Welcome to L3 Physics with Mr. Leighton

GOALS:

1.  To increase your understanding of the dynamic and changing world we live in, how it changes, and how nature abides by certain predictable laws.

2.  Investigate and quantify the nature of matter and energy through experimentation.

3.  Communicate in the scientific language both verbally and written.

4.  Use algebra to determine and quantify the outcome of collisions, reactions, and processes

CLASSROOM POLICIES:

1.  Follow all rules in the student handbook regarding electronics, respect, food, etc.

2.  Do not use or play with any lab materials that are not specifically for you on that day. They may be part of another person's experiment, a setup I am doing for a demonstration, or something that could be outright dangerous.

3.  A a ruler, protractor, and compass are all helpful; you may want these at home as I will not lend them out. You will also need a scientific calculator. It doesn't need to graph, but it must have the “sin” “cos” and “tan” functions on it. If you do not own one, you may borrow one during class.

HOMEWORK:

Homework will generally be assigned every day, requiring anywhere between 20 minutes for a simple reading to as much as 4 hours for a formal lab. A typical reading and problem set will take approximately one hour. I will not check to see that you did your homework for every class meeting, but I will know if you have been doing it when it comes time for a test. Homework is practice and re-enforcement, the same reason that pro athletes are the best at what they do. Make sure your homework time is time well spent. Jumping to problems and looking for a formula that has all the right letters to plug in will ultimately lead you to a false sense of security and a limited understanding. Take the time to read, re-read, and understand, and the problems/questions become straightforward.

GRADING:

Your grades will be based approximately on these percentages. These will change slightly each term as one term may have two tests and eight labs while another has four tests and five labs. Formal assessments are weighted heavily to prepare you for college weighting. Studying is an absolute necessity.

Tests and Quizzes 55%

Labs 30%

HW/participation 15%

LABORATORY POLICIES:

Safety first. The equipment we use can be sharp, heavy, or outright dangerous. Be careful with book bags, do not play with equipment, or use anything not designed for the current lab. Follow all rules from the safety contract.

MAKEUPS, MISSING WORK, THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

l  If you are out of class, it is your responsibility to make up the missing work. You will need to get the notes (if any) from a friend, see me for any missing worksheets, and set a day and time to make up a laboratory experiment.

l  Tests are announced well in advance (usually 1 week) and covered prior to the test date. Being absent the class before a test does not excuse you from taking the exam that day. If you are absent the day of the exam, you will take the exam within two classes, during or after school.

l  I do not usually do in-class ‘review days’ for tests. I have found them to be a waste of everyone’s time, and they give the impression you can put off learning until the day before an exam and still do well. You cannot.

l  Typically, I grade late work and then take off 50%. For example, your informal lab gets an 86% but is two days late - your official grade will be a 43%. I give realistic time-frames for work to be done and I expect you to do it on time. Of course, you can contact me if there is some reason you cannot complete an assignment on time.

l  You must present your own original work for all assignments (this should be obvious). You will almost always have the same data as a group, and often the same hypothesis, procedure, etc. It is not acceptable to copy and paste data tables, graphs, or any other material from group members. Stating a 2 sentence hypothesis verbatim to your partner is okay; having the exact same ten-step procedure, full page data table and graph is not.

THOUGHTS, MUSINGS, AND TIPS FOR SUCCESS

There is a good chance this will be the most difficult class you have ever taken. This isn't meant to scare you; in fact, that should be exciting! This course challenges you to use the basic principles of physical science to determine the solution to an actual problem. In other words, think about what you know and how to apply it to a new situation to solve some problem. This is difficult for many students because 1. Our educational system has rewarded memorization and/or “How do you think John felt when...” types of questions, and 2. As an adolescent, you haven't needed to do this much in real life yet. The way that you will need to approach this class will be different (and better!). If you just copy what I'm writing without thinking about it, trying it yourself later, or listening to what I'm saying, it’s not worth the cost of the pencil because physics isn't math. In math you can usually follow the order of operations (do this first, then this, then this) for an equation you are given and generally do okay. In physics (as in life) you can't just follow a set of instructions for any particular problem and always have things work. You make the instructions and then execute them. Physics requires you to make and solve the equation. Neither life nor physics has a simple “order of operations” to follow.

What's the secret to doing well? An easy short answer is “go to class; do your homework.” That, especially the second part, is the big idea. Each year there are students who routinely don't do their homework (or barely do it) and wonder why they aren't doing well. Everything worthwhile in life takes practice to be good at. Would you let your friend Mike pull your wisdom teeth because his mom is a dentist and he's “heard her talk about it?”

There is absolutely no substitute for independent practice. You see where I'm going with this? In class I'm going to solve problems. Daily. Going over homework problems or new things. For a new topic, I might put three problems on the board. The first I'll solve myself speaking directly to you. The second I might talk through verbally and have you try it, and the third is on your own. Of course I will go over each one and give the answer, but you must understand how critical it is to try the 2nd and 3rd problems yourself, and not just wait for me to answer them! Growth rarely comes without risk. Take your risks during class and on homework, not on the test!

That doesn't mean that every problem is random and unpredictable. Physics tells us the fundamental laws of the world that are always true… if you learn and understand these, then practice applying them, you're going to do well! You're going to solve real, meaningful problems on your own, just as America's most successful people do daily. Be excited that perhaps for the first time in your life, you will be challenged to do something more difficult and meaningful than describe the three types of volcanoes, speculate on how Billy felt when his girlfriend dumped him, or ask the question “Where is the library?” in another language.

If you want to expand your mind and your abilities in science I will help you do that.