Physics 303L-MI, Fall 2012 (MWF 4-5, Pai 3.02)
Homepage:
UT registration Unique numbers: 57485, 57490, 57495, 57500
Quest-account:
oThis course makes use an online system, which is web-based Quest content delivery and homework server systemmaintained by the College of Natural Sciences. This homework service will require a $22charge per student for its use, which goes toward the maintenance and operation of the resource.Please go toto log in to the Quest system for this class. After the 12th day of class, when you log into Quest you will be asked to pay via creditcard on a secure payment site. You have the option to wait up to 30 days to pay while stillcontinuing to use Quest for your assignments. If you are taking more than one course usingQuest, you will not be charged more than $50/semester. Quest provides mandatory instructional material forthis course, just as is your textbook, etc. For payment questions, email.
- Your account has been auto-created for you through Registrar/Quest interface. It is identified by your unique number. For a student newly transferred into this class it could take up to a 24hr delay to auto-create the new Quest account. During the semester this account keeps track of all of your record. Read FAQ to get you started. Please read “Register Iclicker” in FAQ to put the serial number of your Iclicker into your account. The underlined unique number will be used only to identify the hardcopy of the exam.
1. Instructor: J.Yeazell, Office: RLM ????, phone ???
Office hours: Tentative MWF 9-10. Other time by appointment.
Email: . Include “PHY 303L-MI” on the subject line.
TA: Name, Email
TA sessions: In the format of small group discussions. Will be taught by 303L TA/LA team.
For additional help, see coaching service : RLM 5th level.
2. Course materials:
- Textbook:Chabay and Sherwood, “Matter and Interactions II” – Electric and Magnetic Interactions, 3rd Edition. (Binder ready version, or paperback or ebook can be used)
- Lesson plan (See last page of this handout )
- Homework of this course is assigned through Quest.
- Reference: Collections of clicker questions and IQ-library (See the menu-item: Lecture Related on the homepage).
3. Clicker sessions
Two types of sessions:
oReading quiz: Please read the lesson material before the class. There will be one or two questions on today’s lecture material at the beginning of the class.
oInteractive quiz: We plan to intersperse the lecture with interactive quiz (iq) sessions on a relatively regular basis. During a session,
oeach student is first to independently figure out the answer to the question posed by the instructor.
oThe student is then encouraged to discuss with neighbors
oand then use his/her clicker to answer the question.
The specific clicker to be used is called the Iclicker (old model). It is available at UT-coop. You need to enter the serial number of your Iclicker into your Quest account.
4. Syllabus: The syllabus has the lesson plan of this course. For each class, the corresponding sections in the textbook are indicated. Students should be reading at least one lecture ahead of the day’s lecture. Notice that there is a homework assignment for most of the classes. No late homework will be accepted.
5. Midterms/Final:
- Midterms and Final exam: There will be 4 evening midterm exams and the final. The syllabus page indicates time and place of these exams. During each Midterm,
- No crib-note cards will be allowed.
- Programmable calculator may be used during an exam. However, the memory needs to been cleared before using it.
- Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.
6. Grading policy:
oInteractive quizzes(4 drops) 7%
oTA session: 7%
oHomework (3 drops) 15%
oMidterms (1 drop) 46%
oFinal 25%
During the semester to gauge the ongoing performance, a student should look at %scores of all non-exam items and look at both the % score(ps) and the scaled score(ss) of each of the exams.
The lower end of the letter grade cutoffs for the percent-scores and scaled-scores are as follows.
A[*] / A- / B+ / B[*] / B- / C+ / C / C-[*] / D+ / D / D-[*] / F%-sc. / 90 / (87) / (84) / 75 / (71) / (67) / (60) / 55 / (50) / (45) / 40 / <40
scaled-sc. / 600 / 585 / 570 / 525 / 510 / 495 / 469 / 450 / 433 / 417 / 400 / <400
For each exam, determine your ps-letter grade and the ss-letter grade. If the two letter-grades are not the same, the better of the two is the letter grade you have made for the exam.
After the final exam a separate semester-grading-program independent of the QUEST-system will be used to evaluate the precise scaled score to percent score conversion for each exam. This is done through a linear interpolation process using following 6 anchor points.
oFour intermediate anchor points are indicated by [*]: (ss = 400 corresponds to ps = 40), (450 to 55), (525 to 75), (600 to 90).
oThe two end points are ( ss = 200 corresponds to ps = 0) and (700 to 100).
The conversion from the ssto ps is explain in one of the miscellaneous comments on the homepage.
“adjusted % score”: It is the better between the original percent-score and the converted-percent score.
Using the grading policy stated, this program determines the semester-grade. In this program % scores are used for all non-exam items and the adjusted % score for each exam.
No make up midterm will be given. A student is required to take all four midterms. At the end of the semester, the midterm with the lowest adjusted percent exam score will be dropped. If a student misses a midterm, the missing midterm will be the one which will be dropped. If the missing a midterm is due to a legitimate reason approved by the instructor, the student may alternatively elect a no-drop option, where the student's final exam score appropriately scaled may replace the score of the missing midterm. After a midterm is missed, the student has a legitimate excuse and would like to request the no-drop option, the student must contact the instructor immediately by email. For the no-drop option to be applicable, the student must take all of the other three midterms.
7. TA session: TA session is a part of this course. TA session grades will be determined by the TA. Deadline of complaints on TA session grades is the last day of class. No dispute of TA session record beyond the end-of-class day will be accepted.
8. Good participation status(gp-status): The gp-status policy is intended to encourage the student to work hard and work persistently in all aspects of this course throughout the semester. The gp-status will be determined based on student’s pre-final QUEST-record. Student’s checking on the accuracy of his/her QUEST pre-final record is one of the requirements toward achieving the gp-status. (If a student found an error in the pre-final Quest-record after the second no-class day of the semester, Tuesday Dec. 6, the correction of this error will not lead to the change of his/her gp-status. )
To achieve gp-status, student’s record must satisfy following triple 80% -criteria.
1)Homework score (after 3-drops) >80%
2)TA sessions score >80%,
3)Iq-score (after 4 drops) > 80%. See the link “iq-score grading policy” on the homepage of the course.
Following special considerations will be applied to any student who has achieved the “gp-status”.
oFor a borderline case, where student's % score is within 2 %-points below the cutoff, the next higher grade will be assigned to the student.
o If the final exam “hard letter grade” ( which is determined based on the cutoffs of paragraph 6. The gp-status does not enter into the consideration here.) is higher than the letter grade of semester average (where the final and after drops have been applied), the semester average grade will be pushed up by one level.
These considerations will not be available to a student who has not earned this status.
First class reminders:
oItems needed for this course: the textbook, and the Iclicker.
oEnter I-clicker serial number into your Quest-account. Take a look at Appendix A: Review-vector (near the top of the main page), Ch14 HW1 and Ch14 HW2. Notice that the homework due time is at “11:30pm”.
oStart reading today’s and next time’s sections in the textbook (use the lesson plan as a guide). Keep in mind, there will be one or two questions on the day’s lecture material at the beginning of the class.
oWork on today’s homework, Rev-3d then move on to ch14 homework1, …
oCollection of clicker questions: See the link on the home page. Selected questions will be used in the clicker sessions during the class period.
oTo take this course, you must enroll in 103N lab. No lab this week. Check with the lab supply room RLM8.316 (471-5352) for the lab schedule. See the link at the top of homepage on MI references for 103N lab.
oOne week after class-begins, also check the pre/co-requisites audit-list which will be posted outside of the lecture hall. If your name is on this list, please see undergraduate coordinator (471-8856) in RLM 5.216