October 19
PHY 231C (courtesy message 3 of 3) Exam Note sheet must be original and handwritten
Dear PHY 231C student,
I'm sending this as a separate message for emphasis. Your note sheet for this
(and all) exam(s) must be hand written and original (no copies). This is stated
both in the syllabus and in the exam announcement. The use of any other type of
notes (i.e. not hand written) is cheating. Any student using any notes on an
exam that are not hand written will receive a penalty grade of zero on the exam.
Penalty grades cannot be used as a dropped exam.
Your note sheet will be checked at least once during the exam.
Richard Hallstein
PHY 231C (courtesy message 2 of 3) Exam 2 exam coverage
Dear PHY 231C students,
In preparation for next Thursday's exam, I wanted to give you some additional
information. First, if you have not done so, you should review the study
suggestions in the syllabus:
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018fall/PHY231C/Study/Study.htm
I'll reiterate one point in this forum. In general, all of our exams will be
organized in the order the material is covered in class. This will help you in
both organizing a good set of handwritten notes and with recall when taking the
exam. One caveat to this organization style, sometimes the most challenging
question on an exam is early on the exam. If you're stuck on such a question,
make an educated guess and move on (don't use all your time on one question).
The practice exam problems for the first exam are now available. You can find
details in the syllabus here:
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018fall/PHY231C/Study/Study.htm
For next week's exam, here is how points are distributed:
Question on exam cover: Students may use two and only two sheets of original
handwritten notes on our FINAL exam. Each of these two sheets must be 8.5inches
by 11inches or smaller. Students may use both sides of these sheets. No other
notes are permitted. Is this true? The answer is YES and it is the only
available response: 1 point
energy: 8 points
momentum: 9 points
oscillations: 9 points
rotational kinematics: 5 points
rotation: 14 points
question from exam 1: 4 points
On this and all exams, you are also responsible for units and common metric
conversions for all topics.
PHY 231C (courtesy message 1 of 3) Exam 2 at 7:30PM on Thursday, Oct 25 in CEM 138 Dear PHY 231C students,
The second exam will be on Thursday, October 25 from 7:30PM until 8:20PM in
Chemistry (CEM) room 138. The exam will be handed out promptly at 7:30PM;
students arriving after 7:30PM 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 covered after exam 1 through and
including online lecture 8b (homework set 6). 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 a total of 16
separate responses on the exam. 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. Your note sheet will be checked at least once during the exam.
Any notes other than described in the syllabus and restated here will be
considered a violation of the university's policy on academic integrity. As
such, a non-droppable penalty grade of zero for the exam will be given and an
official report of academic dishonesty will be filed with the university.
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).
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.
The whole exam will be assigned again in the same form 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 as a bonus.
The best strategy is to solve the Correction Exam perfectly to maximize your
gain. The Correction Exam will be available in the morning on Friday,
October 26 and will be due on Tuesday, October 30 at 11:59PM.
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. The two sets of practice exams were outlined in an email sent
earlier today.
Note: the exam cover page is for all of the mid-term exams and not all of the
useful information listed on it is applicable to this exam.
The due date for Homework set 7 is Tuesday, November 6 at 11:59PM. This set is
a long set, so you should get started on it early.
Richard Hallstein
September 20
PHY 231C (courtesy message 3 of 3) Exam Note sheet must be original and handwritten
Dear PHY 231C student,
I'm sending this as a separate message for emphasis. Your note sheet for this
(and all) exam(s) must be hand written and original (no copies). This is stated
both in the syllabus and in the exam announcement. The use of any other type of
notes (i.e. not hand written) is cheating. Any student using any notes on an
exam that are not hand written will receive a penalty grade of zero on the exam.
Penalty grades cannot be used as a dropped exam.
Your note sheet will be checked at least once during the exam.
