Instructor
Ramblings

Homework

Administrative Notes

Physics 1112-Introduction to Physics II 

Syllabus
Spring 2002

Instructor: Dr. Chad L. Davies
Office: 312, Russell Hall
Office Hours: MWF 9-10 am, M-F 12-1 pm
Office Phone: 770-358-5392
Instructor E-Mail: cldavies@mac.com
Class meeting Time and Room: 9-10 am MWF, 211 Russell Hall
Textbooks:  Physics, 5^th Ed., Cutnell, John D and Kenneth W. Johnson, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 2000.
Introduction to Physics II Lab Manual, Prelim. Ed., Laws, Priscilla, David Sokoloff, Ronald Thronton, Tom O’Kuma and Chad Davies, Gordon College Press, Barnesville, 2000.

Required Materials:
·    Calculator
·    Ruler 
·    2 Bound Notebooks

Course Description:  Is an introductory course covering the general topics of electricity, magnetism, optics and the atom and is recommended for majors in biological sciences, health and pre-professional majors.  Extended laboratory periods are required.

Course Philosophy:  This course is designed for the student to achieve two broad goals.

·       To gain a detailed understanding of the basic physical laws that govern the universe. 
·       To learn to apply these laws to specific situations and, in doing so, learn critical thinking and problem solving skills. 

To do enable the student to do this, the course will employ several novel teaching/learning strategies.  Primary among these strategies is the recognition that physics is an experimental science.  The discoveries of Newton, Gauss, Maxwell and others were based on experiences and observations that they and countless others had had or made.  In this course, the emphasis is not on which of their discoveries you can memorize, but on the process of discovery itself.  The structure of this course is centered on that consideration.  To learn you must experience, which is an active process.  For many of you, used to the traditional learning models used today, this approach will be startling, unusual and, perhaps, discomforting at first.  Yet this is how science has been done and how we will attempt to do it here.  Why have we chosen this method?  A number of studies have shown that students that learn using the methods described below score significantly higher on tests measuring both conceptual understanding and problem-solving ability than those students who learn using traditional lecture-based methods.  The course will implement this philosophy in three ways.

·       Collaborative Learning.  In this course, the student will work with other students in a number of ways with the instructor providing a greater amount of “coaching” and a lesser amount of lecturing. 
·       Spiral Learning. Here, the student is exposed to material two or three times.  The first time through allows the student to develop a conceptual understanding of what is happening.  On the second pass, a theoretical framework is added to the picture.  Lastly, the student begins to solve application problems using the principles learned. 
·       Real-time Data Taking. Much of the lab portion of the course will use the personal computer/Vernier LabPro Interface packages.  This allows the student to be able to test and relate events as they are happening.

          Given these tools, the course will be very different that those science classes you’ve taken in the past.  The answers won’t be trotted out for the student to examine in a lecture setting.  Rather, the student will discover, as did the scientific greats of years gone by, the physical laws that govern the universe through experimentation and critical reasoning.  While it may take the student a bit of time to adjust to this, the insights gained through these teaching methods are vastly superior to the old lecture/lab format.  The emphasis of the class becomes not “What do you know”, but rather “How do you know what you know”.  This is the fundamental question of science.

          Success in this course depends on the student being willing to invest a significant amount of time to preparation for and participation in the course.  It is an old adage that for every hour a student spends in the classroom, he or she should expect to spend three hours outside of it.  In a traditional course, the student would spend three hours in lecture thus necessitating nine hours spent outside of that.  Two of these hours will be spent in a lab section.  This leaves approximately seven hours per week to be spent in informal activities such as doing homework, completing activities and studying for exams outside of the class meeting time.  Surveys at major public and private institutions (the University of Nebraska, University of Oregon, Tufts University, Dickenson University, Rutgers, New Mexico State University and Arizona State University) as well as at a number of two-year institutions show that the average student needs to put this amount of time into the subject to succeed.  There is, of course, a great deal of variation to this, but it’s a good rule of thumb to start with.  This course may well require more work than other courses taken at Gordon or in high school, but it is not out of line with that of other colleges and universities.  Learning how to analyze data, describe natural phenomena mathematically and use new computer tools only come with an investment of time.  However, those students who master these skills find them among the most useful learned while at college and tend to command the highest salaries following graduation.

Method of Evaluation:  A student’s performance will be evaluated using several methods.  Failure to complete any portion of this course will be considered grounds for removal from the course or the assigning of a grade of F or I.       

Homework/JiTT:  Homework will be assigned throughout the course and will take a number of different forms.  From the time of the assignment, the student will have 2 class periods to finish it and turn it in.  All homework will be turned in in the student’s homework journal.  All work will be legible, logical and clear.  Homework that is one day late will be assessed a penalty of 1 pt, homework that is one class period late will be assessed a penalty of 50%.  Late begins 5 minutes into the class period when the assignment is due.  Homework later than this will not be given a grade but should be done.  Each assignment will be worth 10 points.  Partial credit will be given even if the correct answer is not arrived at.  To receive full credit, the student must not only provide the correct final answer but also a clear description of how the answer has been arrived at.  A note that is in order here, I have found that there is an extremely strong correlation between homework performance and overall class performance.  It is in the student’s best interest to put a strong effort into doing the homework.  Additionally, the student will be required to complete a number of JiTT (Just in Time Teaching) activities via WebCT.  These activities will include reading quizzes, attitude surveys, check-up problems, etc.  Additionally, practice exams problems and review materials may also be posted both on the course’s home page as well as on WebCT.

