January 11
PHY 232C office hours, help room hours and concept test with participation due date
Dear PHY 232C student,
My regular office hours for the semester will be from 2PM-3PM on Mondays in room 1248BPS. Learning assistants assigned specifically to this course, and its traditional equivalent PHY 232 will be in the help room (BPS 1248). On the follow days/times:
Mondays: 1PM-4PM
Tuesdays: 10AM-9PM
Wednesdays: 10AM-9PM
Thursdays: 10AM-9PM
The help room will not be staffed on the MLK holiday, during spring break and during finals week.
Don't forget to attempt the pre-course concept test prior to its 1/16 deadline. This comes with a PARTICIPATION credit (i.e. no correctness credit is given). Details are outlined both in the syllabus and in course message sent out last week.
As always, click on the move to inbox button at the bottom of this critical message to keep it from continually popping up as you work through the course.
Richard Hallstein
January 3
PHY 232C 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: hallstei@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. 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 Monday, 1/13 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 PHY232/232C will be available. I will send you an email when regular help room hours begin and when the 232/232C specific hours are set.
Richard Hallstein hallstei@msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
PHY 232C Extra credit and not for credit items (message 5 of 6)
Dear PHY 232C 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 PHY 232C 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: hallstei@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. 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 Monday, 1/13 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 PHY232/232C will be available. I will send you an email when regular help room hours begin and when the 232/232C specific hours are set.
Richard Hallstein hallstei@msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
practice exams.
The only bonus or extra credit opportunities offered in this course are as follows:
There is one optional pre-course extra credit/bonus point opportunity currently available for completion – it includes a participation bonus. It is a timed pre-course concept test. It should be completed by 11:59PM on Thursday, January 16. A similar post course concept test will be offered over the weekend preceding our final exam (this 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 us to improve future versions of this course and its traditional equivalent.
Bonuses for concept tests:
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
The final exam has 100 points and is weighted at 35% of the final grade. Doing both of these items will add 3 points for a maximum possible score of 103 (out of 100).
The extra credit for the concept tests are for participation only and not for correctness. However, 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 for these bonus homework questions at any time, even after the due date.
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. 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 hallstei@msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
PHY 232C exams and practice exam problems (message 4 of 6)
Dear PHY 232C 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 13 at 7:45PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Midterm 2: Thursday, March 19 at 7:45PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Midterm 3: Thursday, April 9 at 7:45PM Location: Chemistry(CEM) 138
Final exam: Wednesday, April 29 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 verified MSU class conflicts. 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 – no alternate will be provided. 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, I will need this information no later than Monday, January 20. 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, March 13. 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, December 11 – if this conflicts with one of your other exams, you will have to move one of your other exams to take the exam at its scheduled time (8PM on 4/29). Again, you should know the times and dates of all your exams now, so there is no reason to delay notifying me 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 four 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; the third includes every single problem given on midterm exams in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 in this course; and the fourth consists of every midterm exam problem given in the Fall of this academic year. 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 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 hallstei@msu.edu
PHY 232C regular homework problems (message 3 of 6)
Dear PHY 232C student,
There are weekly homework sets that are due on Thursdays at 11:59PM. The first regular homework set is due Thursday, January 23 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 hallstei@msu.edu
PHY 232C Readings, online lectures and bonus homework problems (message 2 of 6)
Dear PHY 232C 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 hallstei@msu.edu
PHY 232C is now available (message 1 of 6)
Dear PHY 232C student,
Welcome to the fall semester of PHY 232C – the course is now open and available.
You are receiving this message because you are enrolled in PHY 232C 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. I am 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 2. 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 232C, Spring 2020 " 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/2020spring/PHY232C/
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.
I hope you have a great semester both here and in your other courses,
Richard Hallstein hallstei@msu.edu
BPS 1253, (517) 884-5509
Last updated December 12, 2019