December 4, 2013
Dear Students in PHY 231C,
We are trying to obtain information on the conceptual understanding of physics of students at the completion this class. To this end, we haveprepared a post-introductory physics course diagnostic consisting of multiple-choice questions,which do not require any numerical calculations. You will get 1% extra creditcounting towards your grade just for participating. To emphasize, this is aparticipation bonus and is in no way linked to your performance on thisdiagnostic. Please take up to 50 minutesto answer these conceptual questions, and please, complete the entire testin one sitting without consulting any reference materials.
This diagnostic will be available for you in Lon-Capa to take between 5PM on Friday, December 6 and 11:59PM on Sunday, December 8.
Look for a folder called "Post-coursediagnostic" in LON-CAPA inside the PHY 231C class. You can click on thefolder anytime between 12/6, Friday 5 AM and 12/8, Sunday 11:59 PM. Beforeany material appears, you get a message saying that the clock will start, whenyou click on the start button. The best way to keep time is to set a kitchentimer for 50 minutes and place it next to your keyboard. Please, eliminate allpossible distractions, turn off your cell phone and your tv. Once you click onthe start button, the clock will start inside LON-CAPA and it cannot bestopped, no matter what you do. When the time is up, the contents of the folderwill become hidden for you.
Please take your time and read every questioncarefully. You are not expected to beable to answer every question on the diagnostic. You submit your responses justlike you do on the third homework problem entitled "How to submit answersto bonus" in set one. When youanswer a question during the diagnostic, LON-CAPA will not give you an immediate"Correct" or "Incorrect" message. It will just simply say"Answer Submitted...". You will not have access to your score,however next week, after the final exam I will send an email to your Lon-Capa with a score recap for the course -- one of the categories will be this post-course diagnostic. You are allowed togo back and change your answer, if you think you picked an incorrect answer.You will have 20 tries on each question. All your submissions will be stored,but only the last submission will be used for each question.
If you don't knowthe answer to a question, then guessing is allowed. Simple submission patterns(like AAA..., or BBB...) or rapidly clicking on any response throughout thediagnostic will be filtered out from the diagnostic.
If the folder containing the diagnostic is not showing upfor you in Lon-Capa, you will need to exit Lon-Capa and re-login. You should close down *all* browser windowsprior to relogging in. The Lon-Capa techsupport staff strongly advise you exit Lon-Capa every time you finish asession. Leaving your computer loggedinto to Lon-Capa for an extended period of time can cause errors and aninability for you to submit responses to questions.
Thank you very much for taking the diagnostic!
Richard Hallstein
December 3, 2013
Dear PHY 231C students,
Student Instruction Rating System (SIRS Online) collectsstudent feedback on courses and instruction at MSU. Student InstructionalRating System (SIRS Online) forms will be available to submit feedback during11/25/2013 – 12/25/2013 or until class grades are posted.
You can find information concerning SIRS at https://sirsonline.msu.edu
You are required to complete the SIRS Online form ORindicate within that form that you decline to participate. Otherwise, finalgrades (for PHY 231C and for all courses using SIRS Online) will be sequesteredfor seven days following the course grade submission deadline for thissemester.
Rating information collected by SIRS Online is reportedin summary form only and cannot be linked to your individual responses. Youranonymity is carefully protected.
Richard Hallstein
December 2, 2013
The final exam will be on THURSDAY, December 12 at 8:00PM inBiomedical and Physical Sciences Building (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 8:00PM; studentsarriving after 8:00PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after thestudents who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam is cumulative and will cover everything in thecourse. 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 numericalanswers. There are 100 possible points on the exam. Roughly 20% of the points on the exam willcome from the material covered on the last homework set, online lectures and inthe assigned reading associated with this last set. The other 80% will come from the material wecovered on the midterms as well as the associated homework sets, onlinelectures and assigned reading.
There will be a seating chart on the screen at the front ofthe room and you should sit in the row designated by your last name. Sit only in even numbered seats; studentsseated in odd numbered seats will have to move before the exam is handed out.
The exam is closed book, but you may use FOUR 8-1/2 inch x11 inch or smaller sheets of original hand-written notes and equations. You may use both sides of your note sheets.
