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Syllabus

Lecture Schedule

Laboratory

Study Aids

Notices

Extra Credit

Honors Essays

 

 

 

QUIZZES:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quizzes will be given in class daily.  The quizzes will consist of 5 multiple choice questions 
concerning the material to be covered in that day’s lecture.  Extra credit will be added to each Test 
score based on the grades earned on each of the quizzes which covered the same material as 
the Test.  The extra credit will be awarded for each quiz grade as follows:

                       Quiz Grade            Extra Credit
                       5 (100%)               3 points
                       4 (80%)                 2 points
                       3 (60%)                 2 points
                       2 (40%)                 1 point
                       1 (20%)                 1 point
                       0 (0%)                   1 point

The Tests are multiple-choice with 33 questions.  Each Test is scored with 100 points denoting all 
answers are correct.  There will be 5 graded quizzes corresponding to each test.  With extra 
credit, a maximum score of 115 would be possible on a given Test.

ESSAY:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extra credit for the Final Exam can be obtained by completing a short essay.  The Guidelines
and rules for the extra credit essay are given below.

·      Topic: Find a recent news story that deals with some topic in physics, preferably some topic that we have covered in this class.  The news item could be something found on a legitimate news web site, in a newspaper or a news-oriented magazine. If you need help finding a topic, come to my office during office hours to talk about it, or email me. If you email me, please narrow down your topic preferences to a smaller area than all of physics!

·       Notification: Tell me by e-mail which topic you choose including where to find your chosen news article (don't tell me in class, since I want to keep a record of it); you MUST get my approval before 11:00 AM Jan 16, and I recommend you do it before working on the essay, because your topic may not be appropriate for the assignment, and two students may not write an essay on the same topic!

·       References: Find two or more references; one must be a recent news item from a legitimate news source from the web, newspaper or magazine article (at most six months old), the other ones can be any scientific articles or books (even older ones, but not textbooks). Note: the news article must be from a legitimate, general journalistic news source (e.g. ABC, CNN, FOX, etc; New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.; Time or Newsweek magazine; NPR, BBC, etc.). "Bob's Website of Stuff I Think is Cool Today" would not qualify, nor would People magazine. One type of source that may seem like a real news site, but really isn't a general news outlet includes websites/magazines like "Science News", "ScienceDaily", physorg.com or physicsworld.com. Sources like these are really more like public relations organs for the scientific field that exist largely to feed stories to more standard news media. These sources may be good places to get ideas, but your first reference for your essay must come from a standard news broadcast/newspaper/magazine source like those listed above. Also, the scientific reference must be something written by a scientist - not a journalist. This rules out sites like "Science News" described above, and even magazines like National Geographic.

·       Content: Emphasize the news item, but include some background information on your topic as well. You may include quotes from your sources, and/or thoughts or feelings of yours on the subject, but these must be at most a small part of the essay. Most of what you write should be real content, meaning an explanation of the topic, expressed in your own words (do not copy whole paragraphs from other sources). Write your essay as if you were addressing another student in the class: It should be understandable by a reader who doesn't know anything we have not covered (but there is no need to explain things we have covered in class).

·       Length and Presentation: Write an essay of about 1000-1200 words (shorter ones may get less credit, or not be accepted, depending on length). Make sure you include a title, your name and section number, and a list of references used, including full URL's and titles of web articles. 

·       Submission: Essays must be submitted as email attachments; in Microsoft Word or pdf format.

·       Deadline: 8:00 AM, Jan 17.

·       Credit: The essay will be worth up to 3 points which will be added to your final course grade.  The essay will be graded on quality of writing as well as on content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This page was last modified on December 21, 2018