• Analyze particular physical situations, and thus identify the fundamental principles pertinent to those situations,
• Apply fundamental principles to formulate mathematical equations describing the relation between physical quantities in these particular situations,
• Solve mathematical equations to find the values of physical quantities,
• Communicate unambiguously both the principles that apply to a situation and the results of specific calculations resulting from the steps above.

 

Course Schedule

The detailed course schedule, including the topics covered and exam dates, is available on the Course Schedule page.

Assessment

Your grade is determined by your performance on the following in-class and out-of-class components: 3 exams, weekly quizzes, and on-line homework.  In addition you can earn extra credit through discussion section participation and in-class H-ITT questions. The points these components contribute to the total grade is shown in the following table:

Item	Points	Forgiveness
H-ITT	3 course extra credit	20%
Discussion Section Attendance	5 quiz extra credit	20%
Exam 1	25	0%
Exam 2	25	0%
Exam 3	25	0%
Discussion Quizzes	20	10%
Homework	5	20%
Total Course Points	100	NA

Grading Scale

Your course grade will not be assigned based on a curve, but will be based on the following 100-point fixed scale:

A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	D-
85	80	76	72	68	64	60	55	50	45	<35

The advantage of the fixed scale is that you are not competing with other students to “get ahead of the curve”. Everyone who works hard can do well in the class, and to the extent that it helps you learn, we encourage collaboration.

The final grade you have earned in this class is boosted by extra credit in HITT, extra credit from participation in recitation, and by the forgiveness factors (see below).  This is a large amount of extra points and can easily make the difference of an entire letter grade in your final course grade. 

There will be no additional curve applied.  However, we do round up (0.5 percentage points and up gets rounded up to the next integer percentage point.  59.0% does not get rounded up to 60%).

Note: A grade of C- is not a qualifying grade for major, minor, Gen Ed, or College Basic distribution credit. For further information on UF's Grading Policy, see:

• https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/grades.aspx#hgrades
• http://www.isis.ufl.edu/minusgrades.html

Forgiveness Factor

A combination of planned and unforeseen factors may cause you to miss some classes or discussion sections, additionally, it is likely for most of us to have a bad day or week (for any number of reasons) during the semester.  We use a forgiveness factor as a make-up policy to accommodate circumstances that may arise throughout the semester that may hinder your performance in the online HW, the discussion quizzes and participation, and the H-ITT. The forgiveness factors are given in the table above. They are calculated at the end of the semester and mean that you can miss the stated percentage of work associated with that component but still score 100% of the credit for it.  

ex: if you have scored total points in one of the grade components N_comp and that grade component has a forgiveness factor of 10%, the number of points entering the final grade calculation (N_grade) will be:

up to the maximum number of grade points that can be awarded for that component (e.g. you cannot get more than 5 points for the homework component). In the following sections, we describe the different grade components and list their corresponding forgiveness factors.  

Exams

There are two during-term exams and a final exam. Each exam is worth 25 points (out of 100) of the total grade. There is no forgiveness factor for exams. Exam 1 is on Thursday, February 13th, 2020 from 8:20 pm to 10:20 pm. Exam 2 is on Thursday, March 26th, 2020 from 8:20 pm to 10:20 pm. The Final Exam is on Tuesday, April 28th, 2020  from 10 am to 12 pm and will be cumulative. The date and time for each exam, and the chapters it covers are also listed in the Course Schedule. Exams will not likely take place in the lecture hall in the physics building. Room assignments where you will take an exam will be announced in the days leading up to the exam and posted on the course e-Learning page. The answer you mark on your Scantron is your final answer to a question. We do not look back over your work, even if you think you bubbled your answer incorrectly.

You should bring a calculator, #2 pencils, an eraser and your picture ID (preferably Gator One ID Card) to the exam. If you are on either the vet or med school track you should be aware that the GRE, required for Veterinary programs, provides their own simple calculators, while the MCAT does not permit calculators at all. In this class, to prevent over-reliance on programmable and/or graphing calculators, we will not allow the use of them on quizzes and exams. Thus, for example, the TI-83 and TI Nspire are not permitted. Scientific calculators that have a simple memory stack (allowing storage of intermediate calculations), have trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions (in radians or degrees), and use exponents are permitted. Calculators may not be shared and may not have electronic communications capability. Cell phones as calculators are not allowed.  Private formula sheets are not allowed. Use of either constitutes academic fraud. Scratch paper and an official formula sheet for the exam will be provided.

