Physics 303L -- Summer 2002 Homepage

http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~itiq/303Lsu/chiu/

Unique Number 94005: MTWThF

Lecture: (11:30-12:30) Pai 4.42 (from July 15 on, RLM6.104)

2^nd hour: (12:30-1:30) Pai 2.48 (from July 15 on, RLM 5.104)

1. Instructor: C. Chiu, Office: RLM 10.206, 471-1707, office hours: TuTh: 1:30 to 2:00.

• You may contact me through email: chiu@physics.utexas.edu
• Instructor's comments (linked to the homepage of this course)

TA: Mykhailo Formits’kyi: fomisha@physics.utexas.edu

2^nd hour class:

· Help sessions, conducted by TA and some review sessions by instructor (see syllabus)

· Extra time for exams.

2. Course materials:

• Textbook: Serway and Beichner, Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 5th ed.
• Reference: 303L-IQ-library (see homepage of this course).
• Class Performance System (CPS) remote (required): You may purchase it at UT-Coop bookstore.
• Homepage of this course: Go to important Homework Service, Classtalk (CPS) homepage, ... and to Web-references: Firstday handout, IQ-library, Instructor comments, ...

3. Interactive quiz oriented teaching:

· We intersperse lectures with interactive quiz (IQ) sessions. The questions given in these sessions will be the taken from the IQ-library. These "IQ"-questions are chosen to highlight the course materials and give students guidance in doing HW problems. Good understanding of textbook examples, IQ questions and homework problems will help you to master the physics of this course.

· We plan to use the Class Performance System (CPS) starting from the second class. Please have your CPS remote ready to participate the interactive quiz sessions. Your TA and/or Kevin Nelson (CPS-assistant, email address: ctalk@physics.utexas.edu) will assist you in CPS related matter.

4. Course summary: The course summary sheet attached gives the first half of the basic formulas or the basic principles which you will be learning in this course. The remainder of the summary sheet to be handed out later on. The course summary is meant to help you to organize the course materials, to do homework and to review for exams. Questions on the summary are welcome at anytime, except during an exam.

5. Homework/Tests/Final: ( See also the syllabus page in your handout, which is also linked to our homepage.)

• Homework:The homework service handles distribution and collection of the homework on the Web. No late homework will be accepted.
• Tests and Final exam: There will be 3 quizzes (also referred to as tests, or midterm exams) and the final exam. See the syllabus page for the date of each Test. The exam is 1 hour long, student is allowed to work on the exam for an additional 30 minutes in the second-hour class room. During each Test,
• a fresh course summary sheet will be given to you. No crib-note cards will be allowed.
• Programmable calculators may be used for numerical calculations only. No display of any formula on the screen is allowed
• Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.

6. Grading policy:

• Inclass (CPS-participation credits): 5%
• Homework (drop 1) 20%
• Tests (drop 1) 45%
• Final 30%

During the semester, students may gauge their exam performance in the following way. The essence is that when an exam average is high the grading is based on the absolute performance, and when the average is low the grading is based on a curve. The cutoffs are:

• Default % score cutoffs are: 40%, 55%, 75% and 90% for D, C, B and A respectively.
• Default scaled-score-cutoffs are: 400, 450, 525, and 600 for D, C, B and A respectively.
• For each exam two letter grades may be determined, one based on %-score-cutoffs and the other based on scaled-score-cutoffs. If the two are different, the better of the two will be the letter grade which the student has made for the exam.

Exams: There are three Tests plus a final. The final exam is mandatory. No make up exams will be given. The Test with lowest score (defined above) will be dropped. If a student misses a Test, the missing Test will be the dropped one. A student is required to take at least two out of three Tests.

No-drop option: If the Test missed is due to a legitimate reason, which is email-approved by the instructor, the student may petition following “no-drop option”..

· The student's final exam score appropriately scaled is to replace the score of the missing Test.

· No-drop will be applied when determining the semester Test-average. This average will be determined based on Tests taken plus the replaced missing Test score..

To apply this option, the student must save the email-approval and claim this option through email immediately after the final

Good participation status: Following scheme is to encourage you to work hard and to work persistently through out the semester. A student earns a "good participation" status, if his/her homework score is greater than 80%, and if the student has actively attended and participated over 80% of classes during a semester. A more than 20% absence from the class for any reason (including out of town trips and illness etc) will automatically disqualify a student from achieving such a status. Following special considerations will be applied to any student who has earned a “good participation status”.

• For a borderline case, where student's % score is within 2 %-points below the cutoff, the next higher grade will be assigned to the student.

· If the final exam letter grade is higher than the letter grade of semester average (including the final and after drops), the semester average letter grade will be pushed up by one level.

Semester Grade: After the final exam a separate “grade-analysis” program (independent of the homework service) will be used to determine student's semester grade: The analysis is based on the stated grading policy. It also takes into account

· the scaled score of each exam and

· the good participation status (the evaluation is done after drops are applied).

First class reminders

• We plan to use the wireless system starting from the second class to Thursday, July 25. We will use the system as much as practical. Be prepared to use the wireless system starting from the next class.
• Do "Homework-Service Registration". Access password: blank. Read students' instructions to get yourself started. You may get help from the Physics Microcomputer Lab, RLM7.306.
• Homework:
• Notice the due time of homework is at 4am ( think of it as the evening before).
• Announcements related to homework, such as clarification of a homework problem, error report etc. will be given on the hws-emergency bulletin.
• We recommend you work on your hw-problems each day. Submit hw-answer(s) expeditiously. Download your solution after the due time.
• Second hour class is optional. They are mainly help sessions by TA and occasionally review sessions by the Instructor.

To take this course, you must enroll in 103N lab. Check with the lab supply room RLM8.316 (471-5352) for the lab schedule. On issues related to pre/co-requisites see Pat Morgan in RLM 5.216.