ELEMENTARY PHYSICS 1410

*Meets the physics requirement for SHSU elementary education majors.
*General science credit for non-science majors
*Meets the physics requirement for sonography

Please carefully read "STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE"!!

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WELCOME to the Fall 09 Semester !!!!!

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Office: WN 206B             Office Phone: 281.618.5795

Office Hours:  MW  10:45-noon                            TTH 1:00pm-2:00pm                              Fri: by appt.

TEXT: PHYSICS AND EVERYDAY THINKING; Goldberg, Robinson, Otero.             Herff Jones Ed. Div.          ISBN 978-1-58591-665-8


Catalog Course Description: Credit: 4 semester hours 

Conceptual level survey in physics. This course offers opportunities for students to explore basic principles in motion, heat, waves, electricity, light, and modern physics. It includes an appropriate laboratory program.

Prerequisite: MATH 0310 or instructor approval; ENGL 0305 or ENGL 0316 AND ENGL 0307 or ENGL 0326, OR higher level course (ENGL 1301), OR placement by testing.


MAJOR COURSE GOALS

*Physics Content: To help you develop a deep understanding of physics principles.

*Nature of Science: To help you practice and develop an understanding of how knowledge is developed within a scientific community: that doing science involves
using evidence and creative