Tentative syllabus for PHYS 220 -
Physics 1 (CRN 20537) and the accompanying laboratory, PHYS 220 L (CRN
20571)
Spring 2008
Dr. Daniel M. Fernandez
Building 53, Room S302 (SEP main office)
phone: 582-3786
email: daniel_fernandez@csumb.edu,
Office hours (Dan):
Mon
Office Hours (Jon): MW 12-1p, TH 9-10a, Fri. After 10am & By Appointment.
Jon's Office: Bldg. 53 E113
Jon's Phone: (831) 582-5178
Email: jon_detka@csumb.edu
Jon's Home Page: http://home.csumb.edu/d/detkajon/world
Dan's Reflections:
I have been teaching physics here at CSUMB since 1996. Generally, I use some form of lecture accompanied by demonstrations and/or discussion. I also employ assorted laboratory activities some of which are fairly structured, others of which are more open ended. We will also have discussion during class time based on what is done in class and in the accompanying lab. This semester I plan to incorporate an electronic "student response system."
"Imagination is
more important than knowledge"
Albert
Einstein
Class and lab times:
Tuesday/Thursday:
Lab: Monday
Some course materials will be placed on BlackBoard.
Students with disabilities who may need accommodations please see me
prior to Feb. 4 during office hours or make an appointment to see me (my email
and phone number are given above) AND
bring your Course Accommodation Form from the CSUMB office for Student
Disability Resources (SDR) in Bldg. 47.
Also, contact:
Student_Disability_Resources@csumb.edu
Phone: 831/582-3672
voice, or 582-4024 fax/TTY
Prerequisites
Calculus 1
Chemistry 1, or other college science course
Course Description
PHYS 220 is a first course in physics and provides an introduction to physical processes that are important in the study of the environment and for premed students. Topics include kinematics, forces, momentum, energy, rotational motion, and properties of fluids.
Linkages to PHYS
Physics is intrinsically linked to earth systems in the sense that physics was constructed initially to describe and explain the natural occurrences that people experienced, the famous "apple falling from a tree" is an example. All physical phenomena can be connected to some aspects of earth system science, whether describing how animate or inanimate objects move, jump, or swim, how electrical power is produced and what the impact of such production may be to the local population, or how tides occur and what their effects are on the local biota. Traditionally, physics classes focus on the fundamental principles that underlie such important phenomena. Most of the activities and discussions that occur in this class involve the underlying physical principles. Linkages can and will be made to the study of earth system science, but the focus in this class is on physics fundamentals.
Text: Principles of Physics, Vol. 1, 4th ed., Serway and Jewett
University ULR's
fulfilled
PHYS 220 does not directly fulfill any university ULR's.
MLO's
fulfilled
PHYS 220 fulfills a portion of the Earth Systems Science and Policy Foundations MLO (#2):
Students must be able to apply
principles and methods to the study of:
The major physical and life
science components of the earth system, including the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere as well as the chemical and
physical processes underlying these components.
Class Learning Outcomes:
Since this is an outcomes-based university, this course has been partitioned into a number of outcomes (listed below) that will be assessed through quizzes, one midterm exam, the final, homework, lab activities, and projects. With successful completion of this classroom learning experience, you will be able to:
1) Use assorted physics equipment within the room to make a variety of measurements. Process these measurements and analyze the results you get from them.
2) Become familiar enough with the Vernier Logger Pro computer-based data acquisition system to collect measurements from the available sensors in order to support or refute hypothesis associated with the various phenomena that we will be examining in this class.
3) Work in a group setting on an assigned task, even if you do not know who else is going to be in your group, or if groups change..
4) Apply available laboratory equipment to measure the acceleration of objects falling due to gravity.
5) Put together, present, and write up a demonstration of a physics phenomenon, possibly one associated with environmental sustainability. The presentation will need to be at a suitable level for the intended audience.
Additionally, you will need to assess the following topical outcomes at a level of satisfactory or better to obtain a C or better:
1. Correctly apply units to measured or derived quantities, use proper numbers of significant figures, and be able to state the accuracy of a given measurement.
2. Relate graphically the relationship between an object's position, its velocity, and its acceleration. Apply the equations of kinematics to solve for the quantities associated with an object's motion in 1 dimension.
3. State
4. Distinguish between mass and weight.
5. Be able to add and subtract vectors both graphically and analytically.
6. Describe tension, normal force, and friction. Apply understanding of these forces to basic problems involving motion of an object.
7. Apply free-body diagrams to situations under study.
8. Discuss and calculate parameters associated with objects that undergo uniform circular motion.
In addition, you will need to assess two of the following topical outcomes to a level of satisfactory or better to obtain a C or better.
