Teaching Assistant Information

Leah Petersen

email: lpetersen@austincollege.edu

Lab (MS2) Hours: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Sunday

Matt Fletcher

email: mfletcher@austincollege.edu

Lab (MS2) Hours: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Thursday

Letter to Students

Welcome to Physics 111. This is the first course in the calculus-based introductory physics sequence at Austin College. Using the tools of observation, experiment, definition, mathematical description, and the construction of theories, you will cover various topics in classical mechanics in this course. This is not a lecture-based course; I will do very little lecturing. The course is designed to promote the development of investigative skills; you will make predictions and observations, undertake guided derivations, and learn to use computer tools to develop mathematical models of physical phenomena. The methods, materials, and techniques used in this course have been tested and have been demonstrated to provide a better strategy for learning physics than traditional methods provide.

Since each of you will be actively engaged in all phases of the course, class attendance is essential—see the comments about attendance in the Course Requirements section of this document. Please try to avoid absences, but if you do miss class, see me as soon as possible so arrangements for making up the missed work can be made.

If you have trouble with any apparatus or suggestions for improvements as we go through the course, please let me know. I am looking forward to this course; I hope it is a positive experience for you.

Sincerely,

Don Salisbury

Purpose of the Course

This course, Physics 111, is the first of four courses in the introductory sequence that surveys the discipline of physics. Physics 111 covers classical mechanics, Physics 112 covers electromagnetic theory and thermodynamics, Physics 211 covers vibrations, waves, and optics, and Physics 212 covers modern physics (by convention, modern physics denotes the areas of physics developed from circa 1890 to the present). Physics 111 introduces tools and techniques that will be used in all following physics courses, and serves primarily students intending to major in the physical sciences or engineering.

Course Description

This is the first course in the calculus-based introductory sequence in physics. It will cover the broad area of mechanics. After a preliminary introduction to the course and methods to be used, Module 1 will treat one-dimensional motion, forces, gravity, and the application of Newton’s laws. Module 2 will cover collisions, work and energy, rotational motion and dynamics, and will close with a study of harmonic motion.

The techniques used in Physics 111 are nontraditional; there will be essentially no lectures, but rather students will be actively engaged with prediction, observation, measurement, and developing mathematical models of physical phenomena. Students will work in pairs and each pair will have a computer at their disposal. Two pairs of students will constitute a peer group for collaboration, discussion, and support. Printed Activity Guides will provide background, instructions and directions, but the Guides are neither textbooks nor laboratory manuals. The Guides are rather workbooks designed to serve as the foundation for first two courses in the calculus-based sequence that is activity-centered. Reading and homework assignments in the text, Understanding Physics, by Cummins, Laws, Redish, and Cooney (based on Fundamentals of Physics, 6^th Edition, by Halliday, Resnick and Walker), will be made for each of the 14 units that make up the first semester course. In addition to the in-class activities, which will be graded, regular homework assignments will be given, and students will complete a project near the end of the term. The in-class tests and the final exam round out the graded activities for the course.

Course Goals and Objectives

Goals

Upon the completion of this course students should be able to demonstrate a firm understanding of the concepts and principles associated with the topics of classical physics covered by this course. Students should also have improved their skill in applying laboratory tools for investigating physical phenomena and describing those phenomena using mathematics, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and computer tools.

Objectives

More specifically, students should be able to:

· Demonstrate problem-solving skills by successfully completing homework assignments and working test problems at a satisfactory level.

· Use computers equipped with appropriate sensors and interfaces to investigate physical phenomena as shown by successful completion of the assigned activities.

· Demonstrate the application of computer spreadsheets to develop computational models, which accurately reflect empirical observations.

· Demonstrate the ability to apply the above activities in a new physical situation by successfully completing an approved project dealing with a situation not covered in class.

Resources

Written Resources

The following are available in the Campus Bookstore:

· Workshop Physics Activity Guide—Core Volume with Module 1, Priscilla W. Laws, John Wiley & Sons (2004).

· Workshop Physics Activity Guide—Module 2: Mechanics II, Priscilla W. Laws, John Wiley & Sons (2004).

· Understanding Physics, Cummins, Laws, Redish, and Cooney, John Wiley & Sons (2004). Note: this willalso be the required text for Physics 112 in the spring.

