Physics 231C Announcements

 

April 23

Dear PHY 231C student,
The post-course survey and post-course concept test are due this coming Sunday,
April 29 at 11:59PM. Both of these items are now available for you to complete
(opened early), you were notified about their availability at
the semester's start and details are in the syllabus. As such, no extensions
will be given.

A similar pre course concept test and survey were offered at the beginning of
the semester(these also include a participation bonus). I encourage you to
complete these post course items, 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 scoore
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). Even if you did not fully participate in the pre-course versions, fully
participating in both of these post course versions will add 2 points to your
final exam score.

The extra credit for the surveys and concept tests are for participation only
and not for correctness. 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.

https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018spring/PHY231C/Bonus/Bonus.htm

Richard Hallstein

 

April 20 PHY 231C Final exam notice (2 of 2) Studying and coverage

Dear PHY 231C students,

In preparation for the final 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/2018spring/PHY231C/Study/Study.htm

I'll reiterate one point in this forum. The material 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).

All of the practice exam problems are now available and all are applicable for
the this exam. You can find details in the syllabus here:
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018spring/PHY231C/Study/Study.htm

For the final exam, here is how points are distributed:

1D motion: 10 points
2D motion: 7 points
Force: 13 points
Work and energy: 7 points
Momentum: 7 points
Oscillations: 0 points (not on exam)
Rotation: 9 points
Solids and Fluids: 8 points
Gravitation and orbits: 0 points (not on exam)
Waves and sound: 8 points
Temperature, thermal expansion and ideal gases: 10 points
Heat: 12 points
Thermodynamics: 9 points

Richard Hallstein

 

April 20 PHY 231C Final exam notice (1 of 2) Monday, 4/30 at 8PM in CEM 138

Dear PHY 231C students,

The second exam will be on Monday, April 30 from 8:00PM until 10:00PM in
Chemistry (CEM) room 138.

The exam will be handed out promptly at 8PM; students arriving after 8PM will
not be given their exam until students who arrived promptly have started the exam.

The exam is cumulative. Some of the problems will be conceptual in nature and
some will have numerical answers.  There are a total of 30 separate responses on
the exam. There are 100 possible points on the exam.

The exam is closed book, but you may use FOUR 8-1/2 inch x 11 inch
or smaller sheets of original HAND-WRITTEN notes and equations. You may use both
sides of your note sheets. Your note sheets 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, 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 two hours to complete the exam.



Richard Hallstein

 

February 19

Dear PHY 231C students,

At the end of this message is your personalized summary of
your scores on the work you have completed through last
Tuesday's Correction exam.  In addition, I have used this
data, along with the course syllabus to give you a final
grade projection.  The projection assumes your work in all
categories is represented by what you have done so far.
 
If you did not take exam 1, this will be your one dropped
exam. However, this does not give me sufficient data to
project a final grade and it will show up as a zero.
 
Below I am including: your Exam 1 post correction score (in
percent); your projected midterm exam average in percent
(for now this is equal to your midterm 1 score -- it'll
likely change after future midterm exams); your homework
average through set 4 including the bonus questions in
percent; your pre-course concept test bonus to be added to
your final exam score (1 if you chose to participate, 0 if
you did not); your pre-course survey bonus to be added to
your final exam score (1 if you chose to participate, 0 if
you did not); your projected final exam score in percent
(this is the PRE-correction score on exam 1 plus any earned
survey/concept test bonus); your pre-course; your projected
final average in percent; and the corresponding projected
final grade based on the criteria outlined in the syllabus.

These projections assume ALL future homework (both regular
and bonus), exams and corrections exams are represented by
the work you have done thus far.  Clearly, if any future
work in any of these categories changes, your actual
scores/grades in some or all of these projected categories
will change as well.

Thus far, we have had 87 regular homework questions and 16
bonus questions.  So, there were a maximum of 103 homework
points you could have earned through set 4; but your percent
score is based on 87 points as stipulated in the syllabus.
Anyone with homework points earned over 87 points, through
set 4 received a homework percent greater than 100%!