9.
10. Describe and apply concepts of momentum and impulse for simple objects and their collisions and for more complex objects.
11. Define, describe, and distinguish the two forms of energy (kinetic energy and potential energy), work and power. Apply the concept of energy conservation to calculate speeds of moving bodies.
12. Relate concepts of rotational kinematics and rotational dynamics to their linear analogs. Apply concepts of rotational kinematics and dynamics to compute quantities of interest.
13. Apply Archimedes' Principle to compute the buoyancy force for submerged or floating objects and to determine the object's specific gravity and density.
14. Apply hydrostatic and hydrodynamic relationships to compute pressures, forces and speeds within a fluid. Describe applications of Bernoulli's Principle.
15. Describe and compute stress and strain for various objects composed of various materials.
16. Distinguish the relationship between period and frequency and determine the period and frequency of different oscillations.
17. Relate the period, frequency and wavelength of a propagating wave.
See the daily calendar for the dates when material will be discussed in class.
Assessment Format:
Overall performance will be assessed based upon:
Quizzes (every week): 15%
class participation: 5%
midterm: 15%
final: 15%
final project: 10%
homework: 15%
lab activities: 25%
Class participation involves coming to class and participating in the activities that will occur during that time.
Labs are generally worth three points and if they are done thoroughly, all three points will be granted. There will also be a formal lab worth 9 points. The grades for the lab and the course will be combined (as indicated above). Your final score will be a combination of both. More on lab policies below.
Policies:
Attendance in all class sections is highly recommended!!! Please notify me in advance if you will not be in class. Missed quizzes, exams, and other activities can only be made up in extreme circumstances by consent of the instructor. Since I drop your two lowest quizzes, you have some leeway. Quizzes will be given on most Wednesdays, but you must arrive on time to be granted a quiz, since I need to collect them in a timely fashion.
Students who do not attend class during the first two weeks will be dropped from the class. ESSP majors cannot take the class on a credit/no-credit basis, so non-passing grades will be given as their letter grade (D or F) rather than 'NC'. The deadline for adding or dropping this class is February 4th, 2008!
Homeworks are due by
Please note that being a full time student is like working full time by itself and, for every hour you spend in class, you should expect to spend 2-3 hours outside of class. So, for this 3-hour class, expect to spend 6-9 hours per week outside of class, and, if you are taking, say, 16 units total, expect to spend around 25-35 hours per week outside of class time on school work.
There will be a project given in the latter half of the semester and the details will be forthcoming.
Academic
Integrity
Academic
Integrity is of central importance at CSUMB. The core of this integrity resides
in the scholastic honesty of the CSUMB community, and therefore, is the
responsibility of all students and faculty to uphold and maintain.
Even though quizzes and exams are open book and open notes, there is to be no sharing of books, notes, or calculators during exams and quizzes. So, please bring your own calculator. Nor is there to be talking or communication with the others in the class during exams and quizzes. Please sit in designated spaces for quizzes and spread out throughout the room. The work you do during these times needs to be your own. Homework and lab activities may involve collaboration with your peers, and I encourage it at those times. If evidence of copying (on a quiz or exam) or plagiarism (on a paper) is determined, for the first offense no points will be given for that test or quiz. Subsequent incidences will result in further measures and could result in failure of the course. For more information regarding the Academic Integrity Policy, please go to: http://policy.csumb.edu/site/x20830.xml
A
word about WebAssign
I have been using this system for homework submission for the past several years and, despite a few student complaints, I believe it works well and serves both you and me. I want to address a few 'complaint points' that students make that can be perhaps ameliorated at the onset.
1) Please do the introductory assignment. It will teach you how to enter numbers and other answers properly and it will explain the topic of significant figures in the context of entering the answers to the questions. Students often complain that they are getting the wrong answer because they are using the wrong number of significant figures, but this is generally not the case, since WebAssign isn't picky about sigfigs (unless it is a sigfig-based question) and it allows a small tolerance of a couple percent on most answers.
2) Do not wait until the last minute to do homework assignments. I give plenty of lead time, so please use it in case you have problems.
3) If you are not getting an answer after a few tries, drop me an email or enter a question on the Blackboard discussion board and I or another student can answer it there for others' benefit, too. You may be making a small mistake repeatedly.
4) I highly recommend doing the homework on a separate sheet of paper (and printing out the WebAssign hw first) so that you have a record of your work.
5) Nearly all of the problems from the WebAssign problem sets come from the physics text, and you can find similar problems in the text as well to use as examples.