The following have been placed on reserve in the Abell Library:

· Experiment: An Introduction to Measurement Theory and Experiment Design, Third Edition, D.C. Baird, Prentice-Hall, (1995).

· The Craft of Scientific Writing, Michael Alley, Springer (1996).

· The Physics of Sports, Angelo Armenti, Jr., ed., American Institute of Physics (1992).

· Physics of the Body, Cameron, Skofronick, and Grant, Medical Physics Publishing (1999).

· The Physics of Golf, Second Edition, Theodore Jorgensen, Springer (1999).

· The Physics of Dance, Kenneth Laws, Schirmer Books (1984).

· Structures or Why Things Don’t Fall Down, J.E. Gordon, Da Capo Press (1981).

Web Resources

Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students http://writing.eng.vt.edu/

This is a site hosted by Michael Alley of Virginia Tech. Alley is the author of The Craft of Scientific Writing (see reserve list above).

People Resources

Instructor: Feel free to contact the instructor for assistance. See office hours, lab hours, and instructions for making an appointment in the "Course Leaders" section of this document.

TA—The Teaching Assistants can provide valuable help in all aspects of the course work. They will be available each class meeting and will keep lab hours (see "Course Leaders" section of this document).

Academic Skills Center: The people available in the Academic Skills Center, located in the Wright Campus Center, can provide help in several aspects of the course, and will be particularly helpful with your writing.

Course Calendar Fall 2006

8/30

9/1

9/4

9/6

9/8

9/11

9/13

9/15

9/18

9/20

9/22

Test 1

9/25

9/27

9/29

10/2

10/4

10/9

10/11

10/13

10/16

10/18

10/20

10/23

10/25

10/27

10/30

11/1

Test 2

11/3

11/6

11/8

11/10

11/13

11/15

11/17

11/20

11/22

11/27

11/29

12/1

Exam

12/7

3:00-5 :00 p.m.

Course Requirements

The following passages describe the requirements for this course. The components were selected and designed to make you an active participant in all phases of the course.

Activity Guides

Workshop Physics Activity Guide is a set of workbooks designed to serve as the foundation for a two-semester calculus-based introductory sequence. In Physics 111 we will complete Units 1-14 in Modules 1 and 2. These workbooks provide activities that illustrate physics principles and facilitate learning physics concepts and practices.

You must complete the assigned activities in the Guide; this requires you to provide written answers to questions, results of measurements, graphs showing experimental results or spreadsheet calculations, and other responses. These responses are to be made directly in the Guide; usually space is provided where a response is needed. You are encouraged to keep your own notes in the margins of the Guide. You should not make a practice of waiting until after class to fill in your workbook. Although you may use the same data and graphs as your partners and discuss concepts with your classmates, all entries should reflect your own understanding of the concepts and the meaning of the data and graphs you are presenting. Thus each Activity Guide entry must be written in your own words. Do not tear any pages out of the Guide booklet.

Each Monday you will submit your booklet for grading. Each week will be “quantity graded.” You will receive a “quantity grade” for each week in the form of a percentage of the completed work. For example, if there are 62 responses required in a particular week, and you only answer 54 of them, you will receive a “quantity grade’ of 87% for that unit. In addition, on a random basis, several times during the semester some of the entries will be “quality graded.” This “quality grade” will depend upon the quality and completeness of the selected responses. The instructor will look for complete sentences, clear expository writing, proper labeling of graphs and tables, the expression of results to the correct number of significant figures, and adherence to instructions. Since these Activity Guide entries will be open to you when you take tests, it is to your advantage to create a set of entries and margin notes based on in-class discussions and textbook readings that are useful references as you complete tests. The quantity and quality grades will be averaged and the result will be assigned as the Activity Guide grade.

Daily assigned activities should in general be completed by 9:30. The remaining time will be devoted to class activities and discussion.

In order to respond to the directions of the Guide, you must actually perform the indicated activities. If you must miss class or fall behind, you cannot copy another’s workbook, but rather you must come to lab and complete the work yourself. Copying another’s Guide entries will be considered plagiarism. The facilities, MS2, will be open for makeup work during portions of some evenings. See the “Course Leaders” section of this syllabus for the scheduled hours. Your Activity Guide will be collected each Monday; there will be a grade penalty if it is submitted after the announced deadline.