You should bring a few sharpened number 2 pencils, yourstudent ID (or driver's license) and a calculator (graphing calculators areOK). However, the use of cell phones,PDAs or computers for any reason is NOT permitted. Pencils and calculators will NOT beprovided. Also as a courtesy to yourfellow students, you should turn off all cell phones and pagers before enteringthe room.
When taking the exam, all baseball caps or brimmed hats mustbe removed or turned backwards. Furthermore, all caps or hats covering the earsmust be removed.
When you enter the room, pick up a bubble sheet and sit inthe row assigned to you based on your last name (seating assignments will bedisplayed on the screen at the front of the room). Sit in only odd-numberedempty seats, filling seats from the side of the room opposite the building’satrium first. The only exception tositting in odd-numbered seats is left handed writers may sit in seat number 22on a first come-first serve basis, but you must sit in your designated row.
The exam will be handed out once all students arriving promptlyare in their assigned rows. DO NOT open the exam until you are told to do so byan instructor or TA. You can however, complete the student information sectionof your answer sheet. Make sure youinclude your student ID number and your name on the answer sheet. Make certainyour 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 returnboth your answer sheet and your exam to an instructor or a TA.
You will have two hours to complete the exam.
The cover page for the exam will contain the sameinformation as was displayed on the cover page for the midterm exam. There are a total of 24 problems; some ofthem are multi-part totaling 30 questions on this exam.
Here are some study suggestions: review the readings, onlinelectures and the homework problems; make a good sheet of notes for the exam;modify the note sheets you used on the midterm exams as needed to cover thematerial from the first thirteen weeks of the course; use your note sheets tosolve the practice exam problems before looking at the solution videos; even ifyou correctly solved the practice exam problems, watch the practice examsolution videos; and modify your note sheets as need. Last, but not least, review all of theproblems from our three midterms and make sure you know how to solve these or similar problems.
Best of luck on the final exam,
Richard Hallstein
November 11, 2013
The third exam will be on Wednesday, November 20th from 8:00PM until 9:00PM in the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 8:00PM; students arriving after 8:00PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam will concentrate on all material covered since the second midterm exam this includes online lectures 8 through 10 (homework sets 7, 8 and 9). It will be based on the readings, the online lectures and the homework. As stated in the syllabus, the exam will also include a modified problem taken from exam 1 and a modified problem taken from exam 2. 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 taking the exam, all baseball caps or brimmed hats must be removed or turned backwards. Furthermore, all caps or hats covering the ears must be removed.
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). Sit in only even numbered seats and fill the right side end of the room first (from a student's perspective). The seat on either side of you should be empty. The seat at the far left end of every row is reserved for left handed writers only.
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 sixty minutes to complete the exam.
Practice exam problems associated with the material covered on this exam are as follows:
Practice exam#3: Questions 1-9
Practice exam#4: Questions 8, 10-12
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 Thursday, November 21 in the afternoon and will be due on Tuesday, November 26th at 11:59PM. Only students taking the in-class exam or off-campus with an exam proctor 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 13 problems; some of them are multi-part totaling 17 questions on this exam.
The due date for Homework set 10 is Tuesday, December 3 at 11:59PM.
After the last week of regular class and over the weekend preceding the final exam, a post-course diagnostic will be available in Lon-Capa. The format will be similar to the pre-course diagnostic taken at the start of the semester. Students choosing to participate, will receive a 1% participation bonus added to their final average. This is available to all students whether or not they participated in the pre-course diagnostic. As was the case in the pre-course diagnostic, simple submission patterns (like AAA..., or BBB...) or rapidly clicking on any response throughout the diagnostic will be filtered out from the diagnostic.
Richard Hallstein
October 24, 2013
You can now view your second midterm 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 MIDTERM 2 you will see your total points out of 50.
As stated in the syllabus, you may be able to improve your exam score by completing the correction exam. The correction exam is now available for completion online and it is due on Tuesday, October 29 at 11:59PM.
It is your overall score on both the correction exam and original exam which determines your bonus added to your original score; so complete all problems on the correction exam (not just the ones you answered incorrectly on the exam you took with me or a proctor)!