Science Teams/Writing Assignments: Science teams consist of members of the class who will go to local area elementary school classes to teach physics principles to children.  The team will adopt a class for the year and will visit the class three times.  During each visit the team will present hands-on activities to the class and write up reports describing the activity and its effectiveness.  For those students who are not comfortable with this portion of the class, there will be an opportunity to read four articles during the semester selected by the instructor.  The student will write a summary of the article.  This report will be no fewer than 250 words in length (more is OK).  The report will address the following three areas:

·       Briefly, what is the main point of the article?

·       How does the article specifically relate to the material that has been covered in class?

·       How does or might the information in this article impact you?

Activity Notebook: Work from the Activity Guide for the course will form a large portion of this course.  Given this, it is vital for the student to do the activity-based work.  Therefore, if a student receives a D or F in the activity portion of the course, that will be the grade assigned for the entire course.  The activity journal will be kept in a sewn notebook and turned in weekly for instructor review and evaluation.  It is in your best interest to keep your activity notebook current and up-to-date while working through the activities.  Each page is to be signed and dated as it is filled so as to provide a chronological record of your progress.  All sketches, data, graphs, tables, predictions and question answers must be made in your notebook.  You may use the same graphs, tables and data as your partners do, but all entries into the notebook should reflect your understanding of the concepts and data.  Hence, you are to write your notebook entries in your own words.  All of your activity notebook entries will be examined for completeness and graded on quality.  The instructor will look for complete sentences, clear, expository writing in procedure descriptions and data analysis, proper labeling of graphs and tables, appropriate units with numbers, accuracy of calculations, the expression of results to the correct number of significant figures and adherence to instruction.  It is ultimately your responsibility to see that your entries reflect a sound understanding of the phenomena you are observing and analyzing. The student will benefit from keeping this notebook as meticulously as possible as it will be the only thing allowed for assistance during tests.

Weekly Quizzes:  Each week a short 20-minute quiz will be given over the previous week’s material.  About 10 or so of these will be given and the student’s lowest quiz will be dropped from the grading.  There will be no curve applied to the quizzes.

Exams and Final:  There will be about three exams during the course as well as a final exam.  These are not likely to be curved, though in the case of a mistake or unreasonable expectation on the instructor’s part (as determined by the instructor) a case may arise where an exam is curved.  There will be no outside assistance allowed on the test though the student may use his or her activity notebook.  The exams will be given during lab periods and students who participate in a school activity will be expected to have that time available or make other arrangements.

Course Policies:  The following policies will be in effect throughout the duration of the course.  The instructor will deal with any other situations that may arise on a case-by-case basis.

Statute of Limitations:  While the instructor does his best to accurately review and assess student work, instances may occur where an error in assigning a grade may occur.  The student has exactly one week from the time of receiving a grade to ask the instructor to review the grade.  After this time has elapsed, all grades may be viewed as being carved in stone.

Cheating Policy:  Cheating is immoral, unethical, antithetical to the goals of higher education and a violation of the spirit and mission of the scientific pursuit of knowledge.  Additionally, dishonesty is harshly punished in the workplace.  Therefore, cheating, if caught, will carry dire consequences in this course.  If the student is caught cheating, the student shall be possible subject to any of the following punishments: assigning of a score of zero on the work, a permanent lowering of grade in the course, the assignment of a failing grade to the course, being reported to the Deans of Educational Services and Student Services and/or expulsion.  Cheating will be considered any case where a student has represented work or ideas as his or her own when they are not.  Reasonable evidence of this (mainly in the form of copying another student’s work) will be considered sufficient grounds for prosecution.

Accommodations of Disability:  If you need to make academic adjustments for any type of disability, see the instructor during office hours or by appointment. 

Attendance Policy:  While attendance is not strictly required, it “wouldn’t be prudent” for the student miss class for any but the most pressing reasons.  As the course will be strongly activities based, an interruption in attendance will make it hard to get all the exposure to the activities used to understand the material.  The instructor is required to report the last day of a student’s attendance if the student receives a grade of “F” or “WF”.

Make-Up Work:  While missing class is a bad idea, it is occasionally unavoidable.  If a student finds that he or she must miss a class the student should contact the instructor at the earliest possible time to arrange a time to make up any missed material.  If the student waits more than a week after the absence to discuss the make-up with the instructor, the request may be denied.  

A Tentative Schedule: I Phys II-Spring 2002

A Tentative Lab Schedule: I. Phys II-Spring 2002

Copyright © 2000, Gordon College. All rights reserved.
Revised: January 03, 2002