Course Syllabus

Spring 2019 Physics 2 PHY2054 - Course Syllabus

About the Course

PHY2054 - Physics 2 is the second semester of Physics without calculus, covering electrostatics, electric current, electric circuits and their components, magnetism, induction, electromagnetic waves, optics, optical devices, interference and diffraction. It is typically, but not exclusively, taken by biological sciences majors and pre-professional students, i.e., those planning careers in health care, optometry, pharmacy, etc. It is not a suitable course for physics, chemistry or engineering majors, who are encouraged to take PHY2049 (Physics 2 with calculus) or PHY2061 (enriched Physics 2 with calculus), both of which offer similar material but with more mathematical emphasis.

Course Description

Discussion Sections

Discussion sections are scheduled class meetings where you will get small group instruction on how to answer physics problems, both numerical and conceptual. A highly skilled TA will guide you through the problem solving process that will be helpful for you as you practice the homework problems on your own outside of class. You will also receive formative assessment feedback on your learning through low-stakes weekly quizzes. The content of these quizzes are based on the problems assigned in homework and serve to assess not only the correct answer to quantitative problems, but also critique and provide feedback on how you justify your answer with an in-depth solution.

Practicing physics is the best way to learn it, and the apprenticeship model works quite well as you see how experts identify which physics principles are needed to obtain a correct solution. Review the Discussion Sections page for listing of meeting times.

Class Attendance and Missed Work

Attendance to lectures and discussion sections is required. If you are unable to attend a scheduled class meeting due to university approved and sponsored activities, documented illness under care of physician (see medical excuse policy here), or family emergency, please notify your instructor. Absences due to circumstances listed above during scheduled quizzes or exams will necessitate you to request a makeup quiz or makeup exam following the procedures below. Requirements for class attendance and make-up exams, assignments, and other work in this course are consistent with university policies that can be found at this link.

Discussion Section Quizzes: Students must request a makeup quiz from the discussion section instructor, and if approved, make arrangements with the discussion section instructor.

Missed Discussion Sections: Students are not permitted to earn bonus participation points if they are not attending and participating in solving group problems during discussion sections. Instead of offering makeup discussion sections or providing alternate assignments, we include a "forgiveness factor" into the calculation of the discussion section participation bonus. Students missing class for excused reasons are not permitted to makeup missed bonus opportunities. Note, that the bonus is not just attendance, but also awarded for your active participation during the class. This means that you should be prepared to work collaboratively in teams and contribute constructively to the assigned tasks. Students who attend without contributing to the group will not earn bonus participation points.

Missed Exams: Students missing an exam must notify the instructor BEFORE the beginning of the exam and provide documented evidence for a request for a makeup. It is wise to arrive to campus early on exam days and to drive under the speed limit. Receiving a traffic ticket, or getting stuck in traffic, is not a university approved justification for making up a missed exam. Arrangements will be made to take a makeup exam as soon as possible. The makeup exam will consist of material similar to that which was tested on the missed exam.

Missed H-ITT points: Students are not permitted to earn H-ITT points if they are not successfully submitting responses during the open polling times with a clicker. Instead of offering makeup H-ITT sessions, we include a "forgiveness factor" into the calculation of the H-ITT bonus. Students missing class for excused reasons are not permitted to make up missed bonus opportunities. Students who do not have a functioning clicker with them are not allowed to submit written responses for credit. Please ensure that your clicker number appears on the projection screen indicating a successful submission of your response, and that you discuss any technical difficulties with your instructor. You are permitted to use only the clicker registered for this class. If you lose a clicker and want to register a new clicker, please use the registration form and notify your instructor. Using multiple clickers in a session is a violation of the Honor Code policy with infractions reported to the Registrar.

Missed Homework: Students have ample opportunity to complete available homework assignments prior to the due date. There are no extensions or makeups for homework assignments. Please plan accordingly.

Requirements for class attendance and make-up exams, assignments, and other work in this course are consistent with university policies that can be found at: https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/attendance.aspx

Office Hours

Visit your instructors for free help! We're the ones writing your exams and quizzes and have a good idea about how to help you succeed in this course. You may visit any of the TAs, not just the one teaching your discussion section. Please find someone you can go to for help. Here's our Weekly Schedule (subject to changes):

Contact Information/Office Hour Locations for Instructional Team

Grades

Grades are based on total points accumulated from exams, discussion section quizzes, homework and extra credit quizzes. The canvas grading tool will not accurately calculate your grade. 

