August 10, 2011
The final exam will be on TUESDAY, August 16th from 4:30PM until 6:30PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 4:30PM; students arriving after 4:30PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam is comprehensive. The material covered in the last homework set will be given slightly more weight than the rest of the exam. As such, studying homework set 11 is a good place to concentrate your efforts for this part of the final exam. The remainder of the exam is divided among the topics covered in the first three exams. So, the three practice exams and the three midterms are good places to concentrate your review for these questions. Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and some will have numerical answers. There are 100 possible points on the exam and, as stated in the syllabus there will not be a correction exam.
The exam is closed book, but you may use four 8-1/2 inch x 11 inch or smaller sheet of original hand-written (preferred) notes and equations. You may use both sides of your note sheets.
You should bring a few sharpened number 2 pencils, your student ID (or driver’s license) and a calculator (graphing calculators are OK). However, the use of cell phones, PDAs or computers for any reason is NOT permitted. Pencils and calculators will NOT be provided. Also as a courtesy to your fellow students, you should turn off all cell phones and pagers before entering the room.
When you enter the room, pick up a bubble seat and sit in the row assigned to you based on your last name (seating assignments will be displayed on the screen at the front of the room). The exam will be handed out once all students arriving promptly are in their assigned rows. DO NOT open the exam until you are told to do so by an instructor. You can however, complete the student information section of your answer sheet. Make sure you include your student ID number and your name on the answer sheet. Make certain that your exam has your name and picture on the cover sheet – if it does not, you have the wrong exam! When you are finished with the exam return both your answer sheet and your exam to an instructor or a TA.
The cover page for the exam will contain the same information as the cover pages on each of the midterm exams.
There are a total of 23 problems; some of them are multi-part with a total of 30 questions on this exam.
Richard Hallstein
July 28, 2011
The third exam will be on Tuesday, August 2 from 4:30PM until 5:30PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 4:30PM; students arriving after 4:30PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam will cover everything covered in the course after exam 2. It will be based on the assigned readings, the online lectures and the homework (sets 9 and 10). As stated in the syllabus, the exam will also include one modified problem from the first exam and one modified problem from the second exam. These modified problems could be either single-part or multi-part. Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and some will have numerical answers. There are 50 possible points on the exam.
The exam is closed book, but you may use one 8-1/2 inch x 11 inch or smaller sheet of original hand-written (preferred) notes and equations. You may use both sides of your note sheet.
You should bring a few sharpened number 2 pencils, your student ID (or driver’s license) and a calculator (graphing calculators are OK). However, the use of cell phones, PDAs or computers for any reason is NOT permitted. Pencils and calculators will NOT be provided. Also as a courtesy to your fellow students, you should turn off all cell phones and pagers before entering the room.
When you enter the room, pick up a bubble sheet and sit in the row assigned to you based on your last name (seating assignments will be displayed on the screen at the front of the room). The exam will be handed out once all students arriving promptly are in their assigned rows. DO NOT open the exam until you are told to do so by an instructor. You can however, complete the student information section of your answer sheet. Make sure you include your student ID number and your name on the answer sheet. Make certain that your exam has your name and picture on the cover sheet – if it does not, you have the wrong exam! When you are finished with the exam return both your answer sheet and your exam to an instructor or a TA.
You will have one hour to complete the exam.
We will assign the whole exam again as a homework assignment as a Correction Exam. The Correction Exam is optional. If you don't touch it, you will NOT lose any points from your in-class (or proctored) exam. If your performance is better on the Correction Exam than on the in-class (or proctored) 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. The Correction Exam will be available Wednesday, August 3rd in the afternoon and will be due on Monday, August 8th at 5PM. The results of the in-class (or proctored) exam will not be available until after the due date for the Correction Exam. Also, only students taking the in-class (or with a proctor) exam will have access to the Correction Exam.
The cover page for the exam will contain the same information as is displayed on the practice exam’s cover page. Some useful information is included on the cover page. Note: the exam cover page is for all of the mid-term exams and not all of the useful information listed here is applicable to this exam. There are a total of 12 problems, some of them multi-part totaling 15 questions on this exam.