If a correction exam score is higher than your original score, then 30% of the difference between the correction exam score and your original exam score will be added to your original score as a bonus. For example, if Friday's score is 40 and the correction exam score is 50, then 0.3*(50-40)=3 points will be added to Friday's score for an exam total of 43 points. So, 43 points will be used as the midterm exam score for final grade calculation purposes. If the correction exam is equal to or lower than your original score, then the original score will be used for final grade calculation.
The correction exam is a different randomization than the original exam. So, just like everyone receives different given values on homework problems, your correction exam and your original exam will differ slightly.
To review your version of the exam in Lon-Capa, click on Course Contents. Then open the folder labeled EXAMS. The midterm is inside a second folder labeled MIDTERM 2. You can view an individual problem on the exam, including your response and the correct response by clicking on the problem (some problems you can only see your response by clicking on the "Previous Tries" link at the bottom of the problem's page).
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 original exam, you receive credit for every correct response.
If your exam score or the correction exam is not showing up, try exiting Lon-Capa, shutting down all windows of your internet browser and then re-logging into Lon-Capa.
The next regular homework set is due Nov. 5 at 11:59PM.
Richard Hallstein
October 16, 2013
The second exam will be on Wednesday, October 23 from 8:00PM until 9:00PM in the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 8:00PM; students arriving after 8:00PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam will concentrate on all material covered since the first midterm exam – this includes online lectures 5 through 8 (homework sets 4, 5 and 6). It will be based on the readings, the online lectures and the homework. As stated in the syllabus, the exam will also include a modified problem taken from exam 1. 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 taking the exam, all baseball caps or brimmed hats must be removed or turned backwards. Furthermore, all caps or hats covering the ears must be removed.
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). Sit in only even numbered seats and fill the right side end of the room first (from a student’s perspective). The seat on either side of you should be empty. The seat at the far left end of every row is reserved for left handed writers only.
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 sixty minutes to complete the exam.
Practice exam problems associated with the material covered on this exam are as follows:
Practice exam#1: Questions 18&19
Practice exam#2: Questions 1-9 and 13-20
Practice exam#4: Question 1-7 and 9.
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 Thursday, October 24 in the afternoon and will be due on Tuesday, October 29th at 11:59PM. Only students taking the in-class exam or off-campus with an exam proctor 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 13 problems; some of them are multi-part totaling 17 questions on this exam.
The due date for Homework set 7 is Tuesday, November 5 at 11:59PM.
Richard Hallstein
October 14, 2013
Dear PHY 231C students,
For this week only, my office hours will be Tuesday, Oct. 15 from 11:00AM until noon.
Richard Hallstein
October 2, 2013
Dear PHY 231C students,
I have just sent the message pasted below to your Lon-Capa mail account. At the end of the message in Lon-Capa mail (not here) you can find your score/grade projections based on your work through Exam 1.
You can access your Lon-Capa mail by selecting the 'Send and display messages' link in Lon-Capa's main menu.
Richard Hallstein
Begin copied message:
Dear PHY 231C students,
You should now be able to view your results from both the first midterm exam and the correction exam in Lon-Capa.
Below I am including: your Exam 1 post correction score (in percent); your projected midterm exam average in percent (for now this is equal to your midterm 1 score -- it'll likely change after future midterm exams); your homework average through set 3 including the bonus questions in percent; your projected final exam score in percent (this is the average of all midterms PRE-correction); your participation bonus to be added to your final average (this is either +1% if you chose to participate in the pre-course diagnostic or 0% if not); your projected final average in percent; and the corresponding projected final grade based on the criteria outlined in the syllabus.
These projections assume ALL future homework (both regular and bonus), exams and corrections exams are represented by the work you have done thus far. Clearly, if any future work in any of these categories changes, your actual scores/grades in some or all of these projected categories will change as well.
Thus far, we have had 79 regular homework questions and 14 bonus questions. So, there were a maximum of 93 homework points you could have earned through set 3; but your percent score is based on 79 points as stipulated in the syllabus. Anyone with homework points earned over 79 points, through set 3 received a homework percent greater than 100%!
