Instructor: Paul Williams. Ph.D.

Office: NRG 2217. I will hold office hours specifically for this class in 2214 at RVS.

Phone: 223-4871 e-mail: pwill@austin.cc.tx.us

url: http://www2.austin.cc.tx.us/nrgpscc

Office Hours: I hold office hours in order to aid students. Please feel free to come and visit, get help, whatever.

TH 9:15-10:30 AM (in NRG 2217) Or by appointment.

Tests: There will be five relatively short tests and a cumulative final. The tests will be closed notes and books, spaced at three week intervals, and will reflect the homework assignments. You may replace the grade on one previous test with your grade on the final, with the provision that you may not replace the grade for a test you did not take. No make up tests will be given.

Laboratory: Physics is a laboratory based science. The laboratory will be 25% of your total grade. Lab exercises will take place daily and the lines between what is lecture and what is lab will be very blurry in this class. Material from labs will be included on tests.

Grade: Your grade will be determined as follows:

Tests 45%
Final 20%
Homework 10%
Laboratory 25%

Based on the following scale: A 90-100
B 80-89
C 70-79
D 60-69
F 0-59

Attendance: Attendance is required and I expect you to attend class regularly. It is my experience that a typical student will drop a letter grade for each three to four absences. All labs must be completed by every student. Some provision will be made for make up labs.

Problems: If some problem arises causing you to miss an assignment, please see me in advance if at all possible and I will try and make accommodations. Incompletes are not given except under extreme circumstances.

Help: If you need help, get it. I hold office hours to help students and you should view me as a primary source of aid. Also free tutoring exists in the parallel studies tutoring lab, and I highly recommend this service. Feel free to work on homework assignments with classmates. However, regardless of the source of help you receive, you are responsible for your own work. If you copy someone else's homework without doing it yourself, you will not understand the material and despite having a good homework grade will not do well in the course.

Time: An important part of learning physics is homework. I believe whole-heartedly in homework. Physics requires a different type of thinking than other classes and this thought process needs to be developed through practice. I will assign problems daily, which I consider a minimum amount of work to learn the material. It is my fervent belief that unless a student is a physics prodigy, he/she will not do well in this class without keeping up with the homework.

Grading: The homework grade will consist of two parts. A completeness portion and homework quizzes. Homework will be picked up daily, and I will check each assignment, assigning a grade from 0-3 depending on effort, and completeness. Once a week there will be a homework quiz consisting of several questions directly from the homework. You may use your homework as notes to answer the quiz.

Review: I have found that students retain material better if they review frequently, and so each homework assignment will contain a significant number of review problems.

Due Date: Homework is due on my desk without my asking for it at the end of the class period every Wednesday for assignments made on Monday and every Monday for assignments made on Wednesday, unless otherwise directed.

Organization: Please keep your homework and lab assignments so that any possible errors in my grading records can be rectified. It is a good idea to keep your assignments in a loose leaf binder for reference.

Late Homework: I do not accept late homework. Your lowest three homework scores will be dropped in determining you homework average.