The due date for the last homework (set 11) is Thursday, August 11 at 5PM.
Richard Hallstein
July 19, 2011
You can now view your exam and your score in Lon-Capa. To see your score, select: “View current problem status and grading information” from the main menu. Next to EXAM 2 you will see your total points out of 50.
If a correction exam score is higher than the in-class score, then 30% of the difference between the correction exam score and the in-class exam score will be added to the in-class score as a bonus. For example, if an in-class exam score is 40 and the correction exam score is 50, then 0.3*(50-40)=3 will be added to the in-class score for an exam total of 43. So, 43 points will be used as the exam score for final grade calculation purposes. If the correction exam was equal to or lower than the in-class score, then the in-class score will be used for final grade calculation.
To review your version of the exam in Lon-Capa, click on Course Contents. Then open the folder labeled EXAMS near the bottom of the screen. Exam number one is inside a second folder labeled Exam 2. You can view an individual problem on the exam, including your response and the correct response by clicking on the problem.
You can prepare a printout of your version of the exam using the “prepare a printable document” option. This will show you how many points each problem was worth. On the in-class exam, you receive credit for every correct response.
As stated in the syllabus, one problem on the third midterm will be a modified* problem taken directly from this exam. The modified problem could be a single response or a multi-response conceptual problem. *Modified could mean that if the original problem gave x and asked for y, the modified problem might give y and ask for x. For conceptual problems, modified could mean covering the same concept.
If your exam score is not showing up, try exiting Lon-Capa, shutting down all windows of your internet browser and then re-logging into Lon-Capa.
Richard Hallstein
July 8, 2011
As a review for the second exam, the solution to the practice exam is now available in the practice exam folder. I strongly advise making a first draft of your exam notes sheet and using it to work through the practice exam prior to reviewing the solution lectures. As stated in the course syllabus and in the email notifications sent last week and yesterday, the exam will be Tuesday, July 12th at 4:30PM. The exam will be in BPS1410.
If the solution is not showing up in Lon-Capa, log out of Lon-Capa, close down all windows of your web browser and then re-log onto Lon-Capa.
Richard Hallstein
July 7, 2011
The second exam will be on Tuesday, *July* 12th from 4:30PM until 5:30PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 4:30PM; students arriving after 4:30PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam will cover everything covered in the course after exam 1. It will be based on the assigned readings, the online lectures and the homework (sets 6 through 8). As stated in the syllabus, the exam will also include one modified problem from the first exam. This modified problem could be either single-part or multi-part. Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and some will have numerical answers. There are 50 possible points on the exam.
The exam is closed book, but you may use one 8-1/2 inch x 11 inch or smaller sheet of original hand-written (preferred) notes and equations. You may use both sides of your note sheet.
You should bring a few sharpened number 2 pencils, your student ID (or driver’s license) and a calculator (graphing calculators are OK). However, the use of cell phones, PDAs or computers for any reason is NOT permitted. Pencils and calculators will NOT be provided. Also as a courtesy to your fellow students, you should turn off all cell phones and pagers before entering the room.
When you enter the room, pick up a bubble sheet and sit in the row assigned to you based on your last name (seating assignments will be displayed on the screen at the front of the room). The exam will be handed out once all students arriving promptly are in their assigned rows. DO NOT open the exam until you are told to do so by an instructor. You can however, complete the student information section of your answer sheet. Make sure you include your student ID number and your name on the answer sheet. Make certain that your exam has your name and picture on the cover sheet – if it does not, you have the wrong exam! When you are finished with the exam return both your answer sheet and your exam to an instructor or a TA.
You will have one hour to complete the exam.
We will assign the whole exam again as a homework assignment as a Correction Exam. The Correction Exam is 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. The Correction Exam will be available Wednesday, July 13th in the afternoon and will be due on Monday, July 18th at 5PM. The results of the in-class exam will not be available until after the due date for the Correction Exam. Also, only students taking the in-class exam will have access to the Correction Exam.
The cover page for the exam will contain the same information as is displayed on the practice exam’s cover page. Some useful information is included on the cover page. Note: the exam cover page is for all of the mid-term exams and not all of the useful information listed here is applicable to this exam. There are a total of 12 problems, some of them multi-part totaling 15 questions on this exam.
