December 1, 2014 (6:04 PM)
Dear PHY231C students,
We are trying to obtain information on the conceptual understanding of physics
of students at the completion this class. To this end, we have prepared a post-
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 (only serious
attempts will get the bonus -- covered shortly). 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 conceptual questions,
and please, complete the entire test in one sitting without consulting any
reference materials.
We value your input and want only serious attempts at completing the
diagnostic. If you don't know the answer to a question, then guessing is
allowed. However, simple submission patterns(like AAA..., or BBB...) or
rapidly clicking on any response throughout the diagnostic will be filtered
out from the diagnostic. Lon-Capa allows me to easily check the time spent on
each problem in the diagnostic. Any students having their submissions filtered
out for the reasons described above will also forfeit the participation bonus.
This diagnostic will be available for you in Lon-Capa to take between 5PM on
Friday, December 5 and 11:09PM on Monday, December 8.
Look for a folder called "Post-course diagnostic" in LON-CAPA inside the PHY
231C class. You can click on the folder anytime between 12/5, Friday 5 PM and
12/8, Monday 11:09 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, 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 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 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.
Thank you very much for taking the diagnostic!
Richard Hallstein
December 1, 2014 (5:08 PM)
Dear PHY 231c Student,
The final exam will be on TUESDAY, December 9 at 8:00PM in Biomedical and
Physical Sciences (BPS) room 1410. The exam will be handed out promptly at
8:00PM.
The exam is cumulative and will cover everything in the course. 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 100
possible points on the exam. Roughly 20% of the points on the exam will come
from the material covered on the last homework set, online lectures and in the
assigned reading associated with this last set. The other 80% will come from
the material we covered on the midterms as well as the associated homework sets,
online lectures and assigned reading.
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, your student ID (or driver's
license) and a calculator (graphing calculators are OK). 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 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.
DO NOT open the exam until you are told to do so by an instructor or TA. 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 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 two hours to complete the exam.
The cover page for the exam will contain the same information as was displayed
on the cover page for the midterm exams. There are a total of 24 problems; some
of them are multi-part totaling 30 questions on this exam.
Here are some study suggestions: review the readings, online lectures 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 the material from the
first thirteen weeks of the course; use your note sheets to solve the practice
exam problems before looking at the solution videos; even if you correctly
solved the practice exam problems, watch the practice exam solution videos; and
modify your note sheets as need. Last, but not least, review all of the
problems 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
October 20, 2014(8:59PM)
The exam will concentrate on everything from online lecture 5 (homework set 4) *through* and including online lecture 8b (homework set 6).
The word *through* was missing in this morning's announcement.
To further clarify:
This includes the homework sets 4, 5 and 6 as well as all readings/online
lectures associated with these sets. Also, one reworded question from exam
one will be on this exam.
Thank you to the student who called this error in the announcement to my attention!
Richard Hallstein
October 20, 2014
Dear PHY 231C students,
The second exam is this Wednesday, October 22 from 8:00PM until 8:50PM in the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 8PM; students arriving after 8PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam will concentrate on everything from online lecture 5 (homework set 4) and including online lecture 8b (homework set 6). It will be based on the readings, the online lectures and the homework. There will be one revised question taken directly from exam 1 on this exam. Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and some will have numerical answers. There are 13 problems on the exam, some of them multi-part and a total of 17 separate responses. 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, 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).
Fill the right side end of the room first (from a student's perspective). 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. However, once the answer sheets are handed out 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 fifty 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, October 23 in the afternoon and will be due on Tuesday, October 28 at 11:59PM. 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 following practice exam questions are applicable to this exam: questions18 and 19 from practice exam 1; questions 1 through 7 and 14 through 20 from practice exam 2; questions 1 through 7 and question 9 from practice exam 4. 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.
The due date for Homework set 7 is Tuesday, novemebr 4 at 11:59PM. As was the case with the set following the first exam, this set is a long set, so you should get started on it early.
Richard Hallstein
September 25, 2014
Dear PHY 231C student,
Both the correction exam and your first midterm exam score are available in Lon-Capa.
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 1 you will see your total points out of 50.
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.
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.
If your exam score and/or the correction exam are 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 21, 2014
Dear PHY 231C students,
The first exam will be on Wednesday, September 24 from 8:00PM until 8:50PM in the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building (BPS) room 1410.
The exam will be handed out promptly at 8PM; students arriving after 8PM 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 13 problems on the exam, some of them multi-part and a total of 17 separate responses. 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, 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).
Fill the right side end of the room first (from a student's perspective). 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. However, once the answer sheets are handed out 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 fifty 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 25 in the afternoon and will be due on Tuesday, September 30 at 11:59PM. 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 as are question 8, 9 and 13 from practice exam 2. 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.
The due date for Homework set 4 is Tuesday, October 7 at 11:59PM. This set is a long set, so you should get started on it early.
Richard Hallstein
September 1, 2014
Dear PHY 231C students,
The Strosacher Learning Center (Physics help room) will be open starting this Friday, Sept. 5th. The Learning Center is in room 1248 BPS. The help room is generally open Monday through Thursday from 9AM-9PM and Fridays 9AM-6PM, however TAs assigned specifically to our course will be in the help room at these times:
Mondays 9AM-9PM
Tuesdays 9AM-9PM
Fridays 9AM-12:30PM
Richard Hallstein
August 28, 2014, sceond notice August 29
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 30 and 11:09PM on Tuesday, 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 8/30 at 10AM and 9/2,
Tuesday 11:09 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.
We value your input and want only serious attempts at completing the diagnostic.
If you don't know the answer to a question, then guessing is allowed. However,
simple submission patterns(like AAA..., or BBB...) or rapidly clicking on any
response throughout the diagnostic will be filtered out from the diagnostic.
Lon-Capa allows me to easily check the time spent on each problem in the
diagnostic. Any students having there submissions filtered out for the reasons
described above will also forfeit the participation bonus.
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 27, 2014
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, Fall2014" class. The first item on the top is the syllabus. You can also review the syllabus without logging in to Lon-Capa here: www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2014fall/PHY231C/ Read *all* sections of it carefully. This is the official syllabus of the class and contains information like important dates (exams & homework), bonus point opportunities, homework information, exam inforamtion, etc.
The next item is a folder containing the lectures for the course. The online lectures and the associated homework sets will become available in Lon-Capa two weeks prior to the due date for the homework assignments. 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. 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.
A reliable high speed internet connection is required, as is a computer with the ability to view flash video. The computer will need a current, supported operating system and a browser running HTML5 to use all the options available in the online lectures. There is an inconvenient bug that you would only encounter if you happen to have a Windows computer with (1) a touch screen AND (2) a physical keyboard and/or mouse (including a track pad); in this case the videos will not play in Chrome or Firefox, so you would need to use Internet Explorer. Tech Smith's Camtasia software is used to make these videos. Tech Smith is aware of this bug and hope to have it patched in the future.
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 9 at 11:59PM. Only the first homework sets is currently available, other homeworksets willbecome available two weeks prior to the due date. 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 assist you in finding your way to the answers to our homework questions however they are instructed not to simply solve these problems for you. The Strosacker help room is in 1248 BPS and is usually open from 9:00AM to 9:00PM Monday through Thursday and 9:00AM-6:00PM on Fridays. 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 8, the help room will be open. 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 26, 2014