Here is the key to interpret my abbreviations below:
HW%: Homework percent (including bonus questions)
PMTA%: PROJECTED midterm average of all midterm exams in
percent (this is your post-correction midterm 1 score)
FE-CNPBonus Final exam pre-course concept bonus (1 if you
chose to participate, 0 if not)
FE-SRVBonus Final exam pre-course survey bonus (1 if you
chose to participate, 0 if not)
PFE%: PROJECTED final exam score in percent (your
pre-correction score on midterm 1 in percent plus any earned
concept/survey bonuses)
PFA%: PROJECTED final course average in %
PFG: PROJECTED final grade

As an *example* of how your projections were calculated,
here is a calculated projection based on the current class
averages in each category (this calculation is based on the
class average, not your personal projection -- the bottom of
the email sent to your Lon-Capa account for your personal
projection):

The class average on the homework through set is 100% The
class average on the midterm, pre-correction is 48% The
average on the correction exam is 88%.  The corrected
midterm average is 60%. The average concept bonus is 0.86
and the average on the survey bonus is 0.83. The class
average projected final exam score is 49.7%.
First, we need to find the post-correction midterm score for
our class average (only your post correction score is shown
below):
MTcorrected =  48% + 0.3*(88%-48%)= 60.0%

Using these averages, we can project a final average and
grade in the course.  In this projection and in your
personalized projection at the end of this message, we'll
make a these assumptions:
1. Assume homework and bonus point performance for the
remainder of the course remains as it has been thus far.
2.  Assume the average final exam percent score is the same
as the average PRE-correction midterm percent score plus any
earned final exam bonus points.
Again, if the actual performance differs from these
assumptions, the actual scores will change too.

Homework is weighted at 25%, the midterms at 40% and final
exam 35% (including concept test and survey participation
bonuses).  So, this average set of scores yields:

Projected final class average: 0.25*100% + 0.4*60% +
0.35*(48%+0.86%+0.83)% = 66.4%

Using the grading criteria in the syllabus, we see this
projected final average for this hypothetical average
student is 66.4% and is just below the cutoff for a 2.5.
Again, the above are all CLASS AVERAGES -- your personalized
scores are at the bottom of this message.
Lastly, a solution to this exam is now available in
Lon-Capa.  It is in the form of a recorded video solution, a
reference to an online lecture where a substantially similar
example is already available or a reference to the required
text where a substantially similar example is available.

Richard Hallstein

February 9

 PHY 231C Correction assignment is aavailable

Dear PHY 231C students,
The correction exam is now available for you to complete.  By doing so, you may
be able to improve your exam score the 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 your score on
today's exam is 40/50 and the correction exam score is 50/50, then 0.3*(50-40)=3
points will be added to today's score for an exam total of 43 points. So, 43/50
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.

The correction exam is due on Tuesday, Feb 13 at 11:59PM.

If your exam correction exam is not showing up, try exiting Lon-Capa, shutting
down all windows of your internet browser and then re-logging into Lon-Capa.

Lastly, the scoring office has been taking two days to score exams and I hope to
have your score from last night's exam to you before Monday evening.

Richard Hallstein

February 2


 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 (link corrected)

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/2018spring/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:

Syllabus question: "Our final exam is on Monday, April 30 at 8PM and an
alternate final for documented university approved reasons only will be at
7:45AM on Tuesday, May 1. The final exam dates and times are currently available
to all students for all courses.  The deadline for submitting documentation is
Friday, March 16.  Is it true absolutely no alternate final exam accommodations
will be made for students submitting documentation after the March 16 deadline?"
 The only available answer is the correct answer, yes.  1 point

Units, conversions and dimensional analysis 3 points 1D motion: 17 points 2D
motion: 11 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 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/2018spring/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/2017fall/PHY231C/Study/Study.htm

For next week's exam, here is how points are distributed:

