Physics 232C Announcements

August 10 -- Section 730 on-campus exam students

The final exam will be on Wednesday, August 17th at 5:00PM in room 1281 Anthony Hall.
Some streets in and around the campus are closed for construction, so you should allow extra time to get to the exam location.
 
The exam will be handed out promptly at 5:00PM; students arriving after 5:00PM will not be permitted to enter the room until after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.

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.  One quarter of the points on the exam will come from the material covered prior to the midterm exam.  The other three quarters will come from the material we covered after the midterm exam.

The exam is closed book, but you may use TWO 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 sheets.   If you show up to the exam with a set of notes that are not original and handwritten, you will have to take the exam without notes.  In general, the questions will be in the order material was covered in the course – this should help you organize 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, apple watches, tablets, computers or any similar devices for any reason is NOT permitted. If you have any of these devices out, you will receive a penalty grade of zero on the exam.    Pencils and calculators will NOT be provided.  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.

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).   This may be different than the assignments for the midterm.

Leave a single empty seat between you and the next closest student on either side, unless you are on an aisle, then the aisle counts as an empty seat

The exam and scantron sheets 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.

You will have two hours to complete the exam.  There is no correction exam associated with the final exam.
The cover page for the exam will contain the same information as is displayed on the midterm exam’s cover page. Some useful information is included on the cover page.  There are a total of 30 responses 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.   
There are practice exam problems available in the online lecture sub-folder labeled Practice Exams.   Use your note sheet to solve the practice exam problems for this exam 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 sheet as needed.  All of these are applicable to the final exam.
To further assist you in focusing your studies, here is a rough breakdown of what will be on the exam:
Electric forces and fields (14 points):  1D and 2D
Electric potential (7 points)
 DC Circuits (4 points)
 Magnetism (9  points):  Vector magnetic force, current carrying wires
Electromagnetic Induction (7 points) Induced currents, fields and/or resulting forces
AC Circuits and Electromagnetic waves (8 points):  Series AC circuits containing Capacitors, inductors and/or resistors; electromagnetic waves
Geometric Optics and Optical Instruments: (11 points) : Reflection; refraction; mirrors and/or lenses; optical instruments
Wave Optics (7 points):  Interference and polarization
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics (12 points): Length contraction, time dilation and the photoelectric effect.
Atomic Physics (10 points): The hydrogen atom and/or hydrogen-like ions
Nuclear and Particle Physics (11 points):  Nuclear decay and the effects of radiation on biological organisms
In general, and across all topics you will be responsible for knowing units.

Over the weekend before the final exam (Friday, Aug 12 through Sunday, Aug 14), a post course diagnostic and a post course survey will be available.   Each of these comes with a 0.5% participation bonus for those who seriously participate. 

Richard Hallstein

 

August 10 -- Section 731 online exam students

Dear PHY 231C section 731 online video proctored exam student,
You are receiving this message because you are in the online exam section and you WILL take your final exam online via video proctor. 

The final exam will be next week with your one hour exam starting between 7PM Wednesday, August 17th and 5PM Thursday, August 18th.  You should have already signed up for your exam time.  If you have not registered your Examity account and/or signed up for your online exam time, you should do so immediately.  Details how to do this are in the syllabus found by clicking on the “details here” link near the top of the opening page of the syllabus: http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/current/PHY232C/ ; also in multiple emails sent to you earlier in this session.   Copies of these can be found in the Announcement section of the syllabus here: 
http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/current/PHY232C/Announcements/Announcements.htm
 No accommodations will be made if your preferred online exam time is no longer available, as slots fill up on a first come first serve basis, and most students have already signed up.  
If your uploaded picture in examity is not a complete government issue or student  ID with your name clearly visible, you will not be permitted to take the exam.
The exam is closed book, but you may use TWO 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 sheets.   If you log on to take your exam with a set of notes that are not original and handwritten, you will have to take the exam without notes.  In general, the questions will be in the order material was covered in the course – this should help you organize your note sheets. 
In addition to a calculator and two double-sided sheet of original hand written notes, you will be permitted to have a drink on your desk during the exam and a printout of the instructions for getting started/taking your exam on exam day.  These instructions are specific to connecting to Examity (your online proctor) via Lon-Capa.  The instructions are in place and viewable now in your exams folder in lon-capa.  I suggest downloading the pdf, opening it with your pdf reader of choice and printing it out.  No other notes may be placed on this double sided set of instructions. 
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.  One quarter of the points on the exam will come from the material covered prior to the midterm exam.  The other three quarters will come from the material we covered after the midterm exam.