The due date for the next regular homework (set 9) is Thursday, July 21st at 5PM.
Richard Hallstein
July 1, 2011
The practice exam for exam 2 is now available. There is a folder in Lon-Capa containing a practice exam with exam problems given in previous PHY 231/231C courses here at MSU.
If the practice exam does not show up, try logging out of lon-capa, closing *ALL* windows of your browser and then re-logging into lon-capa.
A review in the form of an online lecture solution to this practice exam will be available in the practice exam folder on Friday, July 8th. I strongly advise making a first draft of your exam notes sheet and using it to work through the practice exam prior to reviewing the solution lectures.
The second exam will be on Tuesday, July 12th from 4:30PM until 5:30PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410. The cover page for the exam will contain the same information that is displayed on the practice exam’s cover page. The exam will concentrate on the material associated with the three homework sets due since the first exam (sets 6, 7 and 8); this includes the associated online lectures and the assigned readings from the text. In addition, as stated in the syllabus one reworded problem from exam one will appear on the exam; this problem could be single-part problem or multi-part problem.
Richard Hallstein
June 17, 2011
As a review for the first exam, the solution to the practice exam is now available in the practice exam folder. I strongly advise making a first draft of your exam notes sheet and using it to work through the practice exam prior to reviewing the solution lectures. As stated in the course syllabus and in the email notifications sent last week and earlier this week, the exam will be Tuesday, June 21st at 4:30PM. The exam will be in BPS1410.
If the solution is not showing up in Lon-Capa, log out of Lon-Capa, close down all windows of your web browser and then re-log onto Lon-Capa.
Richard Hallstein
June 14, 2011
The first exam will be on Tuesday, June 21st from 4:30PM until 5:30PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 4:30PM; students arriving after 4:30PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam will cover everything through and including online lecture 5 (homework set 5). It will be based on the readings, the online lectures and the homework. Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and some will have numerical answers. There are 50 possible points on the exam.
The exam is closed book, but you may use one 8-1/2 inch x 11 inch or smaller sheet of original hand-written notes and equations. You may use both sides of your note sheet.
You should bring a few sharpened number 2 pencils, your student ID (or driver’s license) and a calculator (graphing calculators are OK). However, the use of cell phones, PDAs or computers for any reason is NOT permitted. Pencils and calculators will NOT be provided. Also as a courtesy to your fellow students, you should turn off all cell phones and pagers before entering the room.
When you enter the room, pick up a bubble seat and sit in the row assigned to you based on your last name (seating assignments will be displayed on the screen at the front of the room). The exam will be handed out once all students arriving promptly are in their assigned rows. DO NOT open the exam until you are told to do so by an instructor. You can however, complete the student information section of your answer sheet. Make sure you include your student ID number and your name on the answer sheet. Make certain that your exam has your name and picture on the cover sheet – if it does not, you have the wrong exam! When you are finished with the exam return both your answer sheet and your exam to an instructor or a TA.
You will have one hour to complete the exam.
We will assign the whole exam again as a homework assignment as a Correction Exam. The Correction Exam is 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. The Correction Exam will be available Wednesday, June 22nd in the afternoon and will be due on Monday, June 27th at 5PM. The results of the in-class exam will not be available until after the due date for the Correction Exam. Also, only students taking the in-class exam will have access to the Correction Exam.
The cover page for the exam will contain the same information as is displayed on the practice exam’s cover page. Some useful information is included on the cover page. Note: the exam cover page is for all of the mid-term exams and not all of the useful information listed here is applicable to this exam. There are a total of 11 problems, some of them multi-part totaling 17 questions on this exam.
The due date for Homework set 6 was set Thursday, June 23rd at 5PM. While I have extended this to Sunday, June 26th at 11:59PM, the help room and online assistance will not be available outside their regularly scheduled hours. The summer session is shorter than the fall/spring semesters and having this homework set due in the same week as an exam was unavoidable, but at least this will give you a few extra days to work on it.
Richard Hallstein
June 10, 2011
The practice exam for exam 1 is now available. There is a folder in Lon-Capa containing a practice exam with exam problems given in previous PHY 231/231C courses here at MSU.