Here is the key to interpret my abbreviations below:
PCDB%added: % added to final average (+1% if you took the pre-course diagnostic +0 if you did not)
HW%: Homework percent
MT1%: Percent score on Midterm 1
PMTA%: PROJECTED midterm average of all midterm exams in percent
PFE%: PROJECTED final exam score in percent
PFA%: PROJECTED final course average in % (includes PCDB bonus, if applicable)
PFG: PROJECTED final grade
Richard Hallstein
End copied message
In your Lon-Capa mail you will see your scores and projections here.
September 27, 2013 2:15PM
You can now view your midterm 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 MIDTERM you will see your total points out of 50.
As stated in the syllabus and in earlier emails, you may be able to improve your exam score by completing the correction exam.
It is your overall score on both the correction exam and original exam which determines your bonus added to your original score; so complete all problems on the correction exam (not just the ones you answered incorrectly on the exam you took with me or a proctor)!
If a correction exam score is higher than your original score, then 30% of the difference between the correction exam score and your original exam score will be added to your original score as a bonus. For example, if Friday's score is 40 and the correction exam score is 50, then 0.3*(50-40)=3 points will be added to Friday's score for an exam total of 43 points. So, 43 points will be used as the midterm exam score for final grade calculation purposes. If the correction exam is equal to or lower than your original score, then the original score will be used for final grade calculation.
The correction exam is a different randomization than the original exam. So, just like everyone receives different given values on homework problems, your correction exam and your original exam will differ slightly.
To review your version of the exam in Lon-Capa, click on Course Contents. Then open the folder labeled EXAMS. The midterm is inside a second folder labeled MIDTERM 1. You can view an individual problem on the exam, including your response and the correct response by clicking on the problem (some problems you can only see your response by clicking on the "Previous Tries" link at the bottom of the problem's page).
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 original exam, you receive credit for every correct response.
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
September 27, 2013 8:25AM
The correction exam is now open for you to complete as a homework assignment. The correction exam is in a separate folder labeled correction exam. If the correction exam folder is not showing up in lon-capa, exit lon-capa, close down *all* windows of your web browser and then re-log into Lon-Capa.
Only students taking the original exam either here on the MSU campus or off-campus with a proctor will have access to the correction exam.
As with any of the regular homework assignments, you can post discussion on any of the problems and are encouraged to do so. The correction exam is due on Tuesday, October 1 at 11:59PM. 30% of the *positive* difference between the correction exam score and the original exam score will be added to your original exam score as bonus. The correction exam can only help your score on the exam and under *no* circumstance will your performance on the correction exam lower your exam score. So, it is in your best interest to take this opportunity to add points to your midterm exam score. To get full credit for the correction exam, you must complete all questions -- even those you answered correctly on the original exam. A few of the questions have a reduced number of tries (i.e. the force diagram problem only has four choices and is set to allow you two attempts -- allowing the standard twenty tries would be silly).
I should have the results for exam 1 available later this afternoon -- assuming the scoring office finishes their work in time.
Homework set 4 is due on Tuesday, October 8 at 11:59PM. While the due date is still a week and a half away, this next regular homework set is very long, so do not put it off until the last minute.
Richard Hallstein
September 25, 2013
Dear PHY 231C Students,
Campus-wide MSU network problems has made Lon-Capa inaccessible all afternoon. While these problems were corrected and Lon-Capa was available just prior to 6:00PM, I understand you have other classes and your schedules are busy things other than physics. further, I know it is likely many had slotted this afternoon for studying.Therefore, in the interest of fairness, I am postponing tonight's midterm exam by 24 hours. It is rescheduled for tomorrow night (Thursday, September 26 at 8PM) -- it will be in the same room 1410BPS.
Richard Hallstein
September 18, 2013 10:30AM
The first exam will be on Wednesday, September 25 from 8:00PM until 9:00PM in the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 8:00PM; students arriving after 8:00PM 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 4 (homework set 3). 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 taking the exam, all baseball caps or brimmed hats must be removed or turned backwards. Furthermore, all caps or hats covering the ears must be removed.
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). Sit in only even numbered seats and fill the right side end of the room first (from a student’s perspective). The seat on either side of you should be empty. The seat at the far left end of every row is reserved for left handed writers only.
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 sixty minutes 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 Thursday, September 26th in the afternoon and will be due on Tuesday, October 1 at 11:59PM. 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 or off-campus with an exam proctor will have access to the Correction Exam.