You will have two hours to complete the exam.  There is no correction exam associated with the final exam.

The cover page for the exam will contain the same information as is displayed on the midterm exam’s cover page. Some useful information is included on the cover page.  There are a total of 30 responses 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.  

There are practice exam problems available in the online lecture sub-folder labeled Practice Exams.   Use your note sheet to solve the practice exam problems for this exam 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 sheet as needed.  All of these are applicable to the final exam.

To further assist you in focusing your studies, here is a rough breakdown of what will be on the exam:
Electric forces and fields (14 points):  1D and 2D
Electric potential (7 points)
 DC Circuits (4 points)
 Magnetism (9  points):  Vector magnetic force, current carrying wires
Electromagnetic Induction (7 points): Induced currents, fields and/or resulting forces
AC Circuits and Electromagnetic waves (8 points):  Series AC circuits containing Capacitors, inductors and/or resistors; electromagnetic waves
Geometric Optics and Optical Instruments: (11 points) : Reflection; refraction; mirrors and/or lenses; optical instruments
Wave Optics (7 points):  Interference and polarization
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics (12 points): Length contraction, time dilation and the photoelectric effect.
Atomic Physics (10 points): The hydrogen atom and/or hydrogen-like ions
Nuclear and Particle Physics (11 points):  Nuclear decay and the effects of radiation on biological organisms
In general, and across all topics you will be responsible for knowing units.

Over the weekend before the final exam (Friday, Aug 12 through Sunday, Aug 14), a post course diagnostic and a post course survey will be available.   Each of these comes with a 0.5% participation bonus for those who seriously participate. 

Richard Hallstein

 

July 9

Dear PHY 232C, section 731 online proctored exam section student,

You can now set up your account with Examity and schedule both your midterm and
final exam times.   If you've already set up a profile form summer session 1,
you can skip the profile setup step and proceed to scheduling your PHY 232C
exams.

The process you should follow is in the syllabus, but I am
copying it below as well for ease of access.

If the "Go to Examity Dashboard(for online exam students only)" link in Lon-Capa
is not active/available, you will need to log out and re-login to Lon-Capa.

If you need assistance with the setup/scheduling with Examity, they have 24/7
tech support via phone (1-855-EXAMITY (1-855-392-6489) select option 1; email
and live chat.  The email and chat options are linked on every examity webpage.

Instructions from the syllabus for initial setup of your Examity user account
and scheduling of your exams.   Once you complete the initial setup, you can
schedule both your midterm and final exam times.  I suggest you do this now, as
the number of proctors is limited and slots will fill up on a first come, first
serve basis.

Online exams will be proctored by an online proctor/monitoring service called
Examity (www.examity.com). All access to Examity and your exams will be done in
Lon-Capa. In order to arrange for your online proctored exams, you will need to
do an initial set-up of the Examity Dashboard.  Initial setup involves two steps
as follows:

In the "Contents" of the course in Lon-Capa, click on "Go to Examity
Dashboard(for online exam students only)" 

Click on the "Initial Setup of Examity" link. This will bring you to your
Examity dashboard where you must create a profile. (You will use this link later
to access your account and to take your exams)

Click on the "My Profile" icon to create a profile. Here you will: Identify your
time zone upload a scan or photo of a picture ID, such as a driver's license or
student ID

Select three security questions from a given set and provide answers to them

Enter your biometric keystroke signature. All you have to do is enter your first
name -- use your legal first name(no caps), your last name (no caps) and your
first and last names (no caps or spaces)

Later, when you take your exams, your identity will be verified with your
uploaded picture (you will need to re-show via your webcam to your online
proctor) and one of your security questions (please remember your responses).
Finally, you will be asked for your biometric signature.

