Textbook: Physics by Serway/Faughn

Physics

Instructor: James Warren

Additional Resources: frequent Edlio postings with helpful notes and tutoring worksheets

In this course, we’re setting out to gain some insight about the physical laws that give structure to our universe. Through this process we call Physics, we are not seeking truth; instead we are learning how to use evidence to find out what is false. I sometimes tell students that the class could help build thinking for careers in science, but it could also help build thinking for careers as lawyers. There will also be some history of science in the class, especially astronomy, and students tend to like the history-based lessons. There will also be hands-on projects (launchers, magnetic devices, sound devices, optical instruments, etc.), especially second semester.

Physics Topics:

Kinematics and Projectile Motion – Chapters 2 and 3
Newton’s Laws – Chapter 4
Conservation Laws – Energy and Momentum – Chapters 5 and 6
Planetary Gravity and how orbits work – Chapters 4 and 7
Rotational Equilibrium and Torque – Chapter 8
Mechanical Waves and Sound – Chapters 12 and 13
Light Waves – Chapter 14, 16
Electrostatics and Properties of Charge – Chapter 17
Voltage, Current, and Resistance – Chapters 18 and 19
DC Circuits – Chapter 20
Magnetism – Chapters 21 and 22
Optics – Chapters 14 and 15
Other Topics as they fit in to make the above more fun –black holes, capacitors and photon emission are examples

Most Important Standards Related to Science Habits:

Every period will have a session of flexible student work time. It will be clear what the student should work on (lab work, practice problems, etc.), and students are expected to use the whole period on physics, whether it is measuring, listening to me, or taking advantage of flexible work time.
When it is not flexible student work time, all students are expected to watch something in common (whether it is watching me talk or observing a natural phenomenon.)
When watching me talk, it’s important to watch what is going on as opposed to trying to write down a great deal of notes. When I am talking, I will always build in strategic pauses that will allow students to write down brief, main ideas for their notes. Students ARE expected to keep a small set of notes every day. But very brief notes. Date them.
It should go without saying that paying attention in class means no sleeping, no willful distraction by things like phones, conversations with neighbors, or things happening outside the room.
When you collect data, every student records it and dates it and doesn’t lose it, no matter how many students were in the data group. Every student hangs on to his or her own copy of the data. Saying “my lab partner has the data” is always unacceptable and usually leads to credit lost somehow (usually because it leads to the student not knowing what’s going on and the assignment getting more difficult.)
A student who misses a lab assignment may not make it up with someone else’s data. The student must make an appointment to measure on his/her own on his/her own time, either at lunch or by carving time out of a class period during flexible student work time.
It goes without saying for the year that labwork will be handed in as a process of defending a conclusion based on data. This means the lab write-up will always:

State an objective
Make data presentation the most important task
Have work shown in a section called “Analysis”
Have a clearly stated conclusion
Be written in the student’s own words that will match the words of NO OTHER STUDENTS. All students are to express themselves as individuals, and to write their responses independently. This is true even when working with the same data numbers as other students. Independent work earns good credit. In any instances where illegal collaboration is evident, zero credit will be awarded.

Most Important Standards Related to Earning Credit on Assignments:

