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General Info |
Grades | Formal Assessment | Contact Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course description | Grading | Lectures | Office hours |
| Big idea | Final grades | i-Clickers | Online forum |
| Prerequisites | Discussions | ||
| Reference text | Online homeworks | ||
| Equity & Diversity | Written assignments | ||
| Quizzes | |||
| Exam |
Website: The official class website is http://courses.engr.illinois.edu/tam211/
Description: In this course, we will cover fundamental concepts that are used in every engineering discipline. We will begin with forces, moments and move towards structural analyses of frames, devices, and machines, and finish with introduction to concepts related to fluid pressure and virtual work. By the end, you will be able to solve rigid body mechanics problems that will inform the design of everything from bridges to biomedical devices.
Big Idea: Clear knowledge of external forces (boundary conditions) is required to determine what constraints are necessary for the safe (static equilibrium) development and design of any widget. Free body diagrams are an essential tool for understanding the forces and moments on a body.
Prerequisites: Required: PHYS 211; credit or concurrant registration in MATH 241. Preferred: CS 101 or experience programming in MATLAB.
- Engineering Mechanics: STATICS, 14th edition by by R. C. Hibbeler, Publisher: Pearson. ISBN-13: 978-0133918922, ISBN-10: 0133918920. (Not required, but would be VERY useful)
- Available at online book vendors (electronic or hard copy)
- Other useful reference books:
- Beer, Ferdinand P.; Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Statics; Publisher: McGraw Hill
- Nelson, E. W.; Schaum’s Outlines Statics, 6th Edition [hard copy or online electronic resource] (Great study guide resource with many worked examples)
This is an equal opportunity classroom environment. We value the diversity represented by the participants in this course. Our diversity is a primary source of ideas and perspectives. As you work through the course, practice using this diversity to your advantage.
Grading: As noted under Polices (Blackboard), all assessment scores are stored on Blackboard. The total score for the course is computed with the following weights:
TAM 211
| PrairieLearn homework | 10% | Written assignments | 15% |
| Discussion group activity | 12% |
Quizzes |
40% |
| iClicker | 3% | Final exam | 20% |
Final grades: The total score s corresponds to final grades as follows.
| 97% ≤ s < 100% | A+ | 92% ≤ s < 97% | A | 89% ≤ s < 92% | A- |
| 86% ≤ s < 89% | B+ | 82% ≤ s < 86% | B | 79% ≤ s < 82% | B- |
| 76% ≤ s < 79% | C+ | 72% ≤ s < 76% | C | 69% ≤ s < 72% | C- |
| 66% ≤ s < 69% | D+ | 59% ≤ s < 66% | D | 55% ≤ s < 59% | D- |
| s < 55% | F |
Lectures: Prompt and regular attendance at lectures is encouraged.
iClickers: Short assessments are conducted during lectures using iClickers (grade is based on participation and correctness). Instructions for registering your iClicker for the course will be provided shortly.
Discussion sections: Discussion sections are opportunities to practice the course material for the week using team-based worksheets.
- Discussion sections start in Week 1 of semester, with the schedule below.
- You will be working in groups throughout the semester. You will stay in the same group for the semester.
- Grade is based on attendance and participation. See Policies (Discussion Sections).
- Discussion sections are always held in Teaching Building A, Room 418. The desks and chairs will need to be rearranged for group work. Return the desks and chairs at after the last discussion section (10:00-11:00 class period).
Online homeworks: To help you learn and practice the procedures for analyzing a problem, weekly online homeworks will be assigned in PrairieLearn. Homework assignments are especially designed for learning from mistakes as students are allowed unlimited opportunities to submit solutions. By paying careful attention to working through homework assignments, students should be able to master or at least have a strong understanding of the concept, principle or general solution process for addressing the given problem.
- Each student should through the homework questions to help you learn the material. Copying answers from friends will NOT help you master the material!
- The schedule of Prairie Learn homework (PL HW) due dates in on the course schedule.
- Homework must be completed by 11:59 pm of the due date.
- Late submissions will be accepted within 2 days from the due date, with the maximum score achievable drop by 20$\%$ penalty.