6) You will have the same problems as others in the class, but with different numerical values for quantities within the problems. WebAssign randomizes such that everyone will have different numerical values for many of the problems.
Assessments
There will be one in class midterm and one final. In addition, there will be quizzes on Wednesday every week. Often student scores are not exceptionally high on the quizzes (or there is often a big range on them). That is OK. Please come and do them nevertheless and treat them as a way to learn the material even better.
Class Preparation
Please read the text material since class examples will complement those from the text. Check the online syllabus for the latest version, in case things change during the semester.
|
Date |
Topic |
Accompanying reading |
|
Week of January 21 |
Pre-assessment, introductions. Math review. Errors/significant figures Lab: none |
Chapter 1.1-1.5, 1.10 |
|
Week of January 28 |
One-dimensional motion Focus the Nation on |
Chapter 2.1-2.3 |
|
Week of February 4
|
More on one-dimensional motion - acceleration and modeling motion |
Chapter 2.4-2.8
|
|
Week of February 11 |
Forces, mass and motion (in 1-dimension) |
Chapter 4.1-4.4 |
|
Week of February 18 |
Lab: Accelerated motion (Vernier) .doc |
Chapter 4.5-4.8 |
|
Week of February 25 |
Vectors Lab: Force, mass and motion (in 1-dimension) .doc |
Chapter 1.6-1.9 |
|
Week of March 3 |
Two-Dimensional Motion (and uniform circular motion) Lab: |
Chapter 3.1-3.4 |
|
Week of March 10 |
Buffer and Midterm Lab: measure gravity |
|
|
Week of March 17 |
Spring Break! |
|
|
Week of March 24 |
|
|
|
Week of March 31
|
Friction Lab: block and tackle .doc |
Chapter 5.1, 5.2, 5.6 |
|
Week of April 7 |
Work, energy, power and Energy Conservation Lab: Forces and friction .doc |
Chapters 6 and 7. |
|
Week of April 14 |
Momentum and Collisions Lab: Conservation of Energy on the air track .doc |
Chapter 8 (not 8.4) |
|
Week of April 21
|
Rotational kinematics/dynamics Lab: Impulse and Momentum .doc |
Chapter 10 |
|
Week of April 28 |
Fluids, statics and dynamics Lab: rotational kinematics/dynamics .doc |
Chapter 15 |
|
Week of May 5 |
Buffer; harmonic motion, time allowing Lab: Archimedes Principle, fluids .doc |
(time allowing: Chapters 12 and 13) |
|
Week of May 12 |
Show demonstrations, take final |
|
Lab Activities
Labs are designed to provide the opportunity for practice,
peer-collaboration, and further discussion surrounding concepts and principles
presented in lecture. You will find all lab materials linked from the online
version of this syllabus (above).
Check the syllabus often for changes to the calendar and updated versions of
materials. I will be sure to communicated updates/corrections as the semester
progresses. Any supplemental materials will be provided in lab.
Lab Grading Policy
Labs will be graded based on a 3 point scale and my evaluation of work
completed will be based largely on a solid academic effort. I will be looking
for evidence of:
- Clear Conceptual Communication of Observed Phenomenon (e.g. efficient and complete)
- Organized Calculations & Written Responses
- Creativity and Imagination
- Correct Answers*
*Note: I strive to emphasize the Scientific Way of Knowing and the process of observing and quantifying phenomenon in Physics. I will tend to place more importance on the ability to document and retrace the thought process that led you to the answer.
A general rubric that I will use when reviewing your completed labs:
3/3 - A perfect lab!
2/3 - A largely complete and mostly correct lab with attempts made in all areas. May be missing some minor pieces.
1/3 - A lab turned in, but with serious conceptual and/or quantitative deficiencies or multiple/major pieces not done.
0/3 - Nothing submitted.
When determining your final lab grade I will omit your two worst weekly lab
scores.
This policy will not include or apply to your formal lab write-up.
Formal Lab Write-Up
Each student will be responsible for composing a formal lab write-up from their
work on the "Measuring the Acceleration of Falling Objects"
lab. The formal lab write-up will be constructed much in the manner of a paper
for publication with sections for: Abstract, Introduction, Procedures, Sample
Calcuations, Results, Discussion/Conclusion, References*. *Note: For citation
format of references See: SEP
Citation Guidelines (Updated 30-Mar-07)]
The formal lab will be graded out of a 25 point base and scaled to 9 points. Essentially making the formal lab write-up equivalent to three times the value of other lab activities. Due dates for the formal write-up will be announced.