Richard Hallstein
PHY 231C (courtesy message 2 of 3) Exam 1 Coverage and studying
Dear PHY 231C students,
In preparation for next Thursday's exam, I wanted to give you some additional
information. First, if you have not done so, you should review the study
suggestions in the syllabus:
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018fall/PHY231C/Study/Study.htm
I'll reiterate one point in this forum. In general, all of our exams will be
organized in the order the material is covered in class. This will help you in
both organizing a good set of handwritten notes and with recall when taking the
exam. One caveat to this organization style, sometimes the most challenging
question on an exam is early on the exam. If you're stuck on such a question,
make an educated guess and move on (don't use all your time on one question).
The practice exam problems for the first exam are now available. You can find
details in the syllabus here:
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018fall/PHY231C/Study/Study.htm
For next week's exam, here is how points are distributed:
Question on exam cover: Students may use one and only one sheet of original
handwritten notes on each of our MIDTERM exams. This single sheet must be
8.5inches by 11inches or smaller. Students may use both sides of this sheet. No
other notes are permitted. Is this true? The answer is YES and it is the only
available response: 1 point
1D motion: 15 points
2D motion: 16 points
Force: 18 points
On this and all exams, you are also responsible for units and common metric
conversions for all topics.
Richard Hallstein
PHY 231C (courtesy message 1 of 3) Exam 1 at 7:30PM on Thursday, Sept 27 in CEM 138
Dear PHY 231C students,
The first exam will be on Thursday, September 27 from 7:30PM until 8:20PM in
Chemistry (CEM) room 138. The exam will be handed out promptly at 7:30PM;
students arriving after 7:30PM will not be permitted to enter the room until
after the students who arrived promptly have started the exam.
The exam will cover everything through and including online lecture 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 a total of 17 separate responses on the exam. 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. Your note sheet will be checked at least once during the exam.
Any notes other than described in the syllabus and restated here will be
considered a violation of the university's policy on academic integrity. As
such, a non-droppable penalty grade of zero for the exam will be given and an
official report of academic dishonesty will be filed with the university.
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).
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.
The whole exam will be assigned again in the same form 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 as a bonus.
The best strategy is to solve the Correction Exam perfectly to maximize your
gain. The Correction Exam will be available in the morning on Friday,
September 28 and will be due on Tuesday, October 2 at 11:59PM.
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. The two sets of practice exams were outlined in an email sent
earlier today.
Note: the exam cover page is for all of the mid-term exams and not all of the
useful information listed on it is applicable to this exam.
The due date for Homework set 4 is Tuesday, October 2 at 11:59PM. This set is
a long set, so you should get started on it early.
Richard Hallstein
September 9
Dear PHY 231C student,
Starting tomorrow, Monday, September 10the help room(BPS 1248) will be staffed
with PHY 231/231C specific staff during the following hours:
Mondays 11AM-2PM and 3PM-9PM
Tuesdays noon-9PM
Thursdays 1PM-4PM
Fridays 1PM-4PM
The office hours for the course instructions will also be held in the help
room(BPS 1248) and are as follows:
Richard Hallstein
Mondays 1PM-2PM (or by appointment in BPS 1253)
Corey Musolff
Tuesdays 1PM-2PM
Richard Hallstein
September 6
Dear PHY 231C student,
Dear PHY 231C student,
The message I sent out earlier(copied below for ease of reference) is in
reference to one of the questions included in homework set 1 and addressed in
the syllabus. A couple students who had not yet looked at set 1 in its entirety
were unsure where to find these questions -- again, the question specific to the
alternate final, but not applicable to this class has been removed.
I mistakenly included two syllabus questions addressing the deadline to sign up for our final exam. One was correct and applicable to our course; the other was applicable to PHY 232C and not applicable to our course. I have removed the question not applicable to our course.
Richard Hallstein
August 29
PHY 231C course contact info, discussion board and help room (message 6 of 6)
Dear PHY 231C student,
If you have an administrative question about the course, please send it to: phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu Under no circumstances should requests for assistance on homework and/or explanations of the online lectures be sent via email. Such requests will likely go unanswered. With over five hundred students in the course and the second semester course, it is simply impossible to answer all potential homework questions individually via email. Instead, use the post discussion option available on all lectures and on all regular homework problems. This option also allows all to benefit from all such questions and subsequent responses. These response could come from course staff or other students.