Homework

The instructor will distribute homework assignments regularly. The homework assignment for each class will be due at the beginning of the next class. No late assignments will be accepted after graded assignments are returned. You are encouraged to work on homework problems with others in the course, but you must submit solutions that reflect your understanding of the problem. Copying another’s homework solutions will be considered plagiarism. There will be a variety of types of homework problems; these problems may include: typical textbook problems, problems more directly related to the activities of the unit, problems that require the use of spreadsheets, and analysis of motion depicted in short video clips. These assignments will usually require reading of the textbook to consolidate lessons learned in the laboratory, and they can require up to a couple of hours to complete. You will receive at least 50% credit for seriously attempting to solve a problem using diagrams, descriptions, and mathematics even if your ultimate solution is incorrect. To receive partial credit you must explain in writing what approaches you have taken to solving the problem.

In order to receive full credit on a problem, your solution should contain a diagram of the physical situation, a brief written description of the situation, and calculations.

Examinations

Two in-class examinations and a final examination will be given in the course. See the course calendar to find the scheduled dates. The examinations will be reflective of the type of activities carried out in class meetings and the nature of homework problems assigned. Solutions of some exam problems may require the use of a computer. For example, a spreadsheet calculation may be a required part of a problem solution. Emphasis will be placed on demonstrating the ability to apply the concepts and techniques learned to new situations. Unless otherwise specified, during an exam you may use your Activity Guide and other material that you generated during the course. No other sources, unless explicitly noted by the instructor, may be used while taking an examination.

Project

During the last third of the term, teams of four students each—in consultation with the instructor— will explore a topic related to the course. The work on projects will be carried out outside of class time. The goal of the project is to help you consolidate your understanding of Newton’s Laws and to learn more about the process of doing collaborative research. Once your team has decided on a problem to study, you will analyze it both experimentally and theoretically. You might choose to study the motion of some object in the lab using the sensors and software used in the course, or you might use a video camera to record your own videotapes of motions of interest. Another method to acquire a videotape for analysis is the use of a VCR to record the motions of televised sports events. Motion sequences in commercial films are another source that might be used.

After you have carefully analyzed the selected motions, your group will write a formal project report that presents your data, analysis, and conclusions. Each project report must be word-processed using any word processor you are comfortable with. Data and graphs should be included within the body of the report, not appended at the end. Diagrams in the final draft of your paper must be made with computer drawing programs, but the required preliminary draft can contain hand-drawn diagrams. Your first draft will be returned to you with comments from the instructor and critiques from several of your classmates, and based on the comments and critiques, you will refine your report and submit a second, final version (along with your first version and the critiques from your peers). Your audience for this report is not the instructor, but other students who are taking this course, but who have not done the project you are reporting on. Each report should include the following:

Essential Elements of a Project Report

1. The date, course name and number;

2. Your name, the names of your partners, and project title;

3. A statement of the purpose of the project;

4. A summary of the relevant theory and equations. If the key equations used in calculations are not derived in your text, they should be derived in this section of the report. You may want to look up and cite some references that provide you with some added theoretical grounding for the project.

5. A description of the procedures and equipment used. Include an apparatus drawing with appropriate labels attached;

6. Data clearly labeled with units (usually presented in tabular form);

7. Calculations and data analysis with each step displayed for at least one sample calculation of each type. (Note: This means that the equations used to calculate each column in a spreadsheet should be presented);

8. Results displayed in the form of graphs with axes labeled with units;

9. A discussion of results and conclusions including an assessment of the sources of uncertainty and suggestions for improvement of the experiment.

A good source for an extended discussion of these elements of a report is the book by D.C. Baird (see the "Resources" section of this document).

Individual grades on the project report will be based on a combination of the team's grade on the project report (based on scientific merit, appearance, clarity of writing, etc.), and the individual's contributions. Your individual grade will depend upon the quality of your critique of the paper of another team's report, and the quality of your contribution to the project as reported by fellow team members including yourself. A more detailed description of the project requirements, reports, and grading will be distributed later.

