HELP!

There are other sources of help with the material (besides me of course).

Physics is a field in which we attempt to describe, explain and predict how things happen. A law in physics is a concise summary of a broad collection of observations. The primary tool in physics is mathematics, which allows us to make simple yet concise statements of physical law. Our simple mathematical statements of law become a vehicle for precisely predicting the behavior of the physical world we live in. It is also important to be able to use words to describe and predict the behavior of systems.

If you have a question, please ask it. If you have a comment, please make it. Even an anonymous note under my door or in my mailbox is fine. Communication is the essence of the classroom experience. I am pleased to see you any time you can find me. I encourage you to use email, although it is tough to give detailed help with problems via email.

Preparation
I expect you to have studied the relevant material for each day, such that you could answer simple questions about the material before it is presented in class. Assume that I may give you a short quiz at any time to help motivate you to be prepared for class. The best advice I can give you is come to every class, participate, take good notes, read the book, do the problems and keep up. The most common, and perhaps the deadliest habit is to postpone your assault of the material.

Bring your calculator every day!

Each student who attends class is expected to participate in a positive manner. This means being on time (so as not to disturb the learning of others) and making positive contributions to the learning environment. Students who disturb others will be asked to leave.

I keep attendance sheets which you will initial daily in class. These sheets are used to identify problem attendance patterns, and may be used to help me make hard decisions when I am assigning final grades.

Goals

Objectives

Responsibility
You have responsibilities to yourselves, your classmates and me. One responsibility is to be to class every day and on time. Another responsibility is to keep up with the pace of the class. Do not think it is my responsibility to teach you. IT IS NOT. It is my job to create an environment and situations in which you can teach yourself. This course is organized by the above goals and objectives in order to achieve this end. The goal of education is to empower the individual student to be self-taught. I can't really do this for you, but I can help a lot.

Due Dates
In the event that I make an assignment for you to turn in, it will be due at the beginning of class on the assigned day. Late assignments may be accepted (at my whim), but will usually be penalized 20% each day or fraction thereof. No credit will be given for late assignments if the solutions have been posted.

Homework & Quizzes
Homework will be assigned, but not collected. I encourage you to attack the homework promptly as we cover the material. Frequent in-class quizzes will rely heavily on homework proficiency. If you keep up on your reading and homework assignments and are attentive in class you should be OK on quizzes. Expect a quiz every Friday, but I can give one any time. I usually give quizzes at the beginning of the class period. Tardiness results in you having less or no time to do the quiz. Make-up quizzes are not given. I will throw out the lowest quiz score.

Calculators may be prohibited for use on quizzes and exams without notice. This is not a cause for panic. The math will be simpler to accommodate the lack of a calculator.

Grades
Since I can't write exams in such a way that I know in advance precisely how difficult they are, I can't give you an advance guarantee of points resulting in a specific grade. I will give you specific letter grade on each exam, so you should always have a pretty good idea where you stand. I encourage you to see me at any time for my assessment of your work.

updated: 21 Nov 05 - jlw