Your final score is the sum of the following:

Letter grades will be reported to the Registrar at the end of the term corresponding to the total score and the minimum values to an accuracy of 0.01, following this grading scheme:

Exams

There are a total of two during term exams, with the third exam at the end of semester serving as a cumulative final. The dates, times, room locations, chapter coverage and allowed materials are described on the exams page. Please place these exam dates and times in your calendar today.

Exam questions will be taken from a number of sources, typically including (but not limited to!) the textbook, lectures, HITT quizzes and homework problems. Exam format is multiple choice using ScanTron sheets. The answer which you bubble in on the ScanTron is the one we grade, with no exceptions. 

Unless superseded by a valid excuse a missed exam will result in a zero. Valid excuses are officially sanctioned UF events, medical excuses or family emergencies. Acceptable excuses will require a coach's, doctor's or instructor sanctioned note with a verifiable contact phone number. The documentation must be provided to your instructor immediately. A valid excuse will allow you to take a make-up exam.

Students who need special accommodations due to a disability must carry out the DRC procedures described below.

Quizzes

Each quiz in your discussion section is typically based on (though not necessarily identical to) a homework problem from the homework turned in Monday of that week. The particular problem given in each discussion section is chosen at random and thus its difficulty will vary throughout the semester. Quizzes are given only on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Approved make-ups for missed quizzes will take place at the first opportunity determined by your TA according to the absence and makeup policy stated above. The documentation must be provided to your TA within 1 week of the missed quiz or a rational reason that it will be delayed must be e-mailed along with the projected receipt date of the documentation to your TA within that period. All quizzes must be made up within two weeks.

Your quiz grade = 20 * (total quiz points / 0.9 / max points). The 0.9 is a "forgiveness factor" to account for bad days, etc. The maximum grade cannot exceed 20.00.

Homework

Homework is based on the MasteringPhysics online homework system and assignments are due Tuesdays at 6AM (see schedule). Each student gets a unique set of numbers for each problem. Because of the length of time each homework set is available, there are no extensions on the homework. You are strongly encouraged to start entering your answers well ahead of the deadline to avoid possible technical problems that might occur on the day the homework is due. If an unforeseen technical difficulty like a down internet connection or computer virus causes you to miss the deadline, you will not receive credit for the unfinished work.

Your homework grade = 5 * (total homework points / 0.9 / max points). The 0.9 is a "forgiveness factor" to account for bad days, etc. The maximum grade cannot exceed 5.00.

Homework and academic honesty: While we encourage students to discuss homework problems with one another, we regard it as a breach of academic honesty to get homework solutions or algorithms external sources, including websites or companies that give away or sell such solutions or algorithms (this is stated explicitly in our course Academic Honesty policy found below).

H-ITT extra credit

Answering questions during lectures is optional using the H-ITT response system, but can earn up to a maximum of 2.5 extra credit points on your grade. 

For each H-ITT question, you receive 2 points for a correct answer and 1 point for a wrong answer. When you respond to a question, your remote identification number will appear on the screen to show you that your remote is working. As shown in the above table, we calculate your HITT grade by first dividing your raw points by 0.8 to allow for absences, broken remotes, late answers, etc. However, to receive credit for your responses, your remote number must be registered. Please see the HITT page.

You can expect some technical problems during the semester such as having a dead battery in your remote (or no network service if using "SoftClick"). You are responsible for maintaining the functioning of your remote. No credit will be given for questions if you forget your remote or it is not working or you do not respond to the question in the allotted time. You may not bring anyone else's transmitter to class if that person is also taking this course. Doing so violates our Academic Honesty policy below, and the incident will be filed with the Dean of Student's Office.

Very important: You can use your HITT transmitter in either of the two class periods, but not both. Once you register for the period you want, your points will accumulate only for that period (just because your box shows on the screen doesn't mean that the points are assigned to your name). You will not get credit for points accumulated in the other period. The reason for this is that that the periods are graded independently: we use different questions and even different numbers of questions for each period.

Discussion Section Participation Bonus

Discussion sections are designed to promote collaborative group problem solving while practicing the skills necessary to become successful in solving physics problems on your own. To reward your efforts, your discussion section TA will award weekly participation bonus points for your collaborative work in solving problems assigned to your group. TAs will create groups of 4 students, with each group receiving a problem to solve together on the board. TAs will monitor and answer questions, as well as ask specific students in the group to explain or justify decisions made by the group in arriving at a solution. 

