PHYS 100: Foundations
of Physical Science
16 January 2001
Welcome to what promises to be one of the more
interesting courses you will take at Boise State. It is almost certain to be different than any you have taken
in science. Since the course
is neither based on a textbook nor on standard lectures, if you have not participated in
lab, what happens in class will not make sense or be of any real value to you
on exams. You can guarantee
yourself the first 50% of your semester average by coming to all classes and
lab, participating and handing in assignments. If your schedule this semester calls for frequent absences
from lab or class, then I suggest you take the course some other semester. Grading will not be competitive,
therefore cooperation between students in class and while studying is strongly encouraged.
WHAT WE WILL STUDY: A
tentative list of topics for this semester: Motion and Force and possibly
Images from Lenses
Your
Instructor: Dr. Dewey Dykstra
OFFICE: MP 418
OFFICE PHONE: 426-3105
OFFICE HOURS: M, W 9:00 - 10:30 am and by appointment. I am here all day most days. Feel free to come by at other times without an appointment. Call ahead, if you are worried about wasting a trip.
Electronic
Mail: dykstrad@email.boisestate.edu
— I check my e-mail on a regular basis, so it is pretty easy to get in
touch with me this way.
Laboratory: Meet
for lab at your scheduled time each week in the lab room, MP 304. Bring your Doing Physics activity manual and some spare
paper. See the important notice
about what to do if you have to miss a lab session (item 4 on page 3 in the
IMPORTANT NOTICES section).
What you need:
1. The Activity Manual: You need to purchase the
activity manual for the course as soon as it is available. Dr. Dykstra will comment on this at the
first class meeting. The complete activity manual will be available in several
installments. Be prepared to purchase the first installment at the beginning of
the second week of class. Dr.
Dykstra will keep you posted as to the availability of the installments. The title of the first installment to
the activity manual is Doing Physics: An Introduction to Motion and Force. It is
shrink wrapped in plastic and the pages are three-hole punched. As we move on to study other topics,
new installments to the activity manual will become available. Be prepared to make these purchases
when necessary. The price of these
installments is generally around $10.
There will be at most 3 of these this semester.
2. Three-ring binder (1.5” rings suggested) to
keep your PHYS 100 notes and materials in plus a small supply of three ring
punched 8.5 x 11 inch paper to use for lab and class discussion notes.
3. The textbook: While this course is NOT based
on a textbook, Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt is the official optional text for the course. In a very real and practical sense the
text for this course will be in the lab experiences and the resulting
discussions. Occasionally there will be optional suggested readings from the text
and other sources that will be placed on reserve at the Library. I will not go through any suggested
readings just to select items for the exams. Reading in advance of assignments is NEITHER suggested NOR encouraged!
4. Lab materials: – Occasionally you may
find it useful to have the following:
Calculator: LCD display, “solar” powered, four functions
(add, subtract, multiply, and divide).
If math courses are in your future, get one with trig functions. If not, four functions are good
enough. This is not a problem solving
class and there are no mathematics prerequisites, but arithmetic might be used occasionally and I’m sure that you
would rather use a calculator than do it in your head. (I know I would!)
Plastic ruler (6” will do) with
centimeters and millimeters marked on it.
EXAMINATIONS: There
will be two or three major exams in class plus the final. The final is not optional. The final will be comprehensive and will cover only material that has been tested
over in the class exams. The exams
will not be tests of what the instructor or the author of the text has said or
merely what has happened in lab or class.
The exams will probe your understanding of the ideas that the class builds to explain the phenomena
we study usually in applications of the ideas to different situations. (See note 5 in IMPORTANT NOTICES on
page 3 about missing exams.)
IMPORTANT DATES:
First Day of Class: Tuesday, 16 January 2001 (the course
begins)
Last day to register or add this
course: Monday, 29 January 2001
Presidents Day NO School: Monday,
19 February 2001
Last day to drop this course:
Friday, 23 February 2001
Spring Break: 26 March – 1 April 2001
Last day of this class: Thursday, 3 May 2001
Final: Thursday, 10 May 2001, 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM, in MP 101, the regular
class meeting location.
GRADING:
Calculating the Semester Average:
Your semester average will be calculated from the
following contributions:
Class
/Homework Activities: 20%
Lab
Activities: 30%
In-class
exams: 25%
Final: 25%
Grading scale for the semester average: A: 90% and higher, B: 80% and higher, C: 70%
and higher, etc.
YOUR SEMESTER AVERAGE WILL
NOT NECESSARILY BE YOUR SEMESTER GRADE!
Determining the Semester Grade: Your actual semester grade will
be determined by the higher of two letter grades: the semester average and the grade
on your comprehensive final.
Cut-offs for letter grades on the final will be
determined by performance on the final and will not necessarily be 90%, 80%, 70%, etc. How performance on the final is to be
judged will be made clearer during the semester. This means effectively that the final is a second chance at earning a good grade in this
course, if you have been attending and participating!
IMPORTANT NOTICES:
The university has clear
regulations concerning course enrollment, dropping courses, etc. Deadlines are being very strictly observed and few exceptions are
being made anymore, so…
0. Anyone officially registered for
this course who has not attended the first week of class will be withdrawn from the course to make space
for those who are interested in making a more serious effort in the class.
1. If you are enrolled in this course,
make a clear commitment to make a go of it well before 29 January or definitely
drop the class before that time to make room for someone who does want to take
it.
2. Because this course is based on the
laboratory experience, lab sections are the limiting factor on enrollment in
this course. We cannot offer a
sufficiently high quality experience with more than 24 persons in each lab section. Ultimately, if you are not able to get
into an open slot in one of the lab sections by the last day to add, then you
should plan to take this course another semester. The Registrar’s Office controls who gets each seat in
a lab section, so your instructor cannot guarantee anyone a seat without
risking over enrolling the section; something he will not do. On the other hand he will do all he can
to make it possible for those who wish to get a slot in lab.
3. The date and time of the final are
fixed by university regulation and printed in the course schedule for the
semester. Be prepared to be at the final as scheduled. It is extremely unlikely that
the final will be available to take early, so do not make plans to leave school
early at the end of the semester.
4. Because of potential crowding
problems in lab sections, it is important to attend the section in which you
are registered. On the other hand,
if, on occasion, you have to miss your regularly scheduled session of lab
for any reason, do whatever you have to in order to make it to another
section of lab that same week. There are
no make-up labs possible. Totally
missing lab one week has relatively minimal consequences, point-wise, on your
semester average, but it has major consequences on your being able to make
sense of what is going on in class and in preparing for exams.
5. Any in class exam or final exam
missed without making prior arrangements with your instructor will be counted
as 0%. Call or otherwise leave a
note before hand if for some reason you find you have to miss an exam. The office phone has voice mail.
6. Because of the interactive nature
of class and lab, it is virtually impossible to actually “make up”
either. The course is designed
such that missing a lab or a class will not destroy one’s chances for a
good grade in the end. On the
other hand, you must be present on the particular day to get credit for that
day’s lab or class activities.
All absences are treated the same, whether they are for “official
school activities” or not.