PHYS 101 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Course Description
Introduction
The goal of this course is to make you familiar, at the conceptual and basic problem-solving level, with the physics of mechanics, heat, and waves.
The basic philosophy of Physics 101 can be summarized as follows:
- Read about it (textbook)
- Untangle it (lectures)
- Play with it (labs)
- Challenge yourself (homework)
- Close the loop (discussion)
The order of the above items is very important.
The first exposure you will have to any material will be when you, on your own and prior to lecture, read about it in the text-book (1). This first step is one that all of the following items rest on, and should be taken very seriously.
The lecture (2) will not simply regurgitate what you have read, rather it will take the concepts you are having difficulty understanding and will expand/explain them, usually with the aid of demonstrations.
This is not a traditional approach. Your participation is required both prior to and during each lecture! Before every lecture you will be required to work through a brief "Checkpoint" on the web. Each checkpoint will probe your understanding of the reading material assigned for that lecture, and must be completed by 6am on the day of the lecture to receive credit. Your answers to these questions will be used by the lecturer in preparation of the material for that afternoons lecture. There are no "bad" checkpoint answers; as long as you give it your best shot, you will receive full credit simply for providing us with feedback!
The lectures themselves will be very interactive, and your participation is strongly recommended. Based on checkpoint responses, a selection of concepts will be explained and discussed. Student questions and comments in class are highly encouraged.
The weekly lab cycle (3) starts on Wednesday, and is designed to give you the opportunity to explore the concepts you have read about in the textbook and discussed in lecture on Monday and Wednesday afternoon.
The web-based homework (4) covering each weeks material is due at 6am on the Tuesday of the following week. This means you will have the background of reading the text and the experience of two lectures and a hands-on lab to guide you in finishing each weekly homework assignment. Homework problems are designed to test your understanding of the concepts as well as simple problem-solving skills.
To cap things off, a 2-hour weekly Discussion section (5) will go over the concepts you have learned about in the previous weeks text reading, lectures, lab and homework. The discussion cycle starts on Tuesdays.
To help you keep track of "what is due when" we have put together a handy web-based syllabus.
Required Background
The only official prerequisite for this class is trigonometry. We will assume you are sufficiently adept with math to solve simple simultaneous equations and manipulate vectors. Although not required, most people enrolled in Physics 101 have taken a high school physics class and many have had a semester of calculus.
Note for Pre-Med Students
For many of you Physics 101 and 102 will be an important part of your preparation for the MCAT exam. Rest assured that this has been one of the brightest beacons guiding the re-design of these classes.
Course Components
Textbook: The required text for this class is College Physics, Vol. 1, third edition, by Giambattista, Richardson, Richardson. If you are taking Physics 102 next semester, you will use Vol 2 of the same book. Optional study guides and solution manuals for this text will be available at the book store, but are not required. The textbook publisher has also made available a very nice website (http://www.mhhe.com/grr/ containing additional questions, solutions, animations etc.
Lectures: Lectures are held on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, and you are strongly encouraged to attend and participate. Although you are officially scheduled to attend only one of these, you are welcome to go to either or both. You are required to complete a web-based checkpoint before 6am on the day of each lecture (you are encouraged to read the textbook and do the checkpoints the day before the lecture, not to leave them to the last moment). Lecture handouts may be downloaded from the web to help guide you in taking notes during each lecture.
Lab Session: Lab sessions are held in 64 Loomis. The laboratory portion of Physics 101 will consist of nine 3-hour laboratories, each involving a series of activities, including
(i) setting up simple experiments to investigate topics you've studied in class
(ii) making predictions about the outcome of your experiments
(iii) performing measurements of different phenomena you've studied in lecture
(iv) analyzing your experimental results
(v) answering questions concerning your results and predictions.
Computer Homework: Each week you will be responsible for completing computer-based homework assignments. These assignments are graded and are an integral part of the course.
Each homework set must be completed by the time indicated. For each homework, there are two due dates to keep in mind. To receive full credit, the homework must be completed by the assigned due date. Homework completed after the assigned due date but prior to one week following the assigned due date can receive at most 80%. No credit is given for homework completed after the second due date.
You may work a problem as many times as you like and only the highest grade is recorded in the gradebook. You can never lower your score by reworking a problem.
Discussion Sessions: Discussion sections are on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. These sessions will emphasize collaborative learning of topics which have already been covered in lecture and homework. Students will work in teams of four on advanced physics problems to help them master the concepts and problem solving techniques required for the exams. The final 20 minutes of each period will be devoted to an individual quiz on the material from section. The quizzes will be graded for credit, and provide both the student and the instructors with feedback regarding each individuals mastery of the weeks topics.