You are 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. Try to make your post as well articulated as possible; be specific in your request – statements like “help” or “I don’t understand” do not give us any idea about what is giving you difficulty. Again, do not use email for help on the homework questions. Further, 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 a fellow student’s question, just post your answer. Please refrain from simply posting a formula without any context or discussion. Quite often, the person posting such a formula understands where it came from and would be able to find a similar relationship when encountered on say, an exam. Whereas, those using such a formula without understanding where it came from are quite often lost when encountering the similar question on an exam.
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. Starting Tuesday, 9/4 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 designated times when TAs specifically assigned to PHY231/231C will be available. I will send you an email when regular help room hours begin and when we have 231/231C specific hours set.
Corey Musolff(Lead Instructor) phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
PHY 231C Extra credit and not for credit items (message 5 of 6)
Dear PHY 231C student,
The practice exam problems provided are to help you in preparing for our exams and are not for credit. Details are outlined in message 4 of 6 on exams and practice exams.
The only bonus or extra credit opportunities offered in this course are as follows:
There are two optional pre-course extra credit/bonus point opportunities currently available for completion. They are a timed pre-course concept test and an untimed pre-course survey. These should be completed by 11:59PM on Friday, September 7. A similar post course concept test and survey will be offered over the weekend preceding our final exam (these also include a participation bonus). We encourage you to complete them, as in addition to the bonus outlined below, they will be used to help make future versions of this course and its traditional equivalent.
Bonuses for concept tests and surveys:
Concept tests:
Do neither: no bonus
Do only 1(pre or post): 1 point added to final exam score
Do both (pre and post): 3 points bonus added to final exam score
Surveys:
Do neither: no bonus
Do only 1 (pre or post): 1 point added to final exam score
Do both (pre and post): 3 points bonus added to final exam score
The final exam has 100 points and is weighted at 35% of the final grade. Doing all of these items will add 6 points for a maximum possible score of 106 (out of 100).
The extra credit for the surveys and concept tests are for participation only and not for correctness. However, however in the case of the concept tests a serious effort must be given to get the credit. As such, simple submission patterns (like AAA..., or BBB...) or rapidly clicking on any response throughout the concept test are not considered serious efforts and no bonus will be given.
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.
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 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 on the day after the scheduled exam and will be due at the regular homework due date/time the following week.
No other bonus or extra credit opportunities will be offered.
Corey Musolff(Lead Instructor) phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
PHY 231C exams and practice exam problems (message 4 of 6)
Dear PHY 231C student,
There will be three midterm exams and one final exam for this course. The midterm exams are scheduled as follows:
Midterm 1: Thursday, September 27 at 7:30PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Midterm 2: Thursday, October 25 at 7:30PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Midterm 3: Thursday, November 15 at 7:30PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Final exam: Thursday, December 13 at 8PM Location: TBA
An alternate exam time will be provided for University approved reasons only and prior to our scheduled exam. An alternate session will be offered for class conflicts only. If you have a class scheduling conflict, you will need to provide documentation of the conflict (a screenshot of your official class schedule – not the bar graph version, rather the version showing actual start and end times) and I will arrange an alternate time for the exam earlier in the day (possibly as early as 6:30AM). If the conflict is work related, you have plenty of notice and you should make arrangements with your employer to get this time off. If you have a class conflict with any of our midterm exams, you will need to provide documentation of your schedule well in advance of the exam so alternate accommodations can be made. In order to make arrangements for the semester, we will need this information no later than Monday, September 17. If, you have a University approved conflict for the final exam (three FINAL exams on the same day or another exam at the same time), you will need to provide documentation of the conflict no later than Friday, October 27. Since the dates and times of *all* final exams for *all* classes are currently available, requests and conflict documentation received after this date will not be honored. The alternate final exam will be at 7:45AM on Wednesday, December 12. Again, you should know the times and dates of all your exams now, so there is no reason to delay notifying us of conflicts.
