Welcome to Physics 121 Fall 2008 

Physics For Life Sciences I

The following information is posted to give students an idea of what's going on before the semester starts.  Please read it carefully and keep it in mind through the semester.  Until the first day of classes, this is a draft, and is subject to revision. 

Each of the instructors will give all of the lectures for 1/3 of the semester.  

Most of the course administration will be done via Blackboard.  Please make sure that you have access to your Stony Brook Blackboard account, that this course is listed therein (by the week before classes start), and that the email address listed in your Blackboard account is one that you monitor.  You have to register your "clicker" via Blackboard; see below.

There is no assignment due in the first week of classes - just get your clicker and CD, and come to class.

The prerequisites are MAT 125, 131, 141, or AMS 151 and CHE 132 or 142.  Note that this is a prerequisite, not a corequisite.  It is a terrible mistake to take physics without the needed math background; math is the language of physics, and you will use it every day.  It is our long and sad experience that people who take physics courses without the necessary math background generally do very poorly - do yourself a favor and make sure that your math is adequate.

This course differs from the usual format!! 

No Lectures - no mandatory recitations. "Lecture" time is used for workshops with quizzes in class for credit (10% of grade). Pre-Workshop Assignments on web for credit are due before workshop (actually, just after the workshop, but don't wait until after the workshop to submit). Pre-Lab Quizzes on web for credit due before lab.  Helproom (A129) will be staffed most of the time, and e-mail help given by the instructors.  Homework assignments - called pre-lab quizzes - are distributed on the Course CD (see below).

The workshop (meets during the so-called lecture time) will be an interactive REVIEW of the material that you have studied from the CD.  Interactive in the sense that every student has a response pad (commonly called a "clicker", although they do not click) to answer quizzes that will be posed during the workshop.  Your workshop clicker score is 10% of your grade.

The bookstore sells clickers.  Whether you buy one new, reuse one from a previous semester, or find one that fell off a truck, you need to register it through Blackboard. The class key for your response pad (clicker) from eInstruction is (to be announced).  The first generation clickers will work just fine, although there is a second generation which is slightly more convenient because you don't have to "join" the session at the beginning of the workshop.  There have been complaints about the reliability of clickers that have been in use for several semesters.  Your clicker will only work in the lecture section for which you are registered.

The course CD contains all of the lectures, which you will watch at your convenience, as many times as you want, as well as the class quizzes (homework), lab writeups, practice exams, and a wealth of other material.  We will distribute instructions to purchase it in plenty of time before the start of the semester.  Lectures will be available free of charge on the web for the first few weeks, to allow everybody plenty of time to obtain the course CD.

There is no required textbook; the lectures and problems on the CD are self-contained.  However, if you want a second source, you can get Colege Physics (8th ed.) by Young and Geller (Pearson, Addison Wesley, 2007).  That book is also linked to an "adaptive-learning online tutorial and assessment system" called MasteringPhysics^TM.  That gives you access to a wealth of supplementary problems, and automated help with solving them.   The access code is valid for one year, and will be usable in Physics 122, as will the textbook.  There are three possible paths:  (1) buy the book and student access kit at the bookstore (we think it costs $127.75), (2) online e-book and access code for $79.50, or (3) access code only for $44.50.  (Note that if you buy the access code now, and want the book later, you don't get a discount for access code already purchased.)  Access code is available at http://session.masteringphysics.com/myct?productID=yg8.  NOTE that the supplementary text and access to problems are purely for your enrichment if you decide to use them.  There is no extra credit applicable to your course grade if you do homework problems from that text.  None!

Course Syllabus

The scheduled course meetings are not lectures, but rather workshops, held at the scheduled time of your section of the lecture.

There are quizzes before every class meeting, starting the 2nd week of class (September 8).  OK - they are actually due three hours after the end of each class, but it would be foolish to wait until then to do them.  The quizzes are on your course CD, but to submit solutions for credit, you have to log in to an on-campus server running Maple TA software.

You come to the workshop prepared because you have viewed the lecture on the CD and completed the quiz on the CD and Blackboard.  The workshop will be used to review material, and for quizzes based on eInstruction response pads ("clickers", although they don't actually click).  Your class participation using the response pads counts for a total of 10% of your grade.  You are responsible for having a functioning response pad.  If you have trouble with your clicker in the workshop, see the lecturer immediately afterward, and, if justified, he will exempt you from the workshop just past.   Such exemptions are only granted immediately after the workshop.  The signal from your clicker will only be received in the section for which you are registered, so you must attend that one in order to receive credit for participation.

