SPRING SEMESTER 2007
INSTRUCTOR: Ken Barker
Phone: 770-271-1807 (Home)
404-894-5214 (Office)
Email: knbark@aol.com
Office W107. Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday
TEXT: None
TIME and PLACE: Room Van Leer C241, MW,
GRADING POLICY: Satisfactory completion of Physics 2802 will result in a
grade that is independent of your performance in Physics 2211. This grade will be based on in-class
participation and written solutions to assigned homework. There will be no examinations or quizzes in
this course
Class Participation -----------300 points
Homework
--------------------200 points
Total ---------------------------500
points
TARGET GRADE DISTRIBUTION:
A – 90% 450 – 500 points
B – 80% 400 – 449 points
C – 70% 350 – 399 points
D – 60% 300 – 349 points
F 0 – 299 points
PERMIT and
1. If you are taking Physics 2802 concurrent
with the first time you are taking Physics 2211, you are not lab exempt. You will be required to complete lab in
addition to this course so you may disregard the remainder of this section.
2. If you
are retaking 2211 with a prior grade of "D" of better, you are
automatically entitled to a lab exemption, independent of your participation in
2802. Please see the guidelines regarding lab exemptions at:
http://www.physics.gatech.edu/academics/info/LabExmt.html
3. The
general policy in the
4. If you
choose to be lab exempt, you must register for the special exempt lab section
which is linked to your lecture section. These exempt labs are identified
by a section ID "_X0", where "_" represents the lecture
section. (For example, if you wish to take lecture section A, you should
register for exempt lab section AX0, instead of the regular labs A01 -
A08.) By doing so, you are officially obtaining lab exempt status, and
won't ever have to show up for lab. Your prior lab score will
automatically be carried forward and applied to your grade for the upcoming
term. If you failed lab, do not register for lab exemption, or
else you will automatically fail the course all over again. If you
received a low lab grade due to poor attendance, you may not want to re-use
that score--in which case you should not register for lab exemption.
5. If
you register for a regular lab rather than an exempt lab section, we will
assume that you've chosen to waive your exemption permit, and consequently
you must attend the lab section for which you are registered--failure to
do so will mean a zero in lab, and you will not receive credit for 2211 until
you complete the lab sequence over again.
CLASS PARTICIPATION: The most important component of this course is participation
of the student in a small classroom environment. Physics problem solving techniques will be
learned by actually solving problems while working with your peers and being
supervised by your instructor. Problem
sets will be assigned during each class period.
If these problem sets are completed during the class period they will be
graded on the basis of a maximum score of 10 points. These problem sets can be turned in for
credit the next day during office hours but the maximum score would be reduced
to 8 points.
HOMEWORK: Homework
for this course will consist of written out solutions for selected problems
taken from your Physics 2211 text. These
problems will be selected to represent the Mastering Physics homework assigned
by your Physics 2211 Instructor. This
requirement should minimize additional workload over the assignments required
for Physics 2211.
ATTENDANCE POLICY: Attendance
in this course is mandatory. Failure
to attend any class session will result in a class participation grade of 0 for
that day. For each two unexcused
absences the maximum achievable letter grade for this course will be reduced by
one letter
COURSE DROP DATE: The last day to withdraw
from this course without penalty is
ACADEMIC HONESTY: The policy on academic honesty as stated in the GIT Honor
Code will be fully enforced during this course
GRADING GUIDELINES: First and foremost,
while writing out your problem set solutions and homework for this class, keep
in mind that the purpose is to make sure you understand how and why the
solutions work. We are looking for you
to fully demonstrate your understanding.
To get full credit you must use an appropriate format to show how you
obtained your answers. If you are
assigned a multiple choice or fill in the blank type of problem, simply write a
succinct sentence explaining your reasoning to get full credit. For an answer to be judged correct it must
have the correct units.
Below is a rubric explaining very
general criteria for how your work will be graded:
|
POINT VALUE |
COMPLETENESS? |
CORRECTNESS? |
|
10 |
ALL done ALL work shown |
All correct |
|
9 |
10% work not shown, but all work shown on rest |
~ 80% correct |
|
8 |
20% work not shown, but all work shown on rest |
~ 70% correct |
|
7 |
30% work not shown, but all work shown on rest |
~ 60% correct |
|
6 |
50% work not shown, but all work shown on rest |
~ 50% correct |
|
5 |
less than 50% work shown |
less than 50% correct |
Clearly this is not an exact science,
but hopefully you can get an idea of how your grade will be determined. The general idea is that by the time you turn
in your written problem sets or homework for this class, you will know all of
the correct answers. Therefore the
emphasis in grading is on your method and not just on your result.
MY OBJECTIVE FOR THIS
COURSE: My
objective for this course is that you achieve the best understanding possible
of elementary physics problem solution concepts. Successfully meeting this objective should
enable you to use these techniques to excel in Physics 2211. In class your questions and discussion are
essential to this learning process. As
your instructor I am available to you for any assistance required for this
course and also for Physics 2211. Please feel free to contact me during office
hours or by home phone or email at any other time you have questions.