaching in problem solving as necessary. The times and room numbers are listed above. The physics help room is also open 40 hours per week, and there are always students and TAs there, although they are not necessarily from 1020.
Although the problems may be challenging at first, as your problem solving skills develop over the term, you will find the problems easier, and they will take less time to solve.
Students begin this class with a wide range of backgrounds in physics and math. As a result, it is impossible for each class to be perfectly matched to everyone’s background. The primary purpose of office hours is to provide individual help to students that need it. We are anxious to provide whatever help is necessary for every student, regardless of their background, to do well in the course and achieve all of the learning goals. However, it is your responsibility to recognize that you need that help, and to take advantage of its availability by asking to meet with Kathy or Carl individually.
1020 Specific Learning Goals:
In a separate handout, you will find a list of very specific items you are to learn during the first 3 weeks of this course. A full list of learning goals will be available on the course webpage after we find out from you what you are most interested in learning about! These will give you a very clear idea of what material will be covered in the course, on the homework problems, in the labs, and on the exams.
Official course details
Change of registration:
ADD: The add deadline is 5:00 PM, Wednesday, January 19 without instructor approval and Friday, January 28 with approval. Approval will only be given at this date if you have attended all classes and done all assignments up to that time.
DROP: The deadline to drop a course without the instructor's signature, without being assessed tuition and fees for that course, and without a W grade appearing on your transcript is 5:00 PM, Wednesday, January 26. To drop a course after January 26 and through February 23 you must be passing the course, and a special action form (available from Karen Melcher in the Physics Department office, Duane E1B32) must be signed by your instructor and turned in to the registrar by 5:00 PM, Wednesday, February 23. After February 23, you must be passing the course and have your dean's signature, as well as that of your instructor, on the special action form.
GRADES:
Ø Grading philosophy: the amount you will learn depends on how much thought and practice you put in distributed sensibly over the term. Everyone who makes an honest attempt to do all the assigned work on time will pass, normally with a grade of A or B.
Ø Your grade in the course will be determined from your total number of points earned. The general point breakdown is as follows. Additional information is provided below.
Category Points Per Number of
Test or Assignment Tests or Assignments
In-class Reading Quizzes 3 pts ~13
Homeworks ~15-20 pts ~14
Lab: Group Lab Reports 15 pts 4
Lab: Individual Participation 5 pts 4
Short paper 20 pts 1
Draft of paper 10 pts 1
In-class Participation (Clickers) 2-4 pts per class 30
Hour Exams 30 pts 3
Final Exam 60 pts 1
(NOTE: YOU MUST RECEIVE A PASSING GRADE ON ALL 4 LABS TO PASS THE COURSE. To pass the lab you must get at least 9 pts for group report and at least 3 participation points. This should not be a problem as long as you read the write-up before class, participate, and the instructor feels you have made an effort to complete the experiment and lab report. If you are more than ½ hour late, you will fail the lab. If you miss or fail one lab, you can make it up with permission of the lab instructor. If you miss or fail more than one lab, you must get permission from Carl or Kathy to make them up, and you had better have a good reason.)
Ø Letter grades will be assigned to your point total according to combination of absolute scale and modified curve. To pass the course you must receive at least half of the total number of points possible to be earned. With this system, the most important requirement for getting a good grade is to do all the assignments! Missing several weeks of class and homework will likely put you in danger of failing, no matter how well you do on the exams! Your lowest exam score, lowest weekly homework score, and your 3 lowest in-class scores will be thrown out, so you can miss one week’s homework and one class or forget your clicker three times without penalty. These “throw-outs” are made to cover illness, car trouble, forgotten clickers, participation in athletic events, etc. There will be no other corrections made to grades other than for major medical or personal catastrophes, so don’t bother asking. Also, don’t waste your homework or class exemptions, because you may need them later if you get sick, forget your clicker, or other reasons.
Ø (The exams count for a relatively small amount in your grade, but we reserve the right to adjust the grades for special cases whose exam scores are a great deal lower than their homework grades.)
Weekly checklist for best learning (and grade):
1) Was there reading due this week? Did I do it?
2) Did I come to class and bring my clicker?
3) Did I submit my homework online by the deadline?
4) Did I have a lab this week? Did I prepare, attend, participate, and submit report?
5) Is there an evening exam this week?
6) Did I turn in extra credit question or comment by 4 PM Monday?
More details on how points are earned in the class:
1. Homework:
Ø New Homework Assignments will be posted on the course webpage every Monday by noon.
Ø Each Homework will be worth ~15 pts.
Ø Homework is due the following Saturday by midnight. Homework is submitted by filling out the online form and submitting. You login to your workspace and click the homework link for that week. Then you fill out the form and submit/save. Your submission saves all your inputs. If you want to change an answer or add more answers to your homework, you can reload your saved homework simply by returning to your learning workspace and clicking again on the homework link. Changes may be made up until the homework deadline (Saturday at midnight). After this time, the computer will no longer accept submissions
Ø We encourage you to work together on the homework problems, but you must write up the answers in your own words. There will be 2 Problem Solving Sessions each week: Thursdays 3-5 pm and Fridays 2-5 pm in or near the Physics Help Room. This is a great opportunity to come work on the homework with your classmates!
Ø The grades on homework will typically be very high, so failing to turn in more than one assignment, and thereby getting a 0 will have a big impact on your grade. Talk to your instructor, NOW, if you will have a scheduling problem during the term so that you will be unable to complete any of the assignments. Permission for exceptions from the normal class work schedule must be requested in advance.