Some useful information is included on the cover page. The cover page for the exam will contain the same information as is displayed on the practice exam’s cover page. As stated in the calendar section of the syllabus,the first 17 questions on practice exam 1 are practice problems for this first exam. You should try doing these practice problems with a draft of your not sheet, prior to viewing the video solutions. Even if you have successfully solved a problem, you should still view the solution.
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 13 problems; some of them are multi-part totaling 17 questions on this exam.
The due date for Homework set 4 is Tuesday, October 8th at 11:59PM. This set is a long set, so you should get started on it early.
Richard Hallstein
September 18, 2013 10:10AM
Dear PHY 231C students,
I have just sent the message pasted below to your Lon-Capa mail account.
Confirmation of whether or not your received the participation credit for the pre-course diagnostic has been sent to you lon-capa mail account (NOT HERE). To see your status, you need to read the email I sent this morning in your lon-capa mail. Your status is at the very end of the message (YES: means you received the 1% credit, NO means you chose not to participate and will not receive this credit).
You can access your Lon-Capa mail by selecting the 'Send and display messages' link in Lon-Capa's main menu.
Richard Hallstein
Begin copied message:
Dear PHY 231C students,
At the beginning of the semester, you were given the opportunity to take a pre-course diagnostic assessment. If you chose to take this assessment, you will receive a 1% bonus added to your final average in the class. Only students who chose to take this assessment will receive the bonus. At the end of this message you will see a personalized message either confirming this bonus or stating you did not receive the participation credit (YES or NO). This message is for your records that you received this bonus.
Near the end of the semester, you will be given the opportunity to participate in a post-course diagnostic and I offer the same deal. Students choosing to participate in this post-course diagnostic will receive a 1% bonus added to their final average in the course (all students can get this second bonus even if they did not take pre-course diagnostic).
Richard Hallstein
(participation credit status indicated below -- see lon-capa mail)
September 12, 2013
Dear PHY 231C students,
If you are living or traveling far from MSU on the date of an exam, you can arrange to take your exam with an appropriate proctor at or near your location. Midterm exam 1 is on Sept. 25, but arrangements to take this exam off-campus must be made in advance.
You must have a travel time of greater than one hour in order to qualify for an off-campus exam. The deadline for getting me your proctor's information is Sept. 17 -- next Tuesday for the first midterm exam.
If I do not have your proctor's contact information prior to an exam's proctor arrangement deadline, you will have to take the exam here at MSU at the scheduled time. Proctor arrangement details and arrangement deadlines for all exams are linked in the exam section of the syllabus.
http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2013fall/PHY231C/
Richard Hallstein
September 9, 2013
Dear PHY 231C students,
Due to a slight change in our TAs' schedules, the help room hours have changed slightly and I have moved my office hours to fill in one of the gaps in the help room for 231/231C. Today I have/am covering both my old office hours in the help room and my new hours.
My office hours will be Mondays from 1:30PM-2:30PM in the help room (room 1248BPS)
The help room (1248BPS) will have TAs specifically assigned to PHY 231/231C during the following hours:
Mondays: 9AM-11:00AM, 11:30AM-12:20PM and 2:30PM-9:00PM
Tuesdays: 9:00AM-12:30PM and 3:00PM-9:00PM
Fridays: 9:00AM-12:30PM
The cover page of the syllabus has been updated to show these new hours http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2013fall/PHY231C/
Richard Hallstein
August 30, 2013
Dear Students in PHY 231C,
We are trying to obtain information on the conceptual preparation of our incoming students for this class. To this end, we have prepared a pre-introductory physics course diagnostic consisting of multiple-choice questions, which do not require any numerical calculations. You will get 1% extra credit counting towards your grade just for participating. To emphasize, this is a participation bonus and is in no way linked to your performance on this diagnostic. Please take up to 50 minutes to answer these 30 conceptual questions, and please, complete the entire test in one sitting without consulting any reference materials.
This diagnostic will be available for you in Lon-Capa to take between 10AM on Saturday, August 31 and 10PM on Monday, September 2.
