DUE: continuing, one per week on the following Monday.

POINTS: 34 percentage points total (see the Details page). There are 15 weekly journal entries which includes a single introduction for the first submission and a single conclusion with the last submission. Weekly entries will be graded on a basis of 7 scoring points each. However, for very unusual effort, up to 9 points might be awarded.

DOCUMENTS: Refer to MS Word template.

DESCRIPTION: The ISP213H Journal should be a record of your intellectual development during this course. It will be written in weekly stages...with a special entry at the beginning and a special entry at the end. Occasionally, there will be specific issues––a question or a simple calculation--that you'll be asked to address in a particular entry.

It should be written in the first person and should be a narrative, connecting one entry to the other. I'm hoping for the whole to be like a story.

Refer to the template...There are 3 kinds of entries:

1. Introduction. The first entry should be an Introduction to you and some considerations as to why you have chosen to take this course. What are your initial impressions and expectations? This first entry also has a "weekly" component to it as well.
2. Weekly Entries. The second kind of entry is repeated each week––so the journal gets bigger and bigger. In each, you will have 3 sections:
   
   1. Reaction. Almost every entry will have something for you to "react to," be it a question, a response or reaction to a reading, an exercise, or a problem.
   2. Three Major Topics. For the week's material, you should just enumerate the three topics that we discussed and you read which you think were important to your understanding. They may not be what I thought were most important. I want to know what grabbed your attention.
   3. Summary. Then, you should give a brief summary of the material of the lectures in a few pages in this or an equivalent font. Some entries will be longer than others and that should be driven by the importance of the material. Note that I'll use my RACM method for grading. (What's RACM, you ask? Look at the Help page...) Please don't recite a dry report of what I said, but what (if anything) struck you about it and why. You might include instances of outside discussions, things happening in your other courses, informal encounters (like TV, newspapers, current events), trips you've taken, and/or experiences you've had. Refer to the readings explicitly for full "Completeness" credit. If I did demonstrations, refer to them for full Completeness credit. Be interesting and do not be boring.
   4. Questions. Not required, but if you have questions about anything in the week, or something you saw in the newspaper, whatever-ask! I'll try to react to them in class or in the blog.

3. Conclusion. The third kind of entry is the Conclusion. At the end of the term, you should address your Introduction again and state if the course met your expectations or if your expectations changed.This will be in the Conclusion section...which is sitting there waiting for you all semester.

This should be done every week and is due at the beginning of each Monday's class. So, for example, the first Journal entry is for the week of 1/7, so it would include the lectures and material supporting the lectures of 1/7 and 1/9.

Just print out those pages that correspond to the relevant entry. Staple them! Each weekly submission is worth 7 points and there will be a penalty of 1 point per day in cases of late submission.

On the Template you'll notice that there is stuff in blue...that's where you write, but of course, you'll do it in black (or whatever) and eliminate my blue stuff. You'll also notice that I've included a place for your name (in blue) in the Header. That way, when you turn in each entry, your name will automatically be included. So, don't forget to change the Header! Finally, you'll see that I've included a fake entry for the first lecture. This should give you a sense of the tone that I expect.

WHAT TO PUT IN YOUR SUMMARY PART of the JOURNAL: I expect you to summarize the points that are made during lecture which are important. This does not necessarily mean to rewrite my slides in prose, but it does mean that I want to know that you a) realize what's important and b) understood the principles. If you do not fully understand something...write about that. I'll comment to those issues and try to help. If you're surprised at something, or have figured out a connection to something you've experienced or always wondered about...write about that. If I've done a demonstration in class...write about that. If you go elsewhere for assistance and/or supplement to the lectures...write about that.

• Roughly, an average Completeness effort is about a page and a half, sometimes more, not usually less. A very unusual effort is more than that.
• Notice that I will grade on accuracy, so while we'll work to get your understanding straight, I expect you to have read outside of the lecture slides to supplement your understanding. So, if you claim something incorrectly, but don't indicate that you're uncertain, that's "inaccurate." If you are unsure about something, express your uncertainty and what you've done to fix it...that's then not "inaccurate." Get it?
• This exercise is supposed to help you to create the Whole of the development of physics...from its parts. It also is specifically designed to help you to be ready for the Wednesday quizzes.
• Do not leave it to the day before the deadline for submission - you'll forget things. Do it right after class! Allow time to edit, word process, and proof read. Please write well and correctly. In the RACM, the "M" stands for mechanics. As an IS course, and especially as an honors course, there really should be zero grammar, spelling, or syntax mistakes...right? (Hint: proofread your work.)

Here are 6 example journals that I hope will help you to get into the flow. Each of these students (they are all different) did very well in previous iterations of ISP213H. Each did journal work that was always good, sometimes very unusually good, and each substantially helped their grade through their journal effort! Some of the rules have changed, so they don't have the A-C (D) segments.

These are examples of really well-done journal entries:
example1.pdf
example2.pdf
example3.pdf

These are examples of "very unusual effort"- level journal entries:
example4.pdf
example5.pdf
example6.pdf