Students who miss class are responsible for the credit that they miss, as long as the absence is excused. The student must take the initiative to meet with the teacher to arrange the logistics of making up the credit. The student’s request to meet with the teacher must not disrupt the teacher’s work with the rest of the students. For example, I am unable to discuss makeup work with any student if I am getting class started at the beginning of the period. However, I am able to discuss it in the middle of the period at times when the rest of the class is in the middle of flexible work time. The student who needs to make up work must remember to see me at such an appropriate time during the period; the student’s missing credit only becomes my priority when the student meets with me to make it up at a time when I am physically able to have such a meeting.
Absences are difficult for the student and the teacher and are to be avoided.
Missing a test due to absence is not easy for the student and is to be avoided. Make-up tests are in a different format from the original test, and the return of the test to the student will be delayed by weeks. A student who misses a test is not to return and ask me, “what do you want me to do about the test” while I am teaching. I will come to the student at my convenience during the period and give them the test that they are required to take. A student who is able to know ahead of time about his/her absence is welcome to ask me about the possibility of taking it before he/she is absent. It may or may not be possible to do that, and I appreciate the student attempting to plan ahead in this way.
Missing credit (whether test or labwork or homework) due to unexcused absence would be entered as a zero in the gradebook, but let’s have that never happen.
When I make assignments clear by writing them on the board, posting them in advance on study guides, or posting them in advance on Edline, all students are responsible for the work whether they were in class or not on the day it was assigned. Absence is not sufficient reason for not knowing about an assignments. Almost every major assignment for credit is well-communicated on Edlio, and quite often there are worksheets posted on Edlio that are designed to help all students complete the assignments.
When homework is due, I will always give students a chance to ask me questions about things they tried on that homework. Honest mistakes and communication of those mistakes are encouraged. From day 1, we learn to value mistakes in this class. Discovering mistaken ideas is the best part of science. IMPORTANT: when a student has no questions on homework that is due, that student’s silence is a major statement. The statement from the student is: “I understand this homework, and from now on it is fair to grade me on the understanding of its content.”
Sometimes homework will be graded through a combination of effort shown at home and one new in-class Pop-Understanding Question. Missing the in-class question can affect the homework grade, but not destroy the homework grade. For example, completely writing the at-home part and completely missing the in-class part could result in an overall score of 8/10. However, keep in mind that the assignment is designed so that a person who reads the homework document on his/her own is not expected to miss the in-class part. The in-class part is simple, and the student is either aware of it from having read the homework or is not from having not read the homework paper.
If a student truly tries the homework and is not getting it and is making no progress, then that student is expected to stop once 45 minutes have spent. (45 minutes of real, concentrated effort, not 45 minutes distracted by entertainment or socializing.) If this happens, put questions you would like to ask in the margins of the homework document. If this were to happen, then the student’s questions at the beginning of the next period would be specific and wonderful, and that is all I ask. If this were to happen, then the student would put me in a position where I could help them very much. And other students VERY MUCH appreciate the question asked by the questioner.
There are at times credit items that can only be done by being present in class with no way to make it up if a student is absent. (For example, something based on a hard-to-set-up piece of equipment that I cannot set up on multiple days.) When this happens, the student who missed the item (if excused) will simply have nothing entered in the gradebook. It will not count as a zero. It will be as if the assignment never happened for that student. It doesn’t penalize the student, and it is a rare occurrence. Please do not interpret blanks in the gradebook as zeroes. If a student earned a zero, it would say “0” loud and clear (and hopefully 0’s would be rare too.) If a student wanted to do something alternative in place of the blank item in the gradebook, the student would need to make an appointment with me. I make every effort to be fair, but I can only do that if the student communicates directly with me and in person.

Grade Certification and Typical Credit Items:

There is no grade weighting. All assignments have a maximum possible number of points that can be earned. And all these points are added cumulatively for the semester. A student’s percentage is determined from the total number of points earned for all assignments added together divided by the total number of points possible for all assignments added together. To get a sense of what kind of work leads to points in the class, keep reading.

There is approximately one lab assignment per week (sometimes one per two weeks) and these tend to be 15 to 20 points.
There is approximately one homework score per week (sometimes two), and these tend to be about 10 points (sometimes only 5.)
There is approximately a quiz every one to two weeks, and these are usually 10 points.
There are roughly 4 tests per semester, and these are 30 points each.
There are about 400 points in a semester.

Earning 60% of total points is the lowest D. Earning 70% of total points is the lowest C. Earning 80% of total points is the lowest B. Earning 90% of total points is the lowest A.

If a student earns a score of A on the final exam that raises his/her grade up to anywhere between 88% and 89.5%, it would appear that they are to get a B for semester. However, in such a scenario, the semester grade would be called an A, because the student’s score of A on the exam itself speaks very loudly. I do what I can to put an extra weight on improvement to help a student. Similarly, if a student earns a score of B or A on the final exam that raises his/her grade up to anywhere between 78% and 79.5%, it would appear that they are to get a C for semester. However, in such a scenario, the semester grade would be called a B.

The aforementioned bumping of grades by doing well on my final exam is only applicable to students who never lied, cheated, got caught stealing, or were never willfully mean to other people in the school (especially students) throughout the semester.

Tools students should get and always bring to class: a notebook with graph paper pages that can be torn out cleanly, a clear metric ruler, a clear protractor, colored pencils, a calculator with cosine, sine, tangent, and square roots. Please don’t ask to borrow a calculator while I’m getting a test started. (But if I don’t have my hands full, you can ask me anything, and I might say yes.)

Final Thought:

Please remember that my priority is not to expect any of my students to be always right and flawless. My goal is to be fair, and to be attentive to students’ needs and to be present as they make an effort to understand natural laws. My biggest job is to help students distinguish what is important from what is less important. If students read my directions and listen to my directions, they will be able to work smart and earn points successfully in the class in a way that does not depend on a flawless understanding of physics. Nobody in the world has a flawless understanding of physics. I make big physics mistakes every day. And that’s one of the things that makes it fun.