Ø It is best if you print out the assignment on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning, so you see the problems before class.
Ø Homework solutions may be accessed through the Physics 1020 Home Page. The answers and solutions will normally be available at noon on the Monday.
Ø Grading of the homeworks will be done by the TA (McCollough). For the essay questions we will use the following rubric.
2. In-class questions and quizzes on reading:
Ø Clickers: You will need to buy transmitters (usually referred to as “clickers”) from the bookstore for answering questions in class.
Ø Reading Quizzes: After each reading assignment there will be a very short quiz covering the material in class worth 3 points.
Ø In-class clicker questions: During class there will be many questions on which you enter your response using clickers. Your answers will be recorded and you will receive 2 points per class for submitting any answer to all of the questions, whether or not your answers are correct. There will be a few questions, typically 0 to 2 per classes, for which you will receive one point if you have the correct answer, and 0 if incorrect. Graded questions will usually be late in the class and ones that nearly all students get correct if they have been paying attention.
3. Labs:
Ø There will be 4 labs this semester. The lab schedule will be available on the course website. The first lab is scheduled for the week of 1/24.
Ø In general, the grading of the labs will be quite easy. The point of lab is for you to have fun playing around with the physics and learning something rather than worrying about your grade. You will be working in groups of three in the labs. Follow these guidelines and you will receive a passing grade in lab:
o show up to lab on time and prepared, having read the lab write-up before class
o actively participate in lab,
o and make a good effort to complete the experiment and the group lab report.
Ø Each group will receive a grade for their lab report and each student will receive an individual grade for lab participation. For each lab, 15 points are available for the report and 5 points for lab participation.
Ø WARNING: You must receive a passing grade for ALL OF THE LABS to pass the course. To pass, you must get at least 9 pts for your group report and at least 3 participation points for the lab. If you follow the guidelines above, this should not be a problem.
Ø If you are more than ½ hour late, you will fail the lab.
Ø If you miss or fail one lab, you can make it up with permission of the lab instructor. If you miss or fail more than one lab, you must get permission from the instructor to make them up, and you had better have a good reason.
Ø If you show some extra effort or creativity in doing the lab, you can get an additional point.
4. Hour exams:
Ø Hour exams will be given in Duane G-125 (the lecture room) on Tuesday evenings February 1, March 1, and April 5 from 7:30 to 9:00 PM.
Ø Each exam is worth 30 points.
Ø There will be no early or late exams given and no make-up exams.
Ø Be sure to bring formula card(s) and calculator. All exams will be closed book. You may make up a single 3 x 5 formula card for each exam and bring your previous cards with you to subsequent exams so you will have one card for first exam, two for the second and four for the final. You can write anything you want on your formula card, but you must write it by hand - no photocopying or printing allowed. You should bring a calculator to class and exam. Sharing of calculators during exams and quizzes will not be allowed.
Ø Important: Your lowest exam score will be dropped. This is to account for medical, family emergencies, personal commitments or your own choice. There will be no makeups and it is NOT possible for you to miss 2 exams. This policy is only for the one hour exams. The final is mandatory.
Ø Exam grades and solutions will be posted after the exam on the course website.
5. Final exam:
Ø The final examination will be on Saturday, April 30, 10:30AM - 1PM. If you have three final exams that day, the deadline for making arrangements for rescheduling is Friday, February 18.
Ø The final is worth 60 points and will be cumulative.
6. Extra Credit Points:
Ø Often you will have the opportunity to receive up to one point per week of extra credit by sending in a question or comment using the online submission for found on the course website. Instructions will be posted on the website and announcements made in class.
General rules:
The rules in this list may seem rather harsh and arbitrary, but they are essential to maintaining the integrity of the course. There is a painful story behind every one of them. Although most of you will never come up against any of the rules, there are a handful of students each semester that just cannot seem to avoid them. These rules are primarily to prevent these students from obtaining an unfair advantage over the others in the class. If these rules are going to cramp your style, then this class is probably not for you.
1. Only one excused /dropped exam will be counted.
2. There will be no extra credit work other than the options listed above.
3. No student will fail who makes a serious effort at all the assigned work. If you miss a homework assignment, lab, in-class question, or miss more than one exam, it becomes possible for you to fail the course.
4. Although you are encouraged to work together with other students, you must hand in your own work and put the explanation in your own words. Handing in a copy of another student’s work is considered cheating. We will fail any student who submits for a grade work that is not their own or permits another student to do so.
Students with Disabilities: If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let us know within the first week of class so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. Students should notify the Counselor for Students with Disabilities, Disability Services Office, located in Willard 322 (phone303-492-8671). All recommendations for accommodations must be in writing from Disability Services.
Religious Obligations – Conflicts
with Scheduled Exams, Assignments or Class Attendance: We will make every
effort to accommodate all students who, because of religious obligations, have
conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments, or other required attendance,
provided you notify me at least two weeks in advance of the scheduled conflict.
The campus policy can be viewed at
http://www.colorado.edu/policies/index.html
Student Classroom and Course-Related Behavior: As a result of extensive discussions with and recommendations from faculty and students, a new classroom behavior policy and associated new procedures have been adopted. You may view this information at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html
Honor Code: The purpose of an Honor Code at the University of Colorado at Boulder is to secure an environment where academic integrity, and the resulting behavior, can flourish. The Honor Code recognizes the importance of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility and wishes these principles to be a defining part of the CU-Boulder campus. The Honor Code allows all students to have responsibility for, and the ability to attain, appropriate recognition for their academic and personal achievements. You can view the honor code information at http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/