Office: 322a Bell Bldg. |
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| Handouts Introduction Assumed Knowledge Attendance Goals Objectives Major Topics Due Dates Homework Quizzes Grades Web Resources |
This course will not have a required text. It will use a combination of class notes, handouts, and web resources. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have access to a physics book for alternative explanations.
It is my aim to make this class relevant to your classroom, as well as to enhance your personal understanding of physics. I hope that we connect the physics to a wide variety of fields: biology, anatomy, geology, astronomy, and so on. We will also connect everything to the real world. Abstraction is good, but we want to make this material real for your students. This means that we need to be able to put every principle of physics in obvious terms to the K-8 student.
I hope to empower you to function at a level such that you can meet the needs of every student, those exceptional ones on either side of the spectrum as well as those in the middle. This empowerment will enable you to analyze things outside of your normal curriculum, and to answer those embarrassingly frequent subtle and insightful questions that children ask.
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.
No prior formal instruction in physics is assumed.
Attendance, timliness, and participation are critical to the learning process and an integral part of this course. Since class time is heavily invested in supplemental material you cannot possibly make up missed material simply by studying a text. In general, I believe that absence is its own punishment, that is, you miss things you can't possibly get by going over a classmate's notes. You are responsible for material covered that day. Contact one of your classmates for the notes. 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.
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 do this for you, but I can help a lot.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the assigned day. Late assignments may be accepted (at my whim), but will ordinarily be penalized.
Work problems neatly using only one side of the paper. Put your name on the top right corner on the back of the page. Neatness counts.
I MAY give pop quizzes without notice. Ordinarily quizzes will be announced in advance. If you keep up on your homework, reading assignments, and classroom activities you should have little difficulty with the quizzes.
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 assign letter grades to exams when I return them to you. I encourage you to see me at any time for my assessment of your work. Below are the relative weights of the pieces of your semester grade.
Homework Exercise 5%
updated: 3 Jan 01 - jlw
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