During-term Exams I and II will be assembly exams. In addition to these regular exam dates, there are also two conflict exam dates, to be announced as soon as we have the information.  A student who will miss an assembly exam due to an exam conflict or any other foreseeable reason that is approved under UF attendance policies should request in advance to take the conflict exam instead of the regular exam. A student who has an unforeseeable absence from an exam should contact the instructor as soon as possible, normally within 24 hours after the missed exam. If the unforeseeable absence is excused by the instructor, the student will be expected to take the conflict exam unless they have another exam conflict or reason that is approved under UF attendance policies. The conflict exam will cover the same subject matter as the regular exam and in a similar format, although the exams will not be identical.

online proctoring and exam conduct

In order to maintain a high standard of academic integrity and assure that the value of your University of Florida degree is not compromised, course exams will be proctored.

Honorlock

You will take your Exam 2 electronically using the course website and these exams will be proctored with Honorlock. Honorlock is an online proctoring service that allows you to take your exam from the comfort of your home. You DO NOT need to create an account, download software or schedule an appointment in advance. You will need a computer, working webcam, speakers, microphone and reliable Internet connection to be able to take your exam. Wireless internet is not recommended. You may also need a mirror or other reflective surface. Google Chrome is the only supported browser for taking exams in Canvas. You can download the extension at www.honorlock.com/extension/install (Links to an external site.). (Links to an external site.)

Important: Prior to each exam, visit the Honorlock system check (Links to an external site.) (scroll down the page) to evaluate your equipment and software. Also, take the practice quiz, worth 0 points, to get familiar with the Honorlock procedure for beginning and taking proctored exams.

Download and read through the HONORLOCK-StudentPreparationLinks.pdf handout for an overview of test-taking tips and requirements.

When you are ready to test, log into Canvas, go to your course, and click on your exam. Clicking "Launch Proctoring" will begin the Honorlock authentication process, where you will take a picture of yourself, show your ID, and complete a scan of your room. Honorlock will be recording your exam session by webcam as well as recording your screen. Honorlock also has an integrity algorithm that can detect search-engine use, so please do not attempt to search for answers, even if it's on a secondary device. 

Getting Help

Honorlock support is available 24/7/365. If you encounter any issues, you may contact them by live chat, phone (855-828-4004), and/or email (support@honorlock.com).

If you experience any difficulties with the proctoring system, contact Honorlock's free 24/7 LiveChat and phone support. The LiveChat is available by clicking on the chat window at the bottom right of the exam. Of course, the support team can't answer questions to help you answer questions about the contents of the exam, but they will be willing to diagnose and offer solutions for technical difficulties with the proctoring system.

In-class Quizzes and Discussion Sections

Discussion Sections will meet twice per week. Quizzes start on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020. A quiz will usually be administered during the first 20 minutes of the second discussion section meeting of a week, i.e. MW discussion sections have quizzes on Wednesday, TR have it on Thursday, and WF have it on Friday.

The quizzes will test how well you have learned the concepts and methods of the assigned homework problems. The quiz questions will be related to, but not identical to, the online homework problems. The problems may be restructured to provide guidance, allow awarding of partial credit, and discourage memorization of a solution formula.

There will be two questions on each weekly quiz. Each question will be graded on a 4 point scale. You are expected to do the problems on your own, without any notes or other help (i.e. there are no outside formula sheets allowed for the quizzes; instructors will provide formula sheets). In solving the homework, you can get help in discussion section, office hours, from tutors and from other students. In the end, however, you must have learned the methods needed to do the quiz problems on your own.

Make-up quizzes are permitted provided you have a valid documented excuse (e.g. doctors excuse for illness, official UF sanctioned event).  Submit requests through the Makeup Quiz Request module in Canvas.  There are 3 Makeup Requests Modules available through Canvas; if you use up the 3 requests and require more please contact the instructors directly.  The make-up quiz must be taken within 3 weeks of the missed quiz (not within 3 weeks of the request for approval of the makeup). There will be no make-up quizzes given after 5 pm on Monday, April 20th, 2020.  You have until Monday, April 20th, 2020 to request any re-grade or to question any grade discrepancy pertaining to the quizzes. The quiz portion of the course will count for 20 points (out of 100) toward the total grade. There is a 10% forgiveness factor for the discussion quizzes. 