- To encourage you to work through the problems and to obtain the correct solution, you may revise and resubmit your solutions numerous times until the due date.
- Practice coding the solutions for homework questions in MATLAB or computing capabilities provided at the CBT as personal calculators are not allowed during the CBT quizzes, and you do not want to waste your quiz time figuring out how to program MATLAB or use the online calculator to solve the quiz question.
- You can rework completed items after the due date. This work will not be saved and will not affect your grades.
- Solutions will not be posted. By reworking the question and resubmitting the answer, you should arrive at the correct solution.
Written assignments: To help you to practice you how to prepare your analyses in a logical manner, you will be asked to submit INDIVIDUALwritten assignments during the semester. These assignments are designed to practice communicating engineering concepts in writing. They will be graded based on content and presentation.
Assignments are to be submitted using Blackboard.
- IN SUMMARY, WE WILL ONLY GRADE REPORTS UPLOADED AS A PDF FILE, SINGLE DOCUMENT, PORTRAIT FORMAT! NO EXCEPTIONS!! Submitted assignments that do not comply with these guidelines will automatically lose 50% of the grade for the assignment.
- Details of how to complete a written assignment and expectations are given in the WA1 help file found on the WA1 section of the schedule page.
- Written assignment deadlines are available in the schedule page.
- Written assignmetns must be completed by 11:59 pm on the due date.
- You will have unlimited attempts to upload your written assignment; we will grade only your last attempt.
- Your name and discussion session number must be printed in English legibly on the top of the first page.
- Scan your assignment and save it in pdf format. Files in any other format will not be graded.
- While scanning, make sure that you captured all of the pages of your written assignment in ONE pdf file. We will only grade a single pdf file.
- Submit a professional document. All text, symbols, diagrams, plots, lines, etc. in the submitted PDF document must be readable by the TA. Illegible documents will not be graded.
- Your scanned work must be in portrait format.
- When preparing your written assignment, you MUST assign symbols (to the utmost extent possible) to all the relevant lengths, forces, material properties, et cetera, and then solve the problem symbolically. If given, you should assign numerical values to your final result. Depending on the difficulty of the problem, you may assign numbers at intermediate steps.
- Late written assignment will not be accepted (you will not be able to upload it on Blackboard). No exceptions. PLEASE DO NOT SEND YOUR LATE WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT BY EMAIL.
Quizzes: These quizzes are designed to assess your problem solving skills. Quizzes are only intended for ASSESSMENT, not learning. Quiz questions are formulated to be similar to the main concept, principle, or solution process being demonstrated in the homework questions. You will not be allowed to use notes, textbooks or any electronic devices (including physical calculators). If you practiced the course material in your PrairieLearn homework assignments, Written Assignments, and Discussion section worksheets, you should be able to easily address the quiz questions. You will need to be able to do calculations during quizzes. While working on PrairieLearn homework assignments, practice frequently using MATLAB or other approved online computing resources (such as MATE Calculator software) so that you can use these tools efficiently during your CBT quizzes. Solutions will not be posted. Quiz dates are listed in the schedule (generally every two weeks). Your lowest quiz score will be dropped. This drop should be reserved for unexpected occurrences such as sickness or a family emergency.
- You will have a set number of attempts to submit the correct answer to the quiz question. Only the final submission is graded. There is no partial credit.
- During the entire time period of testing, students are strictly forbidden from discussing any aspect of the test/quiz whatsoever with other students. See Policies (Computer-Based Testing Facility).
A cumulative final exam will be held for all students during finals period.
Office hours:
Professor Hsiao-Wecksler: Mondays 3-5pm, ZJUI Building C, Room 315. Wednesdays 7-8pm Residental College Lobby.
TA Xu Zhaoyu: Location: Library Cafe. Date: Friday, Time 13:00-16:00
Online forum (Blackboard Discussion Board): This class uses Blackboard for ALL communications between the professor, TA, and students. Students should not communicate with instructors via email, unless there is an emergency.
Students are encouraged to post public messages on the Discussion Board. However, you can use the private feature by posting a message visible only to the Instructors.
The use of Blackboard Discussion Board should not replace the office hours time, since some questions cannot be fully addressed via an online forum.