If you receive all three green check marks, you are done setting up your Examity
account. You can click logout now.

The next step is to schedule your exams

Scheduling your exams(must have already created a profile)

In Lon-Capa, open your Examity Dashboard (as above)

Click on the "Schedule Exam" picture and select a timeslot
The Midterm exam is one hour long and you can schedule your exam start time
anytime between Wednesday, July 20 at 6PM eastern time and Thursday, July 21 at
5:00PM eastern time.  Unlike Lon-Capa, Examity will adjust to your local
timezone that you enter when you set up your account.

Final Exam is two hours long and you can schedule your exam start time anytime
between Wednesday, August 17 at 7PM eastern time and Thursday, August 18 at
5:00PM eastern time. The granularity is 30 minutes, meaning you can choose
start times on the half hour or the hour.

Examity has a large number of exams to proctor each day, but a finite number of
employees and a finite amount of computational resources to do so. Please be
patient and have several time slots ready on your schedule when selecting a
start time. Times slots are filled on a first come first serve basis.

If your exam is scheduled successfully, you will receive a confirmation message
from Examity.
If you scheduled your exam more than 24 hours in advance of the exam, you will
not be charged any proctoring fee. The MSU Physics department will pay this
cost. However, if you schedule it less than 24 hours in advance of the exam, you
will have to pay the cost of the exam as an on-demand proctoring fee. There is
no reason to wait this long, as the scheduling will be available to you weeks in
advance of each exam.

Richard Hallstein

July 1 and again on July 5 (3 of 3)

Students will, at times ask at the end of the semester about doing extra work to get a higher grade.  In this class, there are plenty of extra credit opportunities offered throughout the semester and I encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities.  The time to start accumulating this extra credit is now (not at the end of the semester, as then it is too late).   These bonus opportunities have limited windows of availability and strict due dates.  Other than what is outlined below, no other extra credit will be given. Please take advantage of each of these opportunities, as they can significantly help your final grade in the course.  Much of this is in the bonus point section of the syllabus.  Here are all of the bonus point/extra credit opportunities available in the course:
 Bonus homework survey questions due 5PM on Thursday, July 7 (and will add 1% to final average if completed in full).  This one, frankly should not take you more than a minute to complete.  Here are the details:
There are three bonus homework survey questions in the homework folder. These three survey questions have no right or wrong answer and are weighted as three regular homework points each. One of them is about the section you are enrolled in. These are necessarily due at 5PM on Thursday, July 7 to allow students enrolled in the wrong section time to switch into the correct section. These bonus questions are different from the bonus questions outlined below and embedded with the online lectures. 

Diagnostics and surveys (different from the survey mentioned above) will be available first weekend of session (7/9-10) and last weekend of semester (8/13-14).  If all four are completed will add 2% to final average.  Here are the details:
Over the first weekend of the semester, there will be an optional pre-course diagnostic given in Lon-Capa and an optional pre-course survey. At the end of the semester on the weekend just before the final exam, there will be a second, optional post-course diagnostic and a second post-course survey. A 0.5% participation bonus will be added to the final average of any student who makes a serious effort to complete these four assessments/surveys. If you seriously participate in all of these optional assignments, 2% will be added to your final average; if you seriously participate in three of them, 1.5% will be added to your final average; if you seriously participate in two of them, 1 % will be added to your final average, if you seriously participate in one of them, 0.5% will be added to your final average. If you don't attempt a diagnostic (or survey) or don't give a serious effort, no bonus will be added. Simple submission patterns (like AAA..., or BBB...) or rapidly clicking on any response throughout the diagnostic (or survey) are not considered serious efforts and no bonus will be given.