Look for a folder called "Pre-course diagnostic" in LON-CAPA inside the PHY 231C class. You can click on the folder anytime between 08/31, Saturday 10 AM and 09/02, Monday 10 PM. Before any material appears, you get a message saying that the clock will start, when you click on the start button. The best way to keep time is to set a kitchen timer for 50 minutes and place it next to your keyboard. Please, eliminate all possible distractions, turn off your cell phone and your tv. Once you click on the start button, the clock will start inside LON-CAPA and it cannot be stopped, no matter what you do. When the time is up, the contents of the folder will become hidden for you.
Please take your time and read every question carefully. You are not expected to be able to answer every question on the diagnostic. You submit your responses just like you do on the third homework problem entitled "How to submit answers to bonus" in set one. When you answer a question during the diagnostic, LON-CAPA will not give you an immediate "Correct" or "Incorrect" message. It will just simply say "Answer Submitted...". You will not have access to your score, however next week I will send an email to your Lon-Capa mail confirming your participation credit. You are allowed to go back and change your answer, if you think you picked an incorrect answer. You will have 20 tries on each question. All your submissions will be stored, but only the last submission will be used for each question. If you don't know the answer to a question, then guessing is allowed. Simple submission patterns (like AAA..., or BBB...) or rapidly clicking on any response throughout the diagnostic will be filtered out from the diagnostic.
At the end of the semester, a post course diagnostic will be given for another 1% extra credit. This too, will be a participation bonus and not linked to your performance on the post course diagnostic. Any results produced by this study will not contain your name or any other personal information about you.
If the folder containing the diagnostic is not showing up for you in Lon-Capa, you will need to exit Lon-Capa and re-login. You should close down *all* browser windows prior to relogging in. The Lon-Capa tech support staff strongly advise you exit Lon-Capa every time you finish a session. Leaving your computer logged into to Lon-Capa for an extended period of time can cause errors and an inability for you to submit responses to questions. In addition, any new material added after you login will not be available until you log out and re-login.
Thank you very much for taking the diagnostic!
Richard Hallstein
August 29, 2013
Dear PHY 231C students,
In yesterday's email I stated the first homework is due Tuesday, Sept. 11. This is incorrect. The correct due date is Tuesday, September 10th.
Richard Hallstein
August 28, 2013
Welcome to the Fall semester of PHY 231C.
You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in PHY 231C section 730 or section 731. Please read this message carefully; it contains a significant amount of important information about the course. A copy is posted in the announcement section of the syllabus.
The required text book is Rex & Wolfson: Essential College Physics, Volume 1. It is sold at the MSU bookstore, at SBS on Grand River and at many online retailers. 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 whatsoever in this course. 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, Fall2013" 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/2013fall/PHY231C/ Read all sections of 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 and videos of demonstrations. 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. Embedded within the online lectures are bonus homework questions. These questions are optional and can only help your score in the course. Most of these questions, relate at least in part to the assigned reading and/or the online lecture immediately preceding the question. These questions are programmed in exam mode (multiple choice) with correct/incorrect feedback disabled; the correct answer will be available after the due date. The discussion board on these bonus questions is disabled.
The next folder will contain the homework for the course. There are weekly homework sets that are due on Tuesdays at 11:59PM. The first homework set is due Tuesday, September 11th at 11:59PM. All homework sets are currently available, so if you know you have a conflict at some point in the semester, you can work ahead. Additionally, you should not wait until the last minute to do the assigned homework -- extensions on homework will not be granted.
If you are living or traveling far from the MSU campus at the time of an 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.
You are encouraged to come to the Strosacker help room with your questions. Our Teaching Assistants will be more than happy to answer your questions. The Strosacker help room is in 1248 BPS and is open from 9:00AM to 9:00PM Monday through Friday. You are welcome to go to the help room during any of its open hours, but there will be appointed times when TAs specifically for PHY231/231C will be available. Starting Monday, September 10, the help room will be open and will be staffed with TAs specifically assigned to PHY 231/231C on Mondays and Tuesdays. Once I have the exact hours for the help room in general and our TAs specifically, I will post them in the syllabus and notify you by email.
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. Do not use email for help on the homework questions. More likely than not, others will have the same question and unlike email, everyone can then benefit from your question and the 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).
Richard Hallstein
(BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509, hallstein@pa.msu.edu)
Last updated: August 28, 2013