Physics 003 Physics by Inquiry
Fall 2002
Monday 2:30 - 4:20 pm
Tuesday 2:45 - 5:30 pm
Thursday 2:45 - 5:30 pm

Course Description

Course Objectives:
After this course, the student should be able to:  
    Design and implement experiments that help build scientific models
    Interpret experimental data 
    Qualitatively  apply physical principles to novel situations
    Describe problems and their solutions to a variety of audiences
    Provide a description of how to solve a problem, justifying your choices
    Understand the role of physics in our lives and be able to explain this to others
    Teach physics topics from the SOLs with an inquiry based hands on approach
    Understand the effectiveness of inquiry based education for elementary and middle school students
    Gain the confidence to understand new physics topics not covered in this course
    Understand physics topics (see schedule) for grades K-6 from the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)  

Text:
Lillian C. McDermott, Physics by Inquiry, Volume  I, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1996.  ISBN:  0-471-14440-X.
Lillian C. McDermott, Physics by Inquiry, Volume II, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1996.  ISBN:  0-471-14441-X.

Material Covered
My goal is for us to complete Properties of Matter and part of Electric Circuits.  This may change.  The schedule page will keep you up to date on the topics we will cover as the semester progresses.

Office Hours:
These hours are listed above, but please drop by whenever.  I am generally around the department.  If you are looking for me, check in the physics department whether I am having office hours or not.  

Preparation:
I expect you to come to class prepared and ready to work.  Assume that I may give you a short quiz at any time to help motivate you to be prepared for class.  The most common, and perhaps the deadliest habit is to postpone your assault of the material. You are expected to diligently apply yourself, since it is your for your future that you are working.  The best advice I can give you is come to every class, take good notes, talk with your classmates, and keep up. I know these sound trivial, but they are all too often ignored.  

Student Lab Notebook/Journal
Your notebook is an extremely important part of this course.  You can use it on quizzes and exams and it will be especially useful once you have left this course and are teaching professionally.  You will write all notes, thoughts, explanations and data in this notebook.  This notebook will be your own personally written text of explanations for this course.  Using a lab notebook takes some getting used to; FORCE yourself to keep up good notebook habits.  I recommend a three ring loose leaf binder.    

Communication with your class
I will use the world wide web for communicating, so please consult the web page for class announcements, exam hints, homework assignments, and other useful information.  You will also be submitting work (see OMA below) once a week over the web.  It is also likely I will communicate quite a bit with email.

Feel free to call my office whenever you need. I tend to check my voicemail and email frequently, so if I am not around, I will get in touch with you as soon as possible. One of the benefits of going to a small college like Sweet Briar is the opportunity to get personalized attention from your professors, take advantage of this in all your courses.

Grades:

Note slight change (made 8/22/02) for tests and short quizzes.  

Homework:
Homework will likely consist of problems (~3-6) from the Physics by Inquiry text.  These assignments will be put on the class web page and may not be announced any other way.  Late homework will be penalized.

Take time to write out careful explanations for your homework solutions!  If I can't read what you write or your solution is not well organized significant penalties will apply. 

Class participation/Attendance:
Attendance, timeliness, and participation are critical to the learning process and an integral part of this course.  Being late to class is disrespectful to your classmates and to your professor.    

Your participation grade includes:    participation in group discussions and investigations, willingness to work in groups with other students, tardiness or absence, willingness to offer explanations, willingness to be "incorrect", and willingness to self-correct erroneous thinking.  

Failure to attend class on the day an assignment is assigned or due does not mean that you may turn in a late assignment without penalty.  

The structure of this course REQUIRES you to work hard during every lab period.  You cannot simply read the text to make up for an absence.   Our course is simply not structured for that.  If you must miss class, please notify me as soon as possible so we can determine an alternate plan.

One Minute Assignments (OMA):
The OMA is an opportunity for me to communicate with you.  The OMA may consist of a content question so that I can gauge where the class is.  Other times I may be asking questions about the structure of the course.  Being correct in the OMA DOES NOT MATTER!  These are not graded for correctness, only completion. 

Tests, Final, and Quizzes:
There will be two hour long tests for this course.  You will be allowed to use your lab notebook on these exams.

From time to time you will be given a short quiz.  These may or may not be announced.  If you keep up with the lab work  these quizzes should not be difficult.  I expect to give you at least 5 quizzes.  Being absent on a quiz day will result in a zero for that quiz.   Quizzes cannot be made up.

A cumulative final will be held for this course.  You will be allowed to use your lab notebook on the final.

Dynamic Schedule for Physics by Inquiry

back to P x I
__________________________________________
last updated  8/21/02