Text/Work book: I wrote a short guide for this class. It is linked to the main class website. You are welcome to use any other textbook that you may find, but the assigned activities come from our book.Grading: Polylearn => Canvas: I’m trying to get this class up on Canvas, but it may take a while. Your grade is very easily computed consisting of your performance on assessments as long as you prepare for class watching videos, come to class and participate, and do both your projects. I grade on your understanding of the material as determined by exams. The reason I do this is so that you will focus on increasing your understanding of the material rather than on getting homework problems done for the points. Of course, students who do homework score better on the exams.
Your final grade will be determined by a rubric: 30% for the final exam, 60% for weekly assessments. and 5% for each of two projects. Inside of this, you are also required watch videos for each class. We all need you to be prepared for and engaged in class to make this a enjoyable, productive learning experience for you and the people around you.Weekly Assessments: We will have a short (~ 20 minutes) assessment on each Tuesday. The grades from the first two weeks will not count. Of the final 8 assessments, the top 6 grades will be taken. AND the final exam grade will replace any assessments of lower value than the final. Hence, if you miss (or botch) an assessment, you can take a zero and the grade will be dropped, AND a fine performance on the final exam will compensate for all assessment shortcomings.
Assessments and Exams: You are graded on your ability to communicate to me that you understand physics. Thus you will receive no credit if I can’t read or follow your logic, or if you provide no logic, but simply calculate the answer with a formula. You will earn an A, B, C, D, F, based on ability to communicate physics accordingly:D: Make a drawing and correctly identify an appropriate physics concept and provide reasons supporting this concept a majority of the time.
C: Besides that required for a D, provide a relevant, labeled drawing illustrating the physics being discussed.
B: Besides the statement and drawing required for a C, consistently set up a method to solve the problem.
A: Besides the statement, drawing, and method required for a B, consistently solve the problem, correctly use units and verify whether answer makes sense.
F: If you do not achieve the threshold for D.
Videos, Preparing for Class: It is imperative that we come to class prepared. You are required to check videos and other preparation from the daily class schedule on our class website. Video assignments will not be posted on PlayPosit. Please watch the videos on time for every class until the end of the video and answer all the questions. You are graded for answering video questions not on getting them right – so relax, enjoy, learn. If you watch 90% of the videos on time, then you will receive full credit toward your final grade. You will receive half credit for late videos. Your final grade will be lowered by twice the % of the videos that you watch less than 90%. So if you watch 75% of the videos, your grade will be docked (90% – 75%)*2 = 0.3, or about the difference between an “A” and an “A-“. If you watch none of the videos, it will lower an “A” to about a “C”.Other: We will do an Empathy Reflection in Week 6. Your participation will count as three videos. We will have online surveys (online quizzes). Participation counts as a video.
Problem Sets: Usually due Monday in class. These are graded A,B,C,D,F based on the above criteria. The grade is recorded, but will not be used toward your final grade. Hence, the incentive to do the homework is to learn the material for the exams and any other internal motivation such as the good times you’ll have kicking the problem around with your friends, the resilience you’ll gain in the process, and how much you’ll impress people at social gatherings when you can explain these important concepts. You may hand in your problem set as a group, stapled together. I will not collect late homework as I’ve found I usually lose them. However, you can turn in late HW in the box outside my door.
It would be a very good idea to completely understand the past homework assignments, class problems and previous assessments before each assessment.
Formula Sheets: You are welcome to build your own formula sheet with no more than 50 ideas = formulas + statements. Any drawing counts as 10 ideas. No formulas will be provided to you for an exam. I recommend that you start a formula sheet immediately (keep it in the back of your notebook) and add material as we cover it. If you gather more than 50 items, you will need to start dropping off items that you already know. If during a test, I judge your formula sheet to have too much information, I’ll ask you to tear it in half.
2 Video Projects: In groups of 2-4 students, you will do two projects:
– A video analysis of motion is due during week 3. You will make a video of (your) human power production and analyze the video. Project must include displacement, speed, and acceleration graphs as a function of time, and some calculation of force, work, power, energy or conservation of momentum.
– In week 7, we do a research project on something related to mechanics (for instance it can not be about quantum physics, electricity, light, relativity, etc.) that interests you. It may involve reading and research, or building and calculating, or doing an experiment. You will document it with a ~ 5 minute video that you will post on YouTube for the rest of the class to see. The project description link is on the main class page.
Everyone is expected to support their group’s effort toward a successful project in order to share the project’s grade. So, please find a group, have fun, and fully participate for both projects.
Assessments: Assessments cover all the material up to and including the most recent class. I started giving weekly assessments only last quarter for a 141 class. You have access via my shared curriculum page to all the assessments and exams I’ve given (except final exams).
My Commitment to You: I will do my best to provide you with a planned structure, resources, and activities to learn. I will evaluate you only on criteria that I find foundational (to communicate concepts and how they affect our lives) allowing you the freedom to learn in a manner that suits you best. I will do my best to understand your professed needs and help you the best way I know. My Expectations of You: I expect that you will make decisions consistent with your best interest and your values. I also expect that we will all work toward the well being of our community. I expect that you will respect my time and make the best use of our time together by coming to class prepared. My intention is not to “teach” you, but to help you learn from the resources around you: textbooks, online media, and each other. I expect you to record your questions while you study. I expect to start class with questions related to the reading and videos. If you have a question, please ask it after you have addressed the related resource (video or reading) and consulted others in your group. Competition: Your performance will be graded not against each other, but rated against the A-F criteria established above. Therefore if you help others in your class, it is good for you too. My experience has shown that a positive collaborative attitude is likely to raise everyone’s grade. Learning Objectives:
- Develop the ability to see that physics is based on a few underlying easily-understood concepts or “lenses”.
- Begin to explain a physical phenomenon by choosing the appropriate underlying concept(s) and supporting that choice.
- Build abilities through picture drawing and the discussion of our “mental models” or how we see a phenomenon.
- Accept that we can verify a correct mental model through experiments and develop the ability to design and execute such experiments.
- Build empowering learning strategies that draw on available community and resources.
- Recognize that our understanding of anything is incomplete and may benefit from contrary perspectives.
- Develop any awareness of how our actions affect others nearby, far away, and in the future.