During the workshop, when you are working on one of the quizzes, you may discuss the problem quietly with your immediate neighbors.   This is intended to help you understand the problem and solve it.  "The answer is C" is not the kind of discussion intended here -- you deprive yourself of the opportunity to learn and prepare yourself for the exams.  One person operating two clickers is clear academic dishonesty, and will result in a course grade of F for the owners of both clickers.  Really.

Bring a calculator to the workshop.  It should be able to do trig functions, square root, log, exponential notation.  You will also need it for the exams.  Your calculator is an important tool for the course, and you should be familiar with it.

There are no recitations.

To help you with questions related to your homework problems and the laboratory, the Help Room, physics A129, will be staffed by personnel from this course for approximately thirty hours per week.  The schedule will be posted on the help room and on Blackboard within the first week of classes.  You can also reach your instructors by email; put Physics 121 as the subject line of your message to get their.  The help rooms (A129 and A131) are supposed to be staffed by Physics Department faculty and teaching assistants essentially all day, and there will probably be people there who can help you with physics problems, even if they are not associated with this specific course.

Laboratories are administered by the registrar as a separate course, Phys 123.  But you have to register for the course and the lab together, and you will receive the same letter grade for the course and the lab.  Labs start in the week of September 8^th.  If you miss a lab, you will receive a score of zero.  If you miss more than one, they will continue to count as zeros in computing your average and your letter grade in the course will drop by one tick (e.g., from A- to B+) for each lab missed after the first.  (Not good.)  Makeup labs (no penalty) will be scheduled in several weeks during the semester.  Note that only the immediately preceding labs can be made up, and you can only make up labs that you missed.  If you cannot meet this schedule due to exceptional circumstances (such as documented illness or death in the immediate family), discuss with the instructor. The labs are due two days after your scheduled lab time.  (Your lab TA might set a slightly different time to accommodate weekend or evening schedules.)  Late labs will lose credit.  No lab will be accepted more than one week past its due date.  If there are exceptional circumstances that require you to delay handing in a lab report, discuss them IN ADVANCE with your lab TA.  There will be a lab quiz on Blackboard due 15 minutes before the start of your lab session, and the lab quizzes count 20% of your score in the lab. 

Two Midterm exams are scheduled at 8:30 PM on October 7th and November 3rd.   The final exam is December 19th, 8:00 to 10:30 AM.  You have to make sure there are no conflicts in your schedule – we cannot grant a makeup exam for any foreseeable circumstances.  The registrar's policy that students have responsibility for avoiding exam conflicts is crystal clear, and exceptions will not be granted in this course.  If you cannot take a midterm due to exceptional circumstances (documented illness or death in the immediate family), discuss with the instructor as soon as possible.  We will increase the weights of the other parts of the course accordingly.  If you miss the final with a valid excuse, you will receive an Incomplete in the course and a makeup final will be scheduled at the beginning of the next semester.  The exams will be multiple choice, graded via scan-tron sheets (fill in the bubble with a #2 pencil).

Your final grade will be based on the following.
15% Pre-workshop quizzes (which are basically homework assignments).
10% Workshop "clicker" score
15% Each of two midterms
25% Labs
20% Final Exam

There are no extra credit or other special supplementary assignments available.  Your course grade is based on the same exams, workshop, homework, and labs as everybody else.  Please do not embarass yourself by coming to the instructors at the end of the semester and saying that you need to receive a particular grade higher than the one you earned.  You will have plenty of feedback about your perfomance as the course proceeds.

DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES (DSS) STATEMENT If you have a physical, psychological, medical, or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services (631) 632-6748 or http://studentaffairs.stonybrook.edu/dss/.  They will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate.  All information and documentation is confidential. Students who require assistance during emergency evacuation are encouraged to discuss their needs with their professors and Disability Support Services.  For procedures and information go to the following website: http://www.stonybrook.edu/ehs/fire/disabilities/asp. 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY STATEMENT. Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Faculty are required to report any suspected instance of academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/