231 Winter 2011

General

Welcome to PHYS 231, the laboratory for the introductory calculus-based physics course for majors in physical sciences, engineering, pre-medicine, and mathematics. I hope that you find it interesting and enjoyable. Have a great quarter!
Concurrent enrollment in Phys 221 is required.
Completing MATH 151 (Calculus I) with 2.0 or better grade point is a prerequisite for this class.
Never let anything go by if you do not understand. Generally, ask questions immediately. If it is inconvenient to interrupt, make a quick note to yourself and inquire later.
Please turn off cell phones and pagers during class. Students exhibiting disruptive behaviors will be asked to leave the classroom for that day. Should this occur more than once with a particular student, administrative action might be taken.

We will meet 1:30pm to 4:20pm on Wednesday (section 1), or Thursday (section 2) in room 2924.
The tentative schedule is as follows, but it could be changed as necessary.

Week	Date	Experiments	Due
Week 1	Jan 5/6	Lab 1: Density	-
Week 2	Jan 12/13	Lab 2: 1-D motion	Lab 1 report
Week 3	Jan 19/20	Lab 3: Projectile motion	Lab 2 report
Week 4	Jan 26/27	Lab 4: Newton's 2nd law	Lab 3 report & Lab 1 report revision
Week 5	Feb 2/3	Lab 5: Friction	Lab 4 report & Lab 2 report revision
Week 6	Feb 9/10	Lab 6: Work and energy	Lab 5 report & Lab 3 report revision
Week 7	Feb 16/17	Lab 7: Momentum	Lab 6 report & Lab 4 report revision
Week 8	Feb 23/24	Lab 8: Rotational energy	Lab 7 report & Lab 5 report revision
Week 9	Mar 2/3	Lab 9: Torque	Lab 8 report
Week 10	Mar 9/10	Make-up	Lab 9 report

We will perform an experiment every Wednesday (section 1) or Thursday (section 2).
I will assign groups of 3 or 4 students. You will work with your lab partners to conduct experiments.
You must be on time! If you were more than 15 minutes late, you cannot participate in the experiment.
I will provide you with an objective of the experiment at the beginning of the session.
Based on the objective of the experiment provided, you will design and perform an experiment with your partners.
Once you design your experiment, consult with me to make sure that your method makes sense.
Take responsibility of your lab partner's measurements. You should confirm his/her methods of measurements. If measurements were not carefully taken, resulting in erroneous experimental result, points may be taken off.
You will be expected to complete each experiment and get a signature from me. My signature will serve as a proof of your presence during the experiment.
You are expected to clean up after you finish your experiment. Points will be subtracted from your lab report score if you left a mess!
If you break any equipment in the lab, you will be billed 50% of the replacement cost.
If you miss experiments due to an emergency, you can make up one experiment during the lab session in the 10th week of the quarter.

After each experiment, you will write a lab report, which are due at the beginning of the following lab.
You can submit late lab report only in a case of emergency given that you have performed the experiment.
Lab reports must be written in such a way that a college student who did not do the experiment can follow what you did and reproduce your result.
The lab reports must be written in your own words. Copying someone else's lab report is considered cheating and not allowed.
Some labs may require you to graph your data. You can do so by using graph papers (available at a site such as this one), or a computer program such as Microsoft Excel.
For details on lab report format and grading standard, refer to the document available on BlackBoard.
After receiving the graded lab report, you can improve the report and resubmit it to improve the score by up to 5 point for the first 5 labs. The default deadline for resubmission is the lab section following the one, during which the graded original report is returned. You must attach your original lab report to the revised lab report to get the possible extra points.

If you are absent due to the result of an unavoidable serious accident, a death in the family, or a serious illness, etc, please contact me as soon as possible so arrangements may be made for missed work.
These exceptional circumstances must be verified by an appropriate third party, e.g., a police report, a funeral notice, or a letter from the student’s doctor stating the patient’s inability to attend.
If you provide sufficient evidence for your exceptional circumstances, the following can be applied.

You can submit late lab report given that you performed the experiment.
One lab (experiment) may be made up during the lab hours in the 10th week of the quarter.

You are encouraged to post questions and answer questions on the disscussion board.
You are strongly encouraged to visit me regularly during office hours, from 1:30pm to 3:30pm on Mondays.
You can also visit me by appointment.
I will attempt to answer questions by email in a timely manner.

You are not allowed to present something that you did not do as your own work. You are not allowed to help someone else to cheat.
If students are suspected of cheating, they will be asked to discuss the situation with me. If they failed to explain the situation, they will receive a zero for the lab report.
If cheating has occurred, the student(s) will receive a zero for the lab report.
If a student cheats twice in one quarter, they will receive a zero for the course.

In the case of extremely inclement weather, students should check the school’s website for closure information.
You may also get school closure information from local radio and television stations, but be sure to remember that SCC is NOT a part of the Shoreline public school district.
Every attempt will be made to keep campus roads and walkways open, and students can expect that classes will start at their scheduled start times when/if the school does open.
If school is closed because of snow or another emergency, we will pick up where we left off when class resumes.
For more information, please refer to this website.

Students with physical and/or learning disabilities need to be registered with Service for Students with Disabilities. For more details please refer to this website.