Syllabus question: "Our final exam is on Monday, April 30 at 8PM and an
alternate final for documented university approved reasons
only will be at 7:45AM on Tuesday, May 1. The final exam
dates and times are currently available to all students for
all courses.  The deadline for submitting documentation is
Friday, March 16.  Is it true absolutely no alternate final
exam accommodations will be made for students submitting
documentation after the March 16 deadline?"  The only available answer is the
correct answer, yes.  1 point

Units, conversions and dimensional analysis 3 points
1D motion: 17 points
2D motion: 11 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, Feb 8 in CEM 138

Dear PHY 231C students,

The first exam will be on Thursday, February 8 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 4). 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,
February 9 and will be due on Tuesday, February 13 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 5 is Tuesday, February 20 at 11:59PM. This set is
a long set, so you should get started on it early.

Richard Hallstein

 

January 12

Dear PHY 231C student,
The  pre-course survey and pre-course concept test are due this coming Monday,
Jan. 15 at 11:59PM.  Both of these items have been available for you to complete
since the start of the semester, you were notified about their availability at
the semester's start and details are in the syllabus.  As such, no extensions
will be given.

If you have not already done so, please review the details and restrictions in
the Bonus point section of the syllabus here:

 https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018spring/PHY231C/Bonus/Bonus.htm


Richard Hallstein

 

January 8

PHY 231C is now available (message 1 of 6)
Dear PHY 231C student,

Welcome to the spring 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, Spring 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/2018spring/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,
Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
Corey Musolff phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu

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.


Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
Corey Musolff phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu

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, January 16 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.


Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
Corey Musolff phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu

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, February 8 at 7:30PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Midterm 2: Thursday, March 15 at 7:30PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Midterm 3: Thursday, April 5 at 7:30PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Final exam: Monday, April 30 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) 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, January 22.  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 me with documentation of the conflict no later than Friday, March 16.  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 Tuesday, May 1.  Again, you should know the times and dates of all your exams now, so there is no reason to delay this 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.  The first includes every single problem from midterm exams given in the previous
academic year (Fall 2016 and Spring 2017) in this course; the second includes every single problem given on midterm exams in the previous semester (Fall 2017).  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.

Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
Corey Musolff phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu


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 Monday, January 15.   A similar post course concept test and survey will be offered over the weekend preceding our final exam (these also include a participation bonus).  I 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 scoore
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 scoore
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.

Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
Corey Musolff phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu

PHY 231C course contact info, discussion board and help room (message 6 of 6)
Dear PHY 232C 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 about four 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 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.  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 the formula understands where it came from and would be able to find a similar relationship when it is 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, 1/16 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.

Richard Hallstein phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
Corey Musolff phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu

 

 

 

January 3

Message 1 of 2

Dear PHY 231C Spring 2018 student,

This online class will be available to you on Monday, Jan 8 at 12:01 AM in Lon-Capa.  d2L will not be used for anything whatsoever in this course.  To access Lon-Capa, you will need to use your MSU ID and password to access the course.  To access the course in Lon-Capa, go to: https://loncapa.msu.edu/ 

Here is a link to the course syllabus: https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2018spring/PHY231C/index.htm --

The Physics department and my office are in the BPS building.  Early tomorrow morning and into the weekend, all department servers will be shut down for scheduled electrical work requiring power outages.  Consequently, you will not have access to the syllabus during this time(it's on a BPS server) and I will not have access to email either ( phy231c-adm@pa.msu.edu also on a BPS server).    This work should be complete prior to Monday and in any case will not effect your access to our course delivery system, Lon-Capa.
My MSU email is forwarded to my physics email address, so I will not see any messages prior to Monday due to this power shut down.

Richard Hallstein

 

Message 2 of 2

Dear PHY 231C student,
I neglected to mention one more thing in my previous message:
On Monday, I will email you a serious of messages with important, detailed course information.
Richard Hallstein

 

 

 

 

 

Physics 231C HOME

Last updated: January 7, 2018