PHYS 212 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Welcome to Phys 212!

If you wake up feeling sick, do not come to class. Seek medical attention and request an EX grade.

Registering after the first day of classes:

If you registered after the first day of classes but before the 10th day of classes, please contact your lecturer to make up any missed work. It is your responsibility to do this before the 8th week of classes.

Lecture

Be sure to do the prelecture and checkpoint before lecture, they are available at https://smart.physics.illinois.edu/

We will be using physical I>Clickers for participation and bonus points during lecture. You may use any version of the physical clicker (but not the phone app).

Homework

You can access the content at https://smart.physics.illinois.edu/ and you have full access for the first two weeks free of charge. Sometime in the first two weeks you will need to pay for access by purchasing a code through the UIUC bookstore. Details of how to pay for access are available via pdf.

Discussion

Students must be on time and prepared for discussion. You will need paper, pencil/pen and a calculator.

Laboratory

Students must be on time and prepared for labs.

Please review the required materials list to see what you need.
You will do a hands-on pre-lab activity using your IOLab device before every lab.
You will work within groups in your weekly lab sections, to design and understand experiments and experimental data using your IOLab device.
You will upload your lab reports to my.physics for grading.
Labs are due at 11:59 pm on the day your lab section meets. Late labs will be accepted for a maximum of 75% credit up to 24 hours late. After that, no credit will be given.

Exams

Exams will be given at the Computer Based Testing Facility.
View the formula sheet.
Review the exam information page for details.

Excused Absences

Please submit your excused absence no later than 12 business days after your absence via the Excused Absences application.
For more information regarding this course's excuses policy, please refer to the Attendance Policy page.

Academic Integrity

All activities in this course, including iclicker voting and documentation submitted for petition for an excused absence, are subject to the Academic Integrity rules as described in Article 1, Part 4, Academic Integrity, of the Student Code.

Policy on Use of AI Tools

Of course we acknowledge the existence of various artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as chatbots, text generators, paraphrasers, summarizers, or solvers, that could be used to solve various problems in the course, e.g., for homework, prelabs, James Scholar Projects, etc. However, our concern is that using these tools will cause you to lose one of the most important benefits of working through things on your own – figuring out how to solve a problem when there isn't a guide. The struggle to do this is precisely the sort of mental exercise that will make you a world-class scientist and engineer. Future employers will want to hire you – the world will rely on your skills – because you are able to negotiate a problem that is new, and therefore for which there is no AI solution. And the best way to develop that skill is to try it on problems where there are known solutions, like those you will encounter in Physics 212. In fact, if you rely on AI to solve (or even to help solve) problems in this course, you will undoubtedly have a more difficult time on quizzes and exams, when you will be on your own to come up with solutions.

The other significant argument against relying on AI is that it is still quite unreliable, often giving flawed or incorrect results (though admittedly the success rate is improving with each iteration, it will still be a number of years before AI can compete with our own top-notch students).

In any event, using AI tools in Physics 212 to develop solutions that you turn in is considered a violation of Academic Integrity.