Available now and due with associated homework assignments throughout the session.  There are about 250 regular homework problems and about 50 additional bonus homework problems.  Homework is weighted at30%, so attempting these bonus problems could add 6% to your final average.  Here are the details:
 There are bonus questions in the online lecture folders. You should be able to answer these after completing the assigned reading from the required text and watching the online lectures. These bonus questions are programmed to look like exam questions, as such, they are all multiple choice. In addition, some of these bonus questions are questions used on previous exams for this course and its traditional equivalent. Lon-Capa's feedback option is disabled, so unlike regular homework problems, Lon-Capa will not tell you if you have the correct answer until after the due date. In addition, the discussion board on these questions has been disabled. These questions are meant for you to work out yourself after having read the assigned reading and watched the online lectures. All points earned here will be added to your total homework points as a homework bonus (so, homework scores over 100% are possible). Hints and/or solutions to the bonus questions will not be provided.
 Correction assignment for the midterm exam done online as a homework assignment can increase your midterm score and thus, you final average.  It will be available from on Friday, 7/22 and is due on Tuesday, 7/26 along with homework set 5.  Here are the correction assignment details:
The midterm exam will have a correction exam assigned as a homework assignment in Lon-Capa. 30% of the positive difference between the correction exam and the in-class (or proctored) exam will be added to your in-class exam score as bonus. As such, the correction exam homework assignment can only add points to your midterm exam score. Only students taking the original exam will have access to the correction exam. The correction exam will be available at noon two days after the scheduled exam.
Richard Hallstein

 

July 1 and again on July 5 (2 of 3) on campus exam students section 730

Dear PHY 232C, section 730 summer session 1 on campus exam student,

You are receiving this email because you are enrolled in section 730 of PHY 232C for the first summer session and I want to make sure you are enrolled in the correct section. No worries if you are not, as there is plenty of room in both sections and it is easy to switch sections if you need to via schedule builder here: https://schedule.msu.edu/

First off, there are two exam folders in Lon-Capa. Each folder currently contains only the cover sheet for our midterm exam (useful constants and information). However, you will only be able to access the on campus exam folder.

Your exams will be given in person on MSU’s campus on July 20 and August 17.
If *ALL* three of the following conditions are met, you can have your exams proctored via webcam, but you’ll need to switch sections:
1. You are living greater than a 1 hour drive from MSU
2. Regardless of how far you are living, you are not enrolled in another course meeting on MSU’s campus in East Lansing (if you live close enough to come here for class, you are close enough to come here for our two exams).
3. Your computer hardware and internet connection meets the criteria outlined in the syllabus.

If *ALL* of these conditions are met and you wish to use online video proctoring, you must enroll in section 731. Students using online video proctoring will be watched/video recorded for the duration of each exam via student provided webcam and the computer screen will also be recorded. If any of these three conditions are not met or you wish to take your exams at MSU even if they are met, you are enrolled in the correct section (730) and no further action is required.

Richard Hallstein

 

July 1 and again on July 5 (2 of 3) online video proctored exam students section 731

Dear PHY 232C, section 731 summer session 2 online video proctored exam student,

You are receiving this email because you are enrolled in section 731 of PHY 232C for the first summer session and I want to make sure you are enrolled in the correct section. No worries if you are not, as there is plenty of room in both sections and it is easy to switch sections if you need to via schedule builder here: https://schedule.msu.edu/

Students in this section(731) will have their exams proctored via student provided webcam and microphone. You will be watched/recorded via your computer’s webcam for the duration of each exam and your computer’s screen will also be recorded.