There are no makeup midterm exams. However, if you miss a midterm exam for any reason, you will be allowed to drop this exam and the midterm portion of your final grade will be based on the other two midterm exams. Only one midterm exam will be dropped. If you take all three midterms, your lowest midterm exam score will be dropped when calculating your final grade. The dropped midterm exam accounts for *all* unforeseen occurrences such as, illnesses, accidents, family emergencies, etc.
In the case of missing the final exam, the MSU policy is: "A student absent from a final examination without a satisfactory explanation will receive a grade of 0.0 on the numerical system, NC on the CR-NC system, or N in the case of a course authorized for grading on the P-N system. Students unable to take a final examination because of illness or other reason over which they have no control should notify the associate deans of their colleges immediately."
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 posted in the syllabus 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.
In Lon-Capa, there is a folder with practice exam problems. There are two sets of practice problems these contain exam problems given in this course in each of the two preceding academic years. The first includes every single problem from midterm exams given in Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 in this course; the second includes every single problem given on midterm exams in Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 in this course. These problems are coded in Lon-Capa and appear in exam mode for zero credit (no due date is set and correct/incorrect feedback is disabled to allow you to return to the problem later). A second set of the same problems is included with feedback enabled, so you can see if you answer these questions correctly. The solutions to these problems take on one of three forms:
1. A reference to a very similar problem in the required text.
2. A reference to a similar problem worked out in the online lectures.
3. A new video solution.
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, you may find some additional useful information in the solution.
Corey Musolff(Lead Instructor) phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
PHY 231C regular homework problems (message 3 of 6)
Dear PHY 231C student,
There are weekly homework sets that are due on Tuesdays at 11:59PM. The first homework set is due Tuesday, September 11 at 11:59PM. Since all homework questions for the course are currently available, you can work ahead if you know you’ll have a busy week. You should not wait until the last minute to do the assigned homework -- extensions on homework will not be granted.
Corey Musolff(Lead Instructor) phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
PHY 231C Readings, online lectures and bonus homework problems (message 2 of 6)
Dear PHY 231C student,
The assigned readings from our required text are outlined in the calendar section of the syllabus. All of the online lectures and the associated homework sets are now available in Lon-Capa. 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 demonstrations. Embedded within the online lecture folders are extra credit 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. No hints or solutions will be provided for these extra credit bonus problems.
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.
Corey Musolff(Lead Instructor) phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
PHY 231C is now available (message 1 of 6)
Dear PHY 231C student,
Welcome to the fall semester of PHY 231C – the course is now open and available.
You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in PHY 231C section 730 or section 731. Please read this message and the five subsequent messages carefully; they contain a significant amount of important information about the course. A copy of each is posted in the announcement section of the syllabus. We are sending these as separate messages to make it a bit easier for you to find specific information within an otherwise very long single message. The topics of these other five messages are: readings, online lectures and bonus homework questions; regular homework questions; exams, alternate exams and practice exam problems; extra credit and optional not for credit times; course contact information, discussion board and the physics help room.
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 d2L 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, Fall 2018 " class. The first item on the top is the syllabus. You can also review the syllabus without logging in to Lon-Capa here: https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018fall/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 information, grading, etc.
This is the only message(1 of 6) you will receive from us via the Registrar’s office mail system for this course. A copy of this message, as well as all future course messages will be sent to you via Lon-Capa’s mail system as critical messages.
To make certain you see these critical course messages, they will continue to pop up while you are in Lon-Capa until you move them to your Lon-Capa inbox. So, after reading the message, simply click the move to inbox button at the bottom of the message.
We hope you have a great semester both here and in your other courses,
Corey Musolff(Lead Instructor) phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
Last updated: June 20, 2018