Syllabus for PHYSICS 232C

Summer 2017


Physics 232c is the follow-up course to 231c. It is a non-calculus-based general physics class, recommended for a variety of majors, such as those pursuing a pre-med education. Topics include: electromagnetism, circuits, optics, quantum physics, nuclear physics and a brief coverage of elementary particle physics and astrophysics.

  • Students who will be within 1 hour driving radius of campus or taking another course on campus, MUST enroll in section 730. Exams will be given ON CAMPUS -- if you are enrolled in this class and fit the above criteria, you must adjust your schedule to take our two exam here in East Lansing on July 19 and August 16.

  • Students who will be outside of the 1 hour driving radius of the MSU campus AND are not taking another course on campus, enroll in section 731. Exams will be given online using an online proctoring service (details here).

  • If you meet all the criteria for an off campus online proctored exam, but wish to travel to MSU on the scheduled date of our exams to take your exams here at MSU, you may, at your option enroll in section 730 (if you make this choice, you are not eligible for off-campus online exams).

This is an accelerated course. All material usually covered in a semester will be covered in the first half of the summer. The course starts July 5th and concludes with the final exam on August 16. In general, there will be 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. It is generally accepted that successful students commit at least 2-3 hours of study/homework time per hour of in class time to a course. This is a three hour course which means during a traditional 15 week semester, the total time commitment for successful students should be 15weeks*(3+9)hours per week=180 hours. This amounts to approximately thirty hours per week during this accelerated course. If a student finds a subject particularly challenging, more time may be required. Again, nothing is omitted from this accelerated course and students should expect to spend this amount of time over the six and a half week duration of the course. The midterm and final exams will be traditional paper and pencil exams taken either here on the MSU campus or off-campus via video proctor.

 

Instructor

Richard Hallstein, hallstein@pa.msu.edu
#1253 BPS Building, (517) 884-5509

All times in Lon-Capa and in this syllabus are Eastern time.


Office Hours: Tuesdays 10AM-11AM in 1253BPS
 

Help Room Hours (BPS 1248)

Mondays and Wednesdays: 2PM-8PM

Tuesdays and Thursdays: 11AM-5PM

Help room/Discussion board staff

Online Discussion Board will be monitored by a help room teaching assistant during regular help room hours posted above

One TA in the help room will monitor the discussion board during regular help room hours. While the TA providing online support is in the help room, first priority is given to answering questions online and not to students in the help room. During help room hours, there will always be at least one more TA assigned specifically to assist students in the help room.

Help room hours on Exam days:

Questions about a specific homework problem should be either brought to the help room or posted using the "Post Discussion" located just below the homework problem. Homework questions will not be answered via email. Although sufficient assistance can be found on some of the less complicated problems using the "Post Discussion" option, better service is available by working with other students and the graduate teaching assistants in the help room.

The closing time for each homework assignment will be the 5:00PM on Tuesday afternoon for the first homework set of each week and 5:00PM Thursday afternoon for the second homework set of each week as shown on the calendar. Late homework will not be accepted:-- the closing time will be strictly enforced. Enter your solutions early to avoid computer/network woes close to the deadline. The only exception to these due dates is for set 1. it is due at 5PM on Saturday, July 8 to allow students adding late, but prior to the open add deadline time to complete this set.

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.

Lon-capa gives equal weight to homework points, bonus question points, exam points and correction exam points. These points are *NOT* equally weighted for grade calculation. See the grading criteria section of this syllabus for details..

The course material, including: homework and recorded online lectures in the form of narrated Power point presentations with example problems are posted on the LON-CAPA website. In addition, there is a required textbook for this course.

Online Lectures and examples

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.

Extensions for homework/exams will not be given for reasons like, but not limited to: "I could not connect to the internet", "I didn't have a reliable internet connection", "I enrolled in the class after the official start of the session", "I chose to go on vacation, attend a wedding, etc and enroll in this accelerated class" or "the net was down at my parent's place".

Spartan Code of Honor and Academic Pledge

As a Spartan, I will strive to uphold values of the highest ethical standard. I will practice honesty in my work, foster honesty in my peers, and take pride in knowing that honor is worth more than grades. I will carry these values beyond my time as a student at Michigan State University, continuing the endeavor to build personal integrity in all that I do.

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Last updated: June 30, 2017