• Analyze particular physical situations, and thus identify the fundamental principles pertinent to those situations,
• Apply fundamental principles to formulate mathematical equations describing the relationship 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

 Assessment

Your grade is determined by your performance on the following in-class and out-of-class components: 4 exams, weekly quizzes, homework,  and in-class participation. The points these components contribute to the total grade is shown in the following table:

Grading Scale

Your course grade will not be assigned based on a curve, but will be based on the following 105-point fixed scale:

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.

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

Dropped Assignments

Dropped Assignments : 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.  To accommodate this reality, we drop the lowest scoring assignments as a "make-up" policy for excused and unexcused absences to accommodate circumstances that may arise throughout the semester that may hinder your performance in the online HW and the discussion section quizzes. Homework, discussion participation bonus, and iClicker bonus assignment categories include dropped assignments as stated above, and discussion quiz will permit one dropped assignment. No exam will be dropped.

Exams

There are three exams for this class. The first two exams each contributes 23 points to your grade. Exam 3 contributes 24 points. Exam 1 is currently scheduled for Monday, June 12th, and will cover chapters 1 to 6. Exam 2 is on Tuesday, July 18th, and will cover chapters 7 to 10. Exam 3 is scheduled for Monday, August 7th, and will be fully commutative.  All exams will be taken on a lecture/discussion day in the late evenings.

 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, calculators for exams are permitted. Use of calculator constitutes academic fraud. Scratch paper and an official formula sheet for the exam will be provided.

In addition to the regular exam dates, there will also be makeup exam dates, to be announced as soon as we have the information.  A student who will miss an 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 makeup 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 makeup exam unless they have another exam conflict or reason that is approved under UF attendance policies. The makeup exam will cover the same essential subject matter as the regular exam and in a similar format, although the exams will not be identical.

Here is the link to past exams. 

Homework

Weekly homework sets will be due on Sunday night at 11:59 PM. The homework will be assigned through the Pearson website found in the My Lab and Mastering tab on Canvas.  There is a forgiveness of 2 homework sets with the lowest scores calculated at the end of the semester. The homework sets will count for 1 point per problem. Each individual homework set will be worth a varying degree of points based on the number of problems.  Expect about 15-20 questions per week but of varying difficulty and style (multiple choice, conceptual, calculation, graphical, etc.).

Full solutions to homework will be available after the due date and will be on the same Pearson website where you do the homework. Late submissions are not accepted.

You should follow appropriate practices of academic honesty when working on the homework problems.  In doing the homework, discussions with colleagues and/or tutors about methods of posing and solving a homework problem are acceptable and encouraged. 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 and a place to try, fail, succeed, and grow before for the quizzes and exams.

IN-CLASS QUIZZES

Quizzes start in the second week of class, Monday, May 22nd. A quiz will usually be administered during the last 20 minutes of the Monday discussions on weeks without an exam. (Quiz 2 will take place at the end of class on Tuesday May 30th to make up for the Memorial day holiday). The quizzes are paper based. 

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 rarely 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.  A formula sheet will be provided for the quiz. Scientific calculators without internet functionality are allowed.

There will typically be two questions on each weekly quiz. Each question will be graded on a 5 point scale. 2 points will be awarded for the correct answer. Another 3 points will be awarded based on the explanation (effectively acting as partial credit if you get the problem wrong). You are expected to do the problems on your own without assistance from any sources.

Make-up quizzes are permitted provided you have a valid documented excuse (e.g. doctors excuse for illness, official UF sanctioned event).  Inform me as soon as you are able through Canvas (or direct email) if you will be missing a quiz.  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 August 4, 2022.  You also have until Thursday, August 4th to request any re-grade or to question any grade discrepancy pertaining to the quizzes. The quiz portion of the course will contribute 20 points to the total grade. There is a forgiveness of 1 lowest score for the quizzes at the end of the semester. 

IN-CLASS PARTICIPATION

You are expected to attend all classes. In-class participation include iClicker problems and group problems, starting on May 11th. Each iClicker problem is worth 2 pts: 1 pt for participation, and 1 pt if answered correctly. Each group problem is worth 2 pts for participation. Both iClicker problems and group problem participation contribute 2.5 pts to the final grade. The 4 iClicker problems and the 2 group problems are dropped when calculating the final grade.

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