PHYS2211-Principles of Physics I

Sample Syllabus

This document is meant to be a sample syllabus for the course in order to give someone an idea of its scope and pedagogy.  This is not the actual syllabus for the class and students should refer to the on-line course management suite for their particular section in order to find the correct syllabus containing the specific policies, dates and deadlines for the semester and section they are enrolled in.

Instructor: Dr. Chad L. Davies
Office: IC236
Office Hours: TBD
Office Phone: 678-359-5831
E-mail: c_davies@gordonstate.edu
Home Page: http://www.gordonstate.edu/faculty/c_davies/phys2211hp.htm
Textbooks: Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 3rd Ed., Knight, Randall, Pearson/Addison Wesley, Inc., New York, 2014.
Required Materials:

·       Scientific Calculator (with Trig Functions)

·       Ruler 

·       2 Sewn-Bound Notebooks

Semester Credit Hours:  4 (3-3-4)
Department: Mathematics and Physical Sciences

 Course Description:  An introduction to elementary principles of calculus-based physics, including kinematics, dynamics, forces, momentum, work and energy, rotational motion and oscillatory motion.

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

·      To gain a detailed understanding of the basic physical laws which 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 Galileo, Newton, Gauss, Maxwell and others were based on experiences and observations that they made.  In this course, the much of the emphasis is not on which of their discoveries you can memorize, but on the process of discovery itself.  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 unusual and possibly 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. 

The course will implement this philosophy in three ways:

·      Collaborative Learning.  In this course, you 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 class goes through the material two or three times.  The first time through allows you to develop a conceptual understanding of what is happening.  On the second pass, a theoretical/physical framework is added to the picture.  Lastly, you will learn the mathematical techniques and methods 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 class to be able to test and relate events as they are happening.

            Given these tools, the course will be may be very different than 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, you 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 you a bit of time to adjust to this, the insights gained through these teaching methods have been shown to be vastly superior to the results derived from 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 your 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, you would spend three hours in lecture thus necessitating nine hours spent outside of that.  Three of these hours will be spent in a lab section.  This leaves approximately six 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 the workload 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 do the best in subsequent classes and 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:  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 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, there will be a number of “Reading Quizzes” that will be delivered through the course’s GeorgiaView Vista site.  These will be multiple choice quizzes over the reading and conceptual material for the course.  The student can take them up to three times (the highest score will be taken) and they are open book and open note.  As a computer will be needed to complete these quizzes, each student in the course has been given a computer account on the campus network in order to use the College’s computer labs if necessary.  Students are advised to become familiar with how to access and use their campus account.

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.  You will receive a sheet that will explain the details of how the notebooks will be evaluated.  All of your activity notebook entries will be examined for completeness and graded on quality. The student will benefit from keeping this notebook as meticulously as possible as it will be the only thing allowed for assistance during tests.  The lab notebook will comprise approximately 50% of the course’s lab grade.

Unit Summaries:  For each major topical unit of the course (kinematics, Newton’s Second Law, Conservation Laws, etc), the student will write a unit summary.  These summaries will be extended papers that ask the student to summarize the major conceptual ideas of each unit with supporting data from the lab and activity work done for each unit.  Students will also be asked to discuss alternative conceptions and misconceptions they encountered and how these were refuted by the data.  These will comprise the other 50% of the lab portion of the course.

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 likely to be 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 class periods and students who participate in a school activity will be expected to have that time available or make other arrangements beforehand.  A schedule is provided to assist in planning for this.

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.

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 Vice Presidents of Academic and Student Affairs and/or expulsion.  Cheating will be considered any case where a student has represented work or ideas as original when it is not.  Reasonable evidence of this (mainly in the form of copying another student’s work) will be considered sufficient grounds for prosecution.  Additionally, all students in a group will be expected to contribute equally to work done.  Thus, the instructor will deduct points from a student’s work if it is perceived that the student is “riding” on the work of his or her teammates.

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 almost completely activities based, an interruption in attendance will make it hard to get all the exposure to the activities used to understand the material.  Additionally, students should be aware that the instructor is required to report the last day of a student’s attendance if the student receives a grade of “F” or “WF”.

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.

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 instructor should be contacted 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 will likely be denied. Oftentimes, students will find it necessary to put in extra time in the lab/classroom area.  Students are encouraged to do this in their assigned workgroups as many of the activities will be constructed to encourage group work.  Each student is expected to do the lab-based work in the course.  It will not be acceptable to turn in another student’s data as a make-up.  This is a difficult thing to schedule so be prepared to be flexible.