Instructor: Paul Williams, Ph.D.

Office: NRG 2217

Phone: 223-4871

Office Hours: I will hold office hours according to the following schedule.

MTWH 11:50 AM - 1:05 PM Or by appointment.

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

Text: Physics, 5^th ed., by Douglas Giancoli

Tests: There will be three tests and a cumulative final. The tests will be closed notes and books and will be spaced at approximately one and a half week intervals. The tests 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 an exam you did not take. No make up exams will be given.

Laboratory: Physics is a laboratory based science. Concurrent enrollment in the laboratory section #4522 is required. The laboratory will be 25% of your total grade.

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. Make up labs occur every Friday from 10AM to 1 PM. If you cannot make this time, you will need to schedule an alternate make-up time with the lab assistant.

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.

* Lab requires full write-up

** Lab requires abbreviated write-up or worksheet

A special note regarding 6 week sessions: Taking Physics in a six week session is very intense. You should plan on this course being a full time job. You will be in class four hours a day and should count on studying, doing homework and working on labs at least fours a day. If you don't have this amount of time to commit, you will find it very difficult to be successful in this course. Conversely, if you do make that commitment, then this can be a very productive and efficient learning process.

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. There will be twelve homework assignments this semester, 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 be determined through two factors. 50% will determined by a quiz given on the due date of the homework, and 50% will be given for completeness and effort.

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

Due Date: Homework is due on my desk without my asking for it at the end of the class on the dates indicated in the syllabus.

Organization: Please keep your homework assignments, labs, and quizzes 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: Given the constraints of a summer six week session, late homework will not be accepted.

Laboratory: A major component of this course is the laboratory. You will perform approximately fifteen laboratory exercises in this course. Five will require a formal write-up, the remainder will require a brief write-up or a worksheet which can be completed in class. The reports are due as indicated in the syllabus. The lab grade will be based on 90% lab write-ups, and 10% participation in the lab activities.