Each week, you may earn points based on your participation and group's success. These points will sum over the course of the semester and will determine your individual participation bonus. This bonus will be added to your overall course grade. As shown in the above table, we calculate your participation bonus by first dividing your raw points by 0.8 to allow for absences. You can't makeup missed participation bonus points with a group, nor complete alternate assignments to replace missed bonus points. Remember, this is not a course requirement, but an encouragement to participate in these meaningful exercises to gain both feedback and confidence in your problem solving ability.

Canvas

The lectures notes and this semester's exam solutions will be posted in the Files section and linked from the Schedule Page. Scores on homework, exams, and quizzes will be posted in the Grades section.

MasteringPhysics

Homework is delivered and scored using MasteringPhysics. Access to MasteringPhysics is granted through the AllAccess program, offering billing directly to your student account with the benefit of access to both the e-text and homework system on the first day of the semester. 

You can access MasteringPhysics by clicking on a homework assignment listed on the Assignments page, from the ToDo list, from the Course Calendar, or by clicking on the MyMastering link in the sidebar. 

Details about Homework Assignments, Grading, and Late Policy

• Most problems come from the textbook, though the values for masses, charges, angles, etc. for each problem are different for each student. We expect to have some problems which might not come from the textbook.
• You have five attempts to get the correct answer. To get credit your answer must be correct within 2% and you must enter at least three significant digits.
• Multiple choice and True/False question types. The points you can earn for correct submissions decreases by a constant amount for each attempt. The decrease per step is 100% / (N_options-1). Thus for a 5 part multiple choice question, the decrease in value is 25% per attempt.
• For all other question types, there is a 5% deduction in the number of points you can earn for each wrong submission. There is also a small (1%) deduction for every hint or feedback you request.
• There are no extensions on homework assignments.
• Additional Ungraded Practice Assignments are curated and arranged by textbook chapter, as an option for study and self-assessment. These are found in the Assignments section, but note they do not appear in your To-Do list until the very end of the term, so that you can practice these questions at any point during the semester. These additional practice assignments are not required, meaning exam questions are not based from these items. Any overlap is purely coincidental.

Schedule

Information about the exams (chapters covered, times, allowed materials, etc.) can be found on the Exams page.

Academic Honesty Policy and Honor Code

Background

We go to great lengths to ensure that our Physics course is administered fairly, by setting clear goals (what is needed to attain each grade) at the outset, by providing materials (lectures, applets, homework, office hours, reviews) to help you reach those goals, and by assessing progress towards those goals using easily understood procedures (exams, quizzes, H-ITT, online homework). We pledge to do the best job we can to make the material understandable and to bring out the best in every student.

Course Policy

Maintaining the integrity of the grading process demands fairness and compassion on our part and honor on your part. Accordingly, we take a very hard line on cheating in any form, including

1. Providing or copying answers on exams or quizzes
2. Taking an exam or quiz for another student
3. Entering online homework answers for another student
4. Obtaining course homework solutions or software algorithms from external sources, including websites or companies that give away or sell such solutions or algorithms.

Any person caught cheating in any form will fail the entire course automatically and will be subject to Honor Court penalties. Furthermore, we expect students to not tolerate cheating of any kind and to report incidents to your instructors.

Honor Code

The Dean of Students Office website has a detailed discussion about academic honesty and the University of Florida Honor Code, which was adopted by the Student Council. The Honor Code says

We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity. On all work submitted for credit by students at the University of Florida, the following pledge is either required or implied:

"On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment."

Disability Services

Students requesting classroom accommodation for disabilities must first register with the Disability Resource Center. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor. Requests for entitled testing accommodations will be granted if this documentation is submitted to the instructor at least five business days before the next scheduled exam. Accommodations will then go into effect for the remainder of the term, or until an updated accommodation letter is submitted to the instructor.

Please schedule accommodation requests for a proctored exam at least one week before the first exam. This scheduled exam should overlap with the time at which the exam is given during the assembly exams.

The Accommodated Testing Service (ATS) at DCR will administer all exams requiring accommodations. It is your responsibility to follow testing center policies when scheduling each exam (schedule at least one week before the exam). If you choose to not schedule exams before the deadline, you are electing to forgo the testing accommodations to which you are entitled and will take the exam according to the conditions of the regularly scheduled exam. It is strongly advised to schedule proctored exams with the DRC as soon as possible, using the course calendar as a guide for the dates of your exams. Failure to schedule a proctoring session with the DRC according to the DRC policies is not a permitted excuse for taking a makeup exam.

Online Course Evaluation

Campus Resources