Online Access to Smart Physics, from www.smartphysics.com. Instructions are ...
pre-‐lectures and checkpoint assignments before the start of a new chapter.
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Physics 051 Fall 2013 General Information Department of Physics Instructor: Valeri Kotov, A522 Cook. Phone: 656-‐4548 (office), 656-‐2644 (department). email:
[email protected] Office Hours: Mondays 10:30am-‐12 Noon, Fridays: 10:30am-‐12 Noon, or by appointment Materials (see 2 files in BB Textbook Information Folder): • Textbook: "Smart Physics" by Gladding, Selen and Stelzer, volume 1, Classical Mechanics, ISBN 13: 978-‐1-‐4292-‐7240-‐7. • Online Access to Smart Physics, from www.smartphysics.com Instructions are available on the Blackboard page for Phys051. The online access is very important since a big portion of your work will be done on-‐line. • Pocket calculator with trigonometric functions, scientific notation and exponential functions. Course format: Three lectures per week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting at 9:35 am, B112 Angell. New topics will be presented at this time. Students must complete the pre-‐lectures and checkpoint assignments before the start of a new chapter. Laboratory exercises will be conducted on some Fridays and Mondays from 1:55pm or 4:05pm. See the Course Outline. Online Material: Pre-‐lecture materials, checkpoints and homework assignments are completed online. You must purchase on-‐line access and join the course online to access them. Details on registration procedure may be found in Blackboard (BB) in the Textbook Information section. The SmartPhysics Course Access Key for this course is VTPhys51. (See Textbook Information folder on Blackboard.)
Pre-‐Lectures: Students must complete the Pre-‐Lectures assignments before coming to class. Pre-‐Lectures are available online for 14 days before the deadline. Deadlines for completing each specific pre-‐lecture are listed in the SmartPhysics Course calendar. Checkpoints: Students must complete the checkpoints quizzes before coming to class. Checkpoints are available online for 14 days in advance of the deadline. Deadlines for completing each specific check-‐point quiz are listed in the SmartPhysics Course calendar. Homework: Homework problems serve as illustrations of the lecture material and are essential towards consolidation of the students' grasp of physical principles. The homework schedule and assignments are available in the online course calendar 7 days in advance of the deadline. Homework is completed and graded online. No paper-‐based homework will be accepted. Examinations: There will be three hourly exams based on lecture, homework and textbook material. The final examination will have two parts: the first part will be the third hourly exam and the second part will be comprehensive, covering all previous material. Important! This course requires students to become familiar with formal calculations. Numerical answers are only used in the online work to verify the correctness of your reasoning. Exams require formal calculations for full credit!
Course Grades: A score will be computed based on 100 points, distributed as follows: · Three hourly exams: 3×15 = 45 points. · Final comprehensive exam: 15 points. · smartPhysics homework problems: 15 points. · smartPhysics prelectures and checkpoints: 6 points · Laboratory: 19 points. Numerical to Letter Grade Conversion: Final grades will be calculated and rounded up to the nearest one-‐tenth of a point. Letter grades will be assigned as follows: A range = 100.0 -‐ 90.0 B range = 89.9 -‐ 80.0 C range = 79.9 -‐ 70.0 D range = 69.9 -‐ 60.0 F = below 60. Grade Posting: All Exam Grades will be posted on Blackboard to ensure privacy. It is each student's responsibility to verify the accuracy of the postings regularly. Report any discrepancies promptly. Attendance: Attendance at lectures will be taken frequently. Regular attendance is not in itself adequate justification for awarding college credit. It is the student's responsibility to keep up with missed material, announcements, etc. Reasons for Absence: Sometimes circumstances beyond a student's control warrant an absence. Valid reasons for such absences must be supported by written documentation from the academic dean, the attending
physician, the team coach, the officiating clergyman, the presiding judge, the arresting officer, the FEMA official etc. Merely being seen by a physician is not a valid reason for absence, neither is a sibling's out-‐of-‐ town wedding, a planned family vacation, etc. Missing Hourly Exams: Missing an hourly exam will result in a score of zero unless the student has a valid reason as defined above. A student with a valid reason may be given a make-‐up exam at a time that is mutually convenient for the student and the instructor. Missing the Final: Missing the final examination will result in a final course grade of F unless the student has arranged with the instructor through the appropriate academic dean for an "Incomplete." Academic Dishonesty Disclosure: Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Perceived failures to abide by the standards of academic integrity will be prosecuted as set forth in the relevant University laws and procedures. Student Learning Accommodations In keeping with University policy, any student with a documented disability interested in utilizing accommodations should contact ACCESS, the office of Disability Services on campus. ACCESS works with students to create reasonable and appropriate accommodations via an accommodation letter to their professors as early as possible each semester. Contact ACCESS: A170 Living/Learning Cen-‐ ter -‐ 802-‐656-‐ 7753 -‐
[email protected]. ACCESS Office: http://www.uvm.edu/~access/ Policy on disability certification and student support: http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmppg/ppg/student/disability.pdf