Physics 122 Main Handout

Tutorials:

Although no participation points are assigned during tutorial sessions, many students find them the most valuable element in the class for learning to do exam questions and homework problems.

• Discussion sessions are run as group tutorials. -- The discussion sessions will be run as group activities with tutorial worksheets that you will be given when you arrive. The tutorials have two goals:
  1. to help you develop your conceptual understanding of the basic ideas underlying the physics,
  2. to help you learn to think about how you know what you know.

• Get problem help in the Course Center! -- Since we will not be answering questions about HW in the discussion sections, we have set up a Course Center in room Toll 0208. You can come there to check other texts for ideas, to work with other students, and to ask the course center monitor (me or one of the TAs) some questions. Don't expect the monitors to show you how to do the problems, however. The problems are designed so that you learn by thinking about them, not by memorizing them. Monitors are encouraged to ask you questions first, to find out where you are coming from, and then to give you suggestions and hints for what you might try to solve them. Your colleagues are free to tell you anything, but you have to decide if they are right or wrong!

Labs:

• Ya gotta do the labs! -- There will be an introductory lab plus 5 two-week labs during the semester. You must complete all of these labs in order to pass this course. This is a requirement in order to meet professional school criteria.

• These are non-traditional labs! -- Laboratories in this class will involve both exploration and creativity. Instead of being given a long step-by-step procedure, you will be given a question in a sentence or two. You will work in groups of 4 to plan and carry out your own experiment. In a second week you will analyze and model your data mathematically using Excel (a spreadsheet). For more details, see "A hitchhiker's guide to the 122 Lab" for rules and procedures.

• There are two lab quizzes. -- There will be lab quizzes during the weeks of 3/15 and 4/26. Your lab grade will be based on your weekly written log describing your work, your participation (in whole-class discussions, not just in your 4-person working group) and the lab quizzes.

• There are no makeups, but... -- There are no makeup labs, since if you miss a session, you won't have the opportunity to work with your group or present your results to the class. If you are ill or have a legitimate excuse for missing one week of lab (this must be discussed with me, not your TA, before you miss), your group will cover for you. Therefore it is important for each of you to contribute substantially to your group's work each week that you are in lab so that if you are ill for the second week of lab the rest of your group does not feel that you did not contribute to the report. If you have to miss more than one week of lab for pre-known reasons, discuss it with me and we will try to get you into other labs for those weeks. If you have to miss more than one week of lab for illness, we will give you an alternative independent writing activity that involves evaluation and discussion of all components (design, data analysis, and level of certainty) for that lab. You must see me to arrange that.

Exams:

• There are 3 exams. -- There will be two midterm exams and a final. All exams will be counted. Each midsemester exam will be given on a Thursday (tentatively, on 3/09 and 4/20), and will be returned on the following Tuesday.

• Missing an exam -- If you miss an exam without a documentable excuse you will get a zero! If you are sick enough to not take the exam you are sick enough to go to the health center. If you have a schedule problem, you must let me know beforehand in order to be able to take the makeup. If you miss an exam without a valid excuse you can take the makeup but will average in a 0 for the exam! (See below.)

• You can improve an exam grade 1: Regrades -- Since we go over midsemester exams in class, you will be able to get a good view of how it was graded. If you think the grader misunderstood what you were saying, or failed to give you proper credit, you can apply to me for a regrade by writing a clear description of why you think you should have more points and turning it in with your exam. (Be sure not to write on your exam itself since this will mean I would have to look up the scanned exams to see what you originally wrote. Requests for regrades on altered exams will be automatically reported to the honor committee. Don't do it!)

• You can improve an exam grade 2: Makeup exams -- Each midterm exam will be followed by a makeup exam a week after the exam, in the late afternoon (the exact day to be decided). If you miss a midterm, you must take the makeup. If you are unhappy with your grade on an exam, you may take the makeup. If you take both the original and makeup exams, your grade for that exam will be the average of the two grades (whether you do better or worse). Students who carefully consider their errors and understand what they did wrong on the first exam almost always improve. Students who don't do this and just "take another shot" and "study some more" are as likely to go down as to go up.

• The final -- The final exam will be cumulative, but about half the exam will focus on the material done after the second midterm. You will have 4 hours to do the final. This is not because it is long, but because I want you to have time to think! Most students will be able to finish in 2 hours, but the 4-hour period removes the time pressure.

• You will have to think on exams! -- Exam problems will not be standard end-of-chapter problems. You will be expected to think, not replay a previously memorized tape. Questions of the type found on these exams will be included in the homework problems and previous exams will be available on our web site.

Grading:

• Components --

  Hour exams (125 pts each)	250
  Final exam (200 pts)	200
  Homework (scaled to)	250
  Lab (scaled to)	200
  Participation (scaled to)	100
  Total	1000

• How grades are assigned -- I assign a grade level for each category (e.g., how many points you need to get to get an A on the homework) and then add them up to get a grade level for what is need for each final grade.

• Curving: Labs and HW yes, exams no -- For exams, I do not grade on a curve. I have an absolute expectation. On most exams, 75% will be an A, 65% a B. (These levels may be adjusted somewhat if I feel that an exam is harder or easier than normal.) This means that someone else's doing well on an exam will never negatively affect your grade. If you all do well I will give you all A's.

  Homework and lab grades depend significantly on how the TAs grade. Although I give them instructions, they may not be consistent. After all the HW and lab grades are in, I will adjust the grades if a TA's pattern is off by more than a few percent from the average. Grades will be adjusted so that about the top 25% get an A and 40% more get a B in HW and lab.

• The escape clause -- There is an "escape clause" for final grades: If you are below the total needed for a grade but are within 25 points and you are in the next grade up in both homework and the final, I will give you the next grade up.

Valid excuses:

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