Exams: Three 90-minute multiple-choice "hour" exams will be given (See the syllabus for details). You will be assigned a room for each exam based on your discussion section, and attendance will be taken by your discussion TA. Bring a calculator and writing utensils to all exams. In addition, bring your official university identification card to show upon request.
The final exam will be three hours in length and will cover material from the whole semester. You will be told when and where to take your final exam as soon as that information becomes available to the Physics 101 staff.
Grading
Your final grade for Physics 101 will be based upon your total score on all the components of the course. The total possible score is 1000 points, broken down as follows:
| Course Component | Points |
|---|---|
| Lectures | 25 |
| Checkpoints | 25 |
| Web-based Homework | 100 |
| Discussion Section Participation | 100 |
| Labs | 150 |
| Hour Exams (100 each) | 300 |
| Final Exam | 300 |
The breakdown of total points versus course letter grade will be approximately:
A+(950), A(920), A-(900), B+(880), B(860), B-(835), C+(810), C(780), C-(750), D+(720), D(690), D-(610), and F(<610).
For some parts of the course the average score is typically very high. For example, there is no reason you should not be able to score 100% on your web based homework and checkpoint assignments. You should also be able to do very well on labs and quizzes. This means that you cannot compensate for low exam grades by getting high homework/checkpoint/lab/quiz grades. On the other hand, you can seriously lower your grade by doing poorly on these. The real payoff for doing well on the homework, checkpoints, quizzes and labs is a better understanding of the physics and consequently higher exam scores.
Since the grade "cutoffs" are tentatively set at the beginning of the semester, you are not competing with your fellow students for a high position on a "final curve". It is in principle possible for everyone to get an "A" grade in this class.
Gradebook
The web-based gradebook will show, for all aspects of the class, exactly how you are progressing. At the end of the course, quiz, homework and lab components will be put together to obtain the final grade. During the term, you should regularly check that the exam, homework, lab, and quiz grades are correctly entered in the gradebook. It is your responsibility to bring any problems with your assigned grades to the attention of your section instructor immediately.
Absences and Excused Grades
There is no way to make up missed hour exams, quizzes or labs. Unexcused absences from any hour exam, quiz or lab will be assigned a zero grade; excused absences will receive an EX grade. At the end of the semester, EX grades on hour exams will be replaced by the average of your grades on the exams that you did take. A similar procedure will be applied to excused labs and quizzes.
If you miss a discussion quiz (lab) for a valid reason, take your excuse to 231/233 Loomis. The secretary will make copies of it to distribute to the course personnel. If appropriate, you will receive an EX grade.
Excused grades for lab reports, quizzes and hour exams will be given only in one of the following circumstances: (a) illness; (b) personal crisis (e.g. automobile accident, required court appearance, death of a close relative, weather conditions which make it impossible to get to the university); and (c) required attendance at an official U of I activity (e.g. varsity athletics, band concert).
In case of (a), go to the McKinley Health Center. If upon examination the staff decides you are sick, you will receive a slip from the Center with a telephone number that you should provide to 231/233 Loomis. The course secretary may call the Center to verify that you were seen there (the Center does not provide written excuses per se), OR go to your private physician and obtain a written excuse. The excuse should contain your doctor's name and telephone number so that the secretary can call to verify the information.
In case (b) contact the Dean of Students' Office 333-0050. (At night this number is known as the Emergency Dean). Inform your lab or quiz TA. that you have done so. The Dean of Students' Office will send a letter to 233 Loomis. This letter will be distributed to your instructors.
In case (c) inform the course secretary (231/233 Loomis) in addition to any relevant TA in advance about any hour exams, quiz or lab that you will miss.
Course credit will only be given if the student completes enough of the course components to satisfy the course director that he/she has learned the material. Specifically, if a student has EX grades for more than five quizzes or four labs, he/she must make up the deficiency before we will award a satisfactory grade.
If a student does not complete enough graded course components to earn course credit, we will assign a grade of F. Only a dean of in your college can authorize an extension of time for course completion (i.e., change the F to an INC). See Article 3, part 1 of the Student Code.
Academic Integrity
All activities in this course are subject to the Academic Integrity rules as described in Article 1, Part 4. Of the Student Code. Infractions include, but are not limited to: cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, academic interference, computer-related infractions, unauthorized use of university resources, sale of class materials or notes, and facilitating infractions of academic integrity. Violations of any of these rules will be prosecuted and reported to the home college of the student. All aspects of the course are covered by these rules, including quizzes, homework, iclickers, exams and labs.