Preparing a note sheet is a good way to study for exams. Preparing this sheet helps you to organize your thoughts in terms of what is and what is not important from each chapter; and how the various concepts are related.
Before opening the practice exam, make a rough draft of your note sheet. Work out the practice exam using only the rough draft of your note sheet and a calculator. Try not to give in to the temptation of peeking at the exam before you are ready to start working on it with your note sheet and calculator. This method will give you an idea of what is good about your note sheet and what areas may need more emphasis.
A review in the form of an online lecture solution to this practice exam will be available in the practice exam folder on Friday, June 17th. I strongly advise making a first draft of your exam notes sheet and using it to work through the practice exam prior to reviewing the solution lectures.
The first exam will be on Tuesday, June 21st from 4:30PM until 5:30PM in Biomedical and Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410. The cover page for the exam will contain the same information that is displayed on the practice exam’s cover page. Additional information on exam 1 and correction exam 1 will follow next week.
Richard Hallstein
May 16, 2011
Welcome to the summer 2011 session of PHY 231C,
You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in PHY 231C section 730 or section 731.
The required text book is Knight-Jones-Field: College Physics (A Strategic Approach), Second Edition, Volume 1. It is sold at the MSU bookstore and at SBS on Grand River. If you already have the first edition of volume 1 of this text, you will not need to purchase the second edition. However, any page, section or diagram references made will be to those in the second edition.
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. Since this is an online class, you are not required to purchase an i-clicker.
Please visit www.loncapa.msu.edu and log in using your MSU Net ID and password. Select the "PHY 231C, Summer 2011" class. The first item on the top is the syllabus. You can also review the syllabus without logging in to Lon-Capa here: http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2011summer/phy231c/ Read it carefully. This is the official syllabus of the class.
The next item is a folder containing the lectures for the course. The “Online Lectures” folder contains the lectures specifically designed for this online course; they are in the form of narrated PowerPoint presentations with example problems. A high speed internet connection (i.e. not dial-up) and a computer with the ability to view flash video are required. All of the online lectures for the course are currently available.
The next folder will contain the homework for the course. There are weekly homework sets that are due on Thursdays at 5:00PM. The first homework set is due this Thursday at 5:00PM.
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. Starting this week, the help room will be open for this course on Tuesday 1:00PM-4:00PM and 6:00PM-9:00PM, Wednesdays 1:00PM-4:00PM and 6:00PM-9:00PM and Thursdays 9:00aM-noon and 1:00PM-4:00PM.
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 are seeking electronic help on a homework problem, use the post discussion option. More likely than not, others will have the same question and unlike email, everyone can then benefit from your question and subsequent response(s). 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).
Working and understanding the homework problems is a very important part of understanding the material. While, you can likely find a quick, easy formula that will yield the solution to a homework problem, going straight for this type of solution will not help you learn the material. If you are face with a similar problem that may not use that same end formula the quick and easy homework solution would be of little help. The better course to follow is to try to work the problems yourself after completing the assigned readings and watching the online lectures. Yes, this is latter more work, but my belief in the importance of the homework to success in the course is both emphasized and rewarded by its relative weight in calculating your final grade.
There will be three midterms and one final exam given on the MSU campus – the dates, times and location are shown in the syllabus. There will be no make-up exams. However, if you miss a midterm exam for any reason you will be allowed to drop this exam and the midterm portion of your final grade will be based on the other two midterm exams. Only one midterm exam will be dropped – the final exam will NOT be dropped. If you take all three midterms, your lowest midterm exam score will be dropped when calculating your final grade.
If you are living or traveling far from the MSU campus at the time of the exam, beyond a reasonable commuting distance, or if you are traveling with an MSU-sponsored program, you may be able to arrange a proctored off-campus exam. Arrangements must be made well in advance of the exam – requests made after the deadline will not be accommodated and you will have to take the exam at MSU. For arrangement details and arrangement deadlines: see the link in the exam section of the syllabus.
Richard Hallstein
(BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509, hallstein@pa.msu.edu)
Last updated: January 10, 2011