PH1210

PH1210 College Physics II Spring 2008

Instructors

Dr. Gary Agin e-mail: gagin@mtu.edu Office: Fisher 103

Office Hours: TR 2:00-4:00

Lin Pan e-mail: lpan@mtu.edu Office: Fisher 227C

Office Hours: MWF 2:00-4:00

Materials

Please bring your textbook(s) and these other materials to EVERY class session:

- Pencil with a usable eraser and Pen

- Notebook and/or loose leaf paper (for taking notes and working examples)

- Your "i-clicker" set to frequency "DC" - A calculator

You may also wish to bring a highlighter (for emphasizing passages in your text or notes)

Grading Policy

Your grade will be determined by your performance in the following 3 areas:

Attendance/Participation (i-clicker) (10%)

Homework (WebAssign) (30%)

Exams (60%) (Exam #1 10%, Exam #2 15%, Exam #3 15%, Final Exam 20%)

Attendance/Participation (10%)

Attendance will be based on your use of your "i-clicker" to answer questions in class. Lecture will begin with a simple question from the reading. You will receive credit for this only if you have it correct. Most classes will contain 4-6 other questions which you will receive credit for answering (whether or not the answers are correct.) You must answer most of these to get the credit. Reading quizzes and participation will be equally weighted in your grade.

Homework (WebAssign) (30%)

Homework will consist of problems graded through the WebAssign tool on the Internet. Problems are graded automatically. The specifics of accessing/using WebAssign are available at:

http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~gagin/1210/webassign

WebAssign assignments will be due on Monday and Wednesday and Friday evenings at 11:59 PM. The first half of each class will focus on problems due that day (and relevant to material from the previous lecture.) You are expected to attempt the problems listed each day before arriving in class as your remaining questions will be the focus of the first half of class. After you get your questions answered, you should return and finish the problems before midnight. Each assignment will be worth 100 points. Your homework grade will be an average of all assignments.

Late homework will not be accepted unless we receive an excuse via e-mail from the Dean of Students office, appropriate coach, or faculty advisor. Even when you are away from campus, we expect an effort to access WebAssign from your off-campus location. If you know that you will miss a class in advance, please contact me by e-mail at least one day in advance to make arrangements to submit work. We reserve the right to ask for a different problem solution from students making early or late submissions for any reason.

Exams Exam #1 (10%) – During class 2/14

Exam #2 (15%) – During class 3/7

Exam #3 (15%) – During class 4/2

Final Exam (20%) Wed, May 2, 12:45-2:45 PM

All exams will be open book, open note, and contain essay questions, calculations, and multiple choice problems. Exams 1-3 will focus on material covered since the previous exam. The final exam is comprehensive with an emphasis on untested material. No late exams will be given. Please do not make travel arrangements that conflict with these exam times. Exams will not be given at earlier times without an excuse from the Dean of Students, faculty advisor, or coach.

Approximate Grading Scale

Overall grades will be assigned with the approximate cutoff points as follows:

A 90% B 80% C 70% D 60%

AB 85% BC 75% CD 65% F <60%

We reserve the right to adjust these cutoffs downward, but will not adjust them upward.

Our expectations

We expect that you will spend at least 1 hour outside of this class reading the textbook and 1.5 or 2 hours working problems/answering questions for every hour you spend in class. This means you should plan on 6-9 hours/week outside of class to focus on this course. You are responsible for the material covered in the prerequisite course, PH1110.

We will assume that you have read the text, attempted to work the assigned problems, and written answers to the conceptual questions BEFORE YOU ARRIVE IN CLASS. You may often arrive confused about the material and/or puzzled by some of the problems or questions. This is appropriate, as we will start each class by addressing these questions. Though all assigned questions and problems will not be graded through WebAssign, all are important in terms of preparing for exams.

Extra Help
The main reason we assign homework is to give you practice working problems so that you are ready for the exams. We give quizzes to check your understanding and progress. It is not our intention to “get” anyone; we give you opportunities to ask questions about homework before anything is due. We expect you, however, to arrive at class ready to “finish up” material from the previous day. If you get “stuck” on an entire assignment, here are some people and places to go:

1) Physics learning center (228 Fisher Hall, http://www.phy.mtu.edu/phylcenter/phylcenter.html)

2) Other friends/acquaintances who are taking or have taken physics.

3) Us! (gagin@mtu.edu or lpan@mtu.edu) We will do our best to respond ASAP. Sometimes we can answer questions by e-mail, or we can arrange to meet outside of class, either during office hours or at another mutually convenient time.

ADA Statement: Please contact one of us as soon as possible you have a disability that will require any accommodations during the semester. Reasonable accommodations and services will be provided to students if requests are made in a timely manner, with appropriate documentation, in accordance with federal, state, and MTU guidelines.