March 4, 2010
Students in PHY 231 section 002,
This is a reminder that we have our second midterm exam on Tuesday, March 16th during the usual lecture time: 6:10 PM in BPS 1410 for section 002. The exam will be 60 minutes long.
For the exam bring your favorite generic scientific calculator with fresh batteries capable of calculating square root; sine; cosine; tangent using degrees and radians; and inverse trig functions. (Logarithms and exponentials will be needed for later exams.) Graphing calculators are allowed, but not necessary. Also bring two sharp pencils, an eraser and two one-page one-sided hand-written 8.5 by 11 inch US letter sized help sheets with formulas and laws you think you will need. No other aids are permitted for the exam.
The exam will be based on homework sets: 4, 5 and 6, and the associated readings from the text book. The weight of a midterm exam in your final grade will be 16 percent. The exam will have 12 multiple choice questions, some are numerical and some are conceptual. Some of the questions will have more than one part. You can score 50 points on a midterm exam. The problems are very similar to the homework problems, so the best way to prepare for the exam is to go through the homework sets and the clicker questions. You can see all of the clicker questions in the clicker scores part of the section syllabus ( http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2010spring/phy231/sec2/clicker/Reports/StudentTermReport.html ). Clicking on the date of interest and then clicking on one of the problems from that date will open a screen showing all clicker questions asked on that date.
There will NOT be homework set due on Wednesday, 3/17. The next homework set will be due a week later on Wednesday 3/24.
Just like exam 1, we will assign the whole exam again as a homework assignment as a Correction Exam. The Correction Exam will be optional. If you don't touch it, you will NOT lose any points from your in-class exam. If your performance is better on the Correction Exam than on the in-class exam, then 30 percent of this positive difference will be added to your in-class exam score. The best strategy is to solve the Correction Exam perfectly to maximize your gain. You will have almost a week to work on the Correction Exam, not just an hour.
This section is full and the number of students is quite large. Your cooperation will be expected and appreciated. Please, turn off all your electronic gizmos, and keep your eyes and ears open. Come to the BPS atrium at least 10 minutes before the exam. Your exam will be personalized with your name and picture on the cover sheet. In addition, the cover sheet will contain your assigned seat for the exam.
I will re-send this message on Monday, March 15th.
Thank you and good luck!
Students in PHY 231 section 002,
This is a reminder that we have our first midterm exam next Tuesday, February 9th during the usual lecture time: 6:10 PM in BPS 1410 for section 002. The exam will be 60 minutes long.
For the exam bring your favorite generic scientific calculator with fresh batteries capable of calculating square root; sine; cosine; tangent using degrees and radians; and inverse trig functions. (Logarithms and exponentials will be needed for later exams.) Graphing calculators are allowed, but not necessary. Also bring two sharp pencils, an eraser and a one-page one-sided hand-written 8.5 by 11 inch US letter sized help sheet with formulas and laws you think you will need. No other aids are permitted for the exam.
The exam will be based on the first three homework sets: 1, 2 and 3, and chapters 1,2,3,4 and 5 from the text book. The weight of a midterm exam in your final grade will be 16 percent. The exam will have 10 multiple choice questions, some are numerical and some are conceptual. Some of the questions will have more than one part. You can score 50 points on a midterm exam. The problems are very similar to the homework problems, so the best way to prepare for the exam is to go through all three homework sets and the clicker questions. You can see all of the clicker questions in the clicker scores part of the section syllabus ( http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2010spring/phy231/sec2/clicker/Reports/StudentTermReport.html ). Clicking on the date of interest and then clicking on one of the problems from that date will open a screen showing all clicker questions asked on that date.
There will NOT be homework set due on Wednesday, 02/10. The next homework set will be due a week later on Wednesday 02/17.
We will assign the whole exam again as a homework assignment next week as a Correction Exam. The Correction Exam will be optional. If you don't touch it, you will NOT lose any points from your in-class exam. If your performance is better on the Correction Exam than on the in-class exam, then 30 percent of this positive difference will be added to your in-class exam score. The best strategy is to solve the Correction Exam perfectly to maximize your gain. You will have almost a week to work on the Correction Exam, not just an hour.
This section is full and the number of students is quite large. Your cooperation will be expected and appreciated. Please, turn off all your electronic gizmos, and keep your eyes and ears open. Come to the BPS atrium at least 10 minutes before the exam. Your exam will be personalized with your name and picture on the cover sheet. In addition, the cover sheet will contain your assigned seat for the exam.
Thank you and good luck!
Richard Hallstein
Welcome to the Spring 2010 session of PHY 231,
This class will use LON-CAPA. LON-CAPA is a computerized homework and exam management system developed right here at MSU. We will NOT use Angel or Mastering Physics from the textbook.
Please visit www.loncapa.msu.edu and log in using your MSU Net ID and password. Select the "PHY 231/231C Spring 2010" class. The first item on the top is the syllabus. Read it carefully. This is the official syllabus of the class. The syllabus can also be viewed directly from the section 002 homepage: http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2010spring/phy231/sec2/ without logging in to LON-CAPA. The lecture notes, information specific to section 002 and other class related materials will be posted on this homepage during the semester.
Within the Homework #0 folder there are problems for zero points. You can solve these problems without any reading or studying of the textbook. The purpose of these problems is to make sure you know how to enter numbers and units as your answer in case you have not use LON-CAPA before.
The next folder is "Clicker Registration". You will need to register your "i-clicker" here. If you have an i-clicker from another class or from previous class, it will work just fine for this class. There is no need to buy more than one clicker.
Our required text book is Knight-Jones-Field: College Physics, Volume 1. It is sold at the MSU bookstore and at SBS on Grand River. The cover of the book shows a roly-poly bug rolling down on an incline. Used or new version of the book will work equally well.
You are encouraged to come to the help room (BPS 1248) with your questions. Our Teaching Assistants will be more than happy to answer your questions. Our two main days in the help room are going to be Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
You are also encouraged to use the discussion board inside LON-CAPA. If you don't understand a problem or you need help, just click on the "Post discussion" link and post your question. If you know the answer to somebody else's question, just post your answer. Don't forget: The best way to learn is to teach. (Doscendo discimus.)
Thank you! See you tomorrow, Tuesday at 6:10 PM in room BPS 1410!
Richard Hallstein
(BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509, hallstein@pa.msu.edu)
Last updated: February 4, 2010