In addition, you will have a chance to earn extra credit in this course through your participation in recitation.  You can earn up to a total of 5 extra credit quiz points in this way.  These are not course points, but points that are added to your total quiz score. 

ex: you end the semester with 40/80 quiz points and no participation points.  With the 10% forgiveness factor this becomes 44/80 quiz points, or 11/20 course points (where your final course grade is calculated out of 100 points).  If instead you earn 5 participation points your quiz points becomes 45/80 before the forgiveness factor, 49.5/80 after forgiveness, or 12.4/20 course points.  That extra 1.4 course points could be enough to move you up a letter grade.

Mechanics Surveys

There are two surveys that we will ask you to complete during the semester. No preparation is required for either survey; they are designed as course benchmarks. You will receive full points for fully participating in these surveys (i.e. you can answer every survey item incorrectly and still get full points for completing the survey).

The first survey will be administered during the second week of classes during discussion section, and the second will be administered towards the end of the course. Each survey is worth 4 quiz points - and again, you get full points for completing the surveys, regardless of how you answer.

 

Resources Survey

At the end of the semester, you will be asked to take a survey that asks about the different resources you used to study for this course. It will be worth 5 clicker points. You get full points for taking the survey; you are not being graded on it.

Online Homework

The HW assignments for PHY2053 will be organized through Expert TA. Before you begin your first week of work, you will need to register your account. Read this document for instructions on registering and using Expert TA.

Weekly homework sets will be due on Mondays at 12:05 am and will be open for a period of 14 days prior to the deadline. The homework sets will count for 5 points (out of 100) toward the total grade. There is a forgiveness factor of 20% for the homework sets. You get 5 attempts to get a question right. You will lose a portion of that part value as a deduction for each incorrect submission attempt. For multiple choice or true/false type questions credit will be deducted for incorrect attempts. Deduction per incorrect answer = 100%/(# of options - 1). Full solutions to homeworks will be available after the due date in the homework system.

You should follow appropriate practices of academic honesty when working on the homework problems.  In doing the online homework, discussions with colleagues and/or tutors about methods of posing and solving a homework problem are acceptable and encouraged. Using a formula that is specific to the problem, derived by someone else to input answers is considered cheating. Even if you worked through a formula with classmates, you will still benefit from re-deriving the result on your own. Some of the exam and quiz questions will be based on the homework problems, and you will not have the opportunity to get help from anyone else during those tests. Treat the homework as practice for the exams and quizzes: derive, on your own, any result that you submit and attempt to do so using the provided formula sheet and minimal reliance on your calculator. 

In-class iClicker

Each lecture will feature a few in-class iClicker questions. These are intended to
a) encourage engagement with the material presented in the lecture (which has been shown to help with learning and retaining the material) and b) provide immediate feedback to both the instructor and the students as to the understanding of the newly presented material (thus promoting a relevant review by the instructor or questions by the students). The clicker questions sets will count for 3 extra credit course points. There is a 20% forgiveness factor for the clicker questions. The in-class iClicker questions begin to count on Tuesday, January 21st, 2020. You must use either a laptop or mobile device to participate in the clicker questions. There will be practice questions that will help you become familiar with the system before the questions start counting toward your grade points. We will get set up with iClicker on the first day of class. This semester is a pilot of the technology, so there is no charge to you for using the service.

Correct responses to clicker questions are worth 2 points, and (to encourage participation) incorrect responses will be worth 1 point. Responding for other students is considered cheating by both parties.  

 

Discussion section participation

You will be able to earn up to 3 points per week in Discussion Section starting Monday, January 20th, 2020. At the end of the semester, the total points you earned out of the total possible will be used to scale the 5 extra credit quiz points mentioned above. For example: say the total number of points for the semester is 36, and you earn 25 of them. Then, at the end of the semester, you will have (25/36)*5 points added to your final total quiz score.

The 3 possible points will be earned in the following way:

• During your first discussion section day, you will be writing your own problems and solutions based on the homework. You will work in groups of ~4, and you will receive 2 points if you turn in both a question and a reasonable attempt at a solution (the solution does not have to be correct to earn full points, but it can't be random equations either); 1 point for turning in a question without a solution (or with a solution that is not a reasonable attempt a the the answer); 0 points for not attending and/or not submitting any question at the end of section. We will select the best problems every week and compile them into a study guide before each exam, and we will include one of those selected problems (with modified numbers) on each exam.
• After the quiz on the second discussion section day, you will receive 1 point for participating in the remainder of discussion section.

How to succeed in this course

For tips and suggestions on how to approach this class and the appropriate amount of work required to master the topics we'll be covering see the page: How To Study For PHY2053