EXPECTATIONS AND CLASS INFORMATION

ABOUT THE TEXT:

1.) Read the section ABOUT THE TEXT on the Honor's Web page.

Brief Syllabus:

1.) The class will spend the first semester covering Classical Newtonian Physics. Included will be kinematics, Newton's Laws, energy considerations, momentum, rotational motion and wave and vibratory motion, all at a college level. The second semester will be devoted to Electricity and Magnetism, including, static electricity, electric fields and potentials, capacitors, DC circuits, magnetism and induction. Along with all that, we will cover electronics--AC circuits, semiconductors (diodes and transistors), how circuit elements behave in AC circuits, RLC tuning circuits, how AM radios work and, finally, the building of a solar robot.

ABOUT THE CLASS :

1.) Grades:

a.) You may expect from 3 to 4 tests per quarter (a test every few weeks). Tests will make up approximately 65% of your grade.

b.) Labs will make up approximately 20% of your grade. There is no set day for doing labs. They will be executed when it is most appropriate, given the material being covered.

c.) Homework and "daily" assignments will be worth approximately 15% of your grade.  Assignments will be posted on the class calendar found on the class Website, and on MyPoly.  Nightly homework will be due in class the day after the assignment date.  More about that later.      

d.) Homework will additionally be discussed in the separate "Letter to the Students." In a nutshell, though, you are big people now. A year from now you will be roaming the college of your choice completely footloose and fancy-free. It is time for you to begin to develop study habits that will allow you to take responsibility for your education and to deal with all that freedom without getting flushed in the process. In other words, do a little every night or die.

e.) You will have occasional speed tests during the year. These are, as hard as this is going to be to believe, for fun. More about that later.

f.) You will have occasional pop quizzes at the end of class. More about this later.

g.) There may be an extra credit opportunity toward the end of the first quarter.

h.) Students will typically have less than 30 minutes of homework per night, though labs can take considerably longer depending upon how well the student understands the material.

i.) The grading scale is:

A	93% and above
A-	90-92.9%
B+	87-89.9%
B	83-86.9%
B-	80-82.9%
C+	77-79.9%
C	73-76.9%
C-	70-72.9%
D+	67-69.9%
D	63-66.9%
D-	60-62.9%
F	less than 60%

j.) Assignments used to determine each student's grade will include tests (~65% of the total grade), labs (~20%), and homework, quizzes, and miscellaneous other activities as assigned (~15%). There will also be an optional extra credit assignment offered each semester.

k.) A summary of each student's grade will usually be available online. This is not an official record of students' progress, but may be used as a rough guide of one's progress in the course as well as a reminder of possible missing assignments.

2.) Assignment deadlines:

a.) Homework assignments will be due at the beginning of class the day after the assignment is posted. Labs will have assigned due-dates (usually around a week after completing the lab).  For full credit, they will also be due at the beginning of the period on the due date.  Late labs will receive partial credit depending . . . (more will be said about this during class).

b.) If you have a problem with a deadline, talk to me. I won't make a habit of it, but I know something about the pressures seniors feel (college apps, for instance, will take you a lot more time than you are probably anticipating) and will accommodate when necessary. This, again, assuming you don't make a habit of asking for extensions.

c.) Legitimate absence (i.e. for sickness) is automatically grounds for an extension, but God help you if I find your "sickness" was intimately related to your need to write a paper for another class.

3.) Cheating: Although I will find the time at some point during class to talk about all of this, in summary:

a.) Cheating on homework: The solutions to the homework problems are available in pdf form on the class Web site, so cheating on homework really doesn't exist. There is stupid, though. The whole idea with the homework is to give you a chance to make your brain work analytically. That is what you are going to have to do without props during a test, so that is what you need to get good at. Once you have seen the solution to a problem, it is useless to you because when you look at it a second time, it is the memory side of your brain that takes over, not the analytical side. Looking at the solutions before you've figure things out on your own (i.e., cheating), in other words, won't get you in any trouble, but it is stupid. It defeats the purpose of the homework altogether.

b.) Cheating on labs: Any question you would feel comfortable asking me (which is something you should do if you get stuck) is OK to ask a friend or parent or the gods. If you are sitting with a group of fellow physics folks on the senior patio and everyone is doing their own write-up, and someone asks, "What was your force value for number 3," and little Josie says, "3.23 newtons," and big Jimmie says, "3.17 newtons," and middling Johnny says, "3.28 newtons," and non-descript Jill says, "4,382 newtons," clearly Jill is in trouble and needs to ask for help. Giving her that help verbally is OK. WHAT ISN'T OK is someone giving her their write-up to "look at." Even if all she does is take the look, then write down what she saw from memory, that is tantamount to copying (it's just a clever version of it). THAT, I CONSIDER, IS CHEATING. Never, under any circumstance, give your lab write-up to someone else to look at. You can TALK about what you've done to your heart's content, because at least there is thinking going on. With straight copying (or the modified version I alluded to above), there is no analytical thinking happening and that is not acceptable.

c.) Cheating on tests and make-up tests: In a nutshell, it is not acceptable for a student to gain an unfair advantage over his or her classmates in any respect other than through sheer personal brilliance and/or tenacious, hard work. There are many reasons why people are tempted to cheat. No matter the reason, if caught, and sooner or later you will be caught if you choose to take that path, cheating puts your grade in jeopardy, your standing at this school in jeopardy, and ultimately the possible acceptance by the college of your choice in jeopardy. All this, not to mention the injustice you do to your classmates as you step nearer to or, in some cases, over them in an attempt to appear more knowledgeable than they when, in fact, you aren't.

When just one student cheats, he or she generates a cancerous environment in a school where the simple-minded can rationalize doing the same and the honest become angrier and more frustrated as injustices build. 

Cheating is monumentally selfish.

Cheating is destructive not only to the cheat but also to those on the periphery.

Cheating is not acceptable. Do not do it!

4.) Final exam: There will be a some kind of exam just before winter break AND at the end of the second semester (we'll talk about this later). Both may be cumulative.

5.) Dropping the class: You may drop the class without teacher approval within the first three weeks of the first quarter. You may drop the class with teacher approval later than that, but the administration takes a dim view of that move as it causes all sorts of havoc in its wake. If you think the class is going to be too much for you, drop it within the first three weeks.

Parting Shot:

Physics is not a memory driven endeavor, it is a thinking endeavor. Though it is not for the intellectually timid, many over the last forty-plus years have sat in abject panic where you sit now and have ultimately succeeded with the class quite nicely as they and I have cooperated in our charge through the material. You will do just fine. Just keep your head down, ask questions when you are confused and keep plugging.

The Management :)