If *ALL* three of the following conditions are met, you are enrolled in the correct section and will have your exams proctored via webcam:
1. You are living greater than a 1 hour drive from MSU
2. Regardless of how far you are living, you are not enrolled in another course meeting on MSU’s campus in East Lansing (if you live close enough to come here for class, you are close enough to come here for our two exams).
3. Your computer hardware and internet connection meets the criteria outlined in the syllabus.

If *ALL* of these conditions are met and you wish to use online video proctoring, you are enrolled in the correct section (731). If any of these three conditions are not met OR you wish to take your exams at MSU even if they are met, you must enroll section (730) and take your exams at MSU on July 20 and August 17.

If you remain in this section, you will need to set up an account with Examity, the online video proctoring service. This is covered in detail in the online proctored exam section of the syllabus. Links to this part are both on the opening page of the syllabus and in the exam section, go to the opening page of the syllabus here: http://www.pa.msu.edu/courses/2016summer/PHY232C/ then click on the ‘details here link in the box at the top of the page. You will be able to set up your account later at the end of the first official week of the session (after open add ends). Most likely Friday, 7/8. Once you have done this, you can schedule a time for your exams – I encourage you to do this early, as time slots will fill up on a first come first serve basis.

If you need technical support for Examity, you can contact their 24/7 support via: phone 1-855-EXAMITY (1-855-392-6489) select option 1; email or chat -- both of these are linked on every Examity webpage.

Lastly, there are two exam folders in Lon-Capa. Each folder currently contains only the cover sheet for our midterm exam (useful constants and information). However, you will only be able to access the online video proctored exam folder.

Richard Hallstein

 

July 1 and again on July 5 (1 of 3)

Welcome to the summer session of PHY 232C.

 You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in PHY 232C section 730 or section 732.   All online course material will be delivered using Lon-Capa.  You can log in using your MSUnet ID and password (same as your email) here: https://loncapa.msu.edu/  This message will be resent today via lon-capa’s mail system and again on the official start of class, Tuesday, July 5 using both the Registrar’s system and Lon-Capa’s mail system.  I apologize in advance for these duplicate messages, but it is necessary for me to make all reasonable attempts to contact all enrolled in the course.

 

I realize this message is long, but you should read it carefully and in detail as it is part of the syllabus and it is copied in the announcement section of the syllabus for your reference.  You will also receive two additional emails today.  One is a section specific email about our two exams.  The other is an outline of all available extra credit (bonus points) available to you in this course.  There are some opportunities only available in the first week, so review this promptly!

 

We will cover all material usually covered in a fifteen week course in a little over six weeks.  This course runs only in the second summer session starting on July 5 and finishing with the final exam on August 17.  In general, there are two homework sets due each week.    Every week during the session will require a significant online time commitment with a reliable high speed internet connection. Extensions of the homework due dates will not be given.

 

There are two exams.  The midterm exam and final exam are traditional, multiple-choice paper and pencil type exams taken either here on the MSU campus (must enroll in section 730) or off-campus via your computer/web-cam for qualifying students (must enroll in section 731).  Qualifying means all three of these conditions must be met: 1. You must live greater than a 1 hour drive time from where you are living to MSU.  2. You cannot be enrolled in any other course requiring you to drive to MSU during the session (if you are close enough to attend class here, you are close enough to take your two exams here).  3. Your computer and internet connection meet all of the requirements outlined in the off-campus online proctored exam part of the syllabus.  Of course, if you meet all of these requirements and wish to take your exams at MSU, you can do so, but need to be in (or change to) section 730.

 

On the Friday following the midterm exam, a correction exam will open up in homework mode.  The correction exam is completed online just like all of the regular homework assignments.  This correction assignment allows you to do the same exam again with a different randomization for your assigned values.   30% of the positive difference between your correction exam score and your original exam score is added to your original score as a bonus.  The correction exam can only help your score on the exam; do nothing and your original score stays as-is.