Grading

Your course grade will be based upon the instructor's judgment of your work using the following weighting scheme as a guide:

· In-Class Examinations	30%
· Final Examination	15%
· Written Homework	15%
· Activity Guide Entries	20%
· Project	15%
· Class Participation	5%
Total	100%

Ungraded Diagnostic Quiz

You will be asked to answer a collection of multiple choice questions without reference to notes. Some of these questions pertain to concepts you may have learned, while other questions are about material you will be covering and ought to be able to answer once you have completed future activities. These questions will help your instructor gauge your progress as you move through the course. The quiz score will not count toward your grade.

How To Do Well In This Course

Understanding physics and learning how to investigate natural phenomena on your own can be an exhilarating experience, but it requires much time and effort. How much time are you expected to invest in this course? How does that compare with average study time at other institutions?

This course is built around each student being actively engaged with all phases of the course. You must be engaged with the activities in the Guide and the homework assignments on a daily basis. The key to doing well in this course is simply staying involved every day. The expectation for students in this course is that they will spend an hour outside of class for each hour spent in class, that is six hours per week. This outside time should be spent working with readings, problem assignments, review of recent work and planning for future activities. This level of expectation is consistent with average study time at other colleges and universities. One study of the hours spent outside of class for students taking introductory physics is presented in the bar graph below.

The average number of outside hours per week was 6.5 and the median was 5.9.

Physics courses at Austin College may demand a significant effort to do well, but the workload is not out of line with that required in physics courses at other academic institutions.

Policies

Academic Integrity Policy

In this course there are many activities that you should perform with the help and cooperation of your peer group. Discussion of predictions and results obtained in class will enhance your understanding of the phenomena under study. Working together on homework problems, provided everyone contributes, leads to a deeper understanding in most cases than working alone. While collaboration is encouraged in many activities, your response to a question or problem must be your own. It must reflect your understanding of the question or problem. You are neither to give nor receive aid of any kind on a formal examination. You are not permitted to copy another's homework paper or Activity Guide. Some specific actions that will be interpreted as plagiarism have been stated previously in this document. The following activities constitute a not necessarily exhaustive list of offenses which are in violation of the college's Academic Integrity Policy:

Turning in work done by someone else.
Working on an assignment with others when the instructor asked for individual work.
Receiving unpermitted help on an assignment.
Writing or providing a paper for another student.
Getting Q/A from someone who has taken test.
In a course requiring computer work, copying a friend's program rather than doing your own.
Helping someone else cheat on a test.
Falsifying lab or research data.
Fabricating or falsifying a bibliography.
Copying from another student during a test or examination without his or her knowing it.
Copying from another student during a test with his or her knowledge.
Copying a few sentences of material from a written source without footnoting them in a paper.
Turning in a paper either purchased or plagiarized, in large part, from a term paper "mill" or website.
Copying a few sentences of material from an Internet source without footnoting them in a paper.
Using unpermitted crib notes (cheat sheets) during a test.
Copying material almost work for word from any written source and turning it in as your own work.
Altering graded test and submitting it for additional credit.
Turning in a paper copied from another student.
Using a false excuse to obtain extension on due date.
Hiding or damaging library/course material.
Cheating on a test in any other way
Cheating on a written assignment in any other way.

You must become familiar with the requirements set out in this syllabus. If there is ever a question about the appropriateness of an action, ask the instructor for clarification.

Attendance

As already noted, attendance at all class sessions is required. Missing class without a valid excuse will be frowned upon because make-up classes pose difficulties in correlating work between partners and require extra time of the instructor and TA. Recall that class participation is 5% of the total course grade; it is impossible to participate unless you are in class. When a class is missed for legitimate reasons, arrangements for making up the work should be made promptly with the instructor.

Respect for Equipment

I expect you to be careful with lab equipment. At the end of each class period your work area should be left with equipment neatly arranged, your computer left in sleep mode, and scrap materials gathered and thrown away. Please do not bring food or drinks into the lab.

Late Work

Because it is to your advantage to have rapid feedback on written work, every effort will be made to grade and return all work promptly. It takes the instructor or TA longer to grade late work separately, so a grade penalty will be assessed for late work.

Acknowledgment

The design of this course is built around the years of work that Priscilla Laws of Dickinson College and her collaborators have invested in developing the strategies and materials for teaching Workshop Physics. The Guide used in the daily activities shows her as principal author. The approach at Austin College has been pioneered by Professor Larry Robinson who in preparing this syllabus for use at Austin College drew liberally on the ideas and written words of Workshop Physics materials, in some cases verbatim.