 

The required text book is Rex & Wolfson: Essential College Physics, Volume 2.

It is sold at the MSU bookstore and at SBS on Grand River.  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, D2L or the Mastering Physics add-on to the textbook in this course.  Since this is an online class, you are not required to purchase an i-clicker.

 

 Whenever you finish using Lon-CAPA you should *ALWAYS* log out.  Staying logged in for an extended period of time will prevent you from seeing any new material added to the course i.e. correction exam, exam results, practice exam problems.   In addition, leaving Lon-Capa idle for a long time can cause access errors (i.e. getting a message when trying to answer a problem stating the system is not available).  No extensions will be given for such preventable errors.

 

Please visit www.loncapa.msu.edu and log in using your MSU Net ID and password.

Select the "PHY 232C, Summer 2016" 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/2016summer/PHY232C/  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 Lecture folder contains the lectures specifically designed for this online course; they are in the form of narrated PowerPoint presentations with example problems and some lecture 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 and so.  In addition, hints and/or solutions to these extra credit bonus questions will not be provided.

 

 Also within the online lecture folder are some practice exam problems with video solutions.   These problems were given on exams in previous versions of the course or its traditional equivalent.  You are encouraged to use these to help prepare for the exams.

 

Try solving the problems first before watching the solutions.  Even if you answer the questions correctly, as you may find some additional useful information in the solution.

 The next folder will contain the homework for the course.  There are homework sets that are due, in general every Tuesday at 5PM and Thursday at 5PM.  The first regular homework set is due Saturday, July 9 at 5PM (this is the only set due on a Saturday).  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.   There are three extra credit survey questions due Thursday, July 7 (this Thursday) at 5PM – one of them addresses your enrollment in the proper section and this due date is necessary as open add ends at 8PM on 7/7; if you’re in the wrong section you can change sections.  Further, each of these three bonus questions are weighted three times a regular homework question.  It should not take you more than a minute to answer all three.  

 

 You are encouraged to come to the help room (BPS 1248) with your questions.

Our Teaching Assistants are more than happy to answer your questions.  Starting July 5, the help room will be open for this course on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:00AM-8:00PM; Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00AM-5:00PM. During these help room hours, there will always be at least two TAs in the help room assigned to this course.  One is assigned specifically to provide online help using the course discussion board.  While this TA will be in the help room, the online support TA’s first priority is to give online assistance.  Only after all online questions are answered is this TA permitted to assist students in the help room.

 

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. Please do not send questions about the homework via email – the discussion board should always be used for this purpose.  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 a question, just post your answer. Don't forget: The best way to learn is to teach.

 

Working and understanding the homework problems is a very important part of understanding the material.  While, you can likely find a quick, easy formula derived by someone else in the class 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 faced with a similar problem that does not use the same end formula, that quick and easy homework solution would be of little help. 

 

However, if you understand the underlying concepts and the process that went in to finding that end formula, that similar problem should not be difficult to solve.  Rather than using a quick and easy formula that someone else put the work into finding, a better course to follow is attempting to work the problems yourself after completing the assigned readings and watching the online lectures.  Only after an honest attempt at the problems should you seek further assistance.  Yes, this is more work, but my belief in the importance of working through the homework yourself to your success in the course is both emphasized and rewarded by its relative weight in determining your final grade.

 

Lastly, over the weekend of July 9-10 there will be an optional pre-course diagnostic offered and a pre-course survey.  If you give an honest effort a 0.5% participation bonus will be added to your final average for the diagnostic and a 0.5% participation bonus added for the survey.  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.  A similar diagnostic and survey, each with an additional 0.5% participation bonus will be offer over the weekend preceding our final exam (August 13-14).  More details on each of these will follow. 

 

To reiterate, two additional emails will follow this one.  Please read them both promptly.

 

Richard Hallstein

(BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509, hallstein@pa.msu.edu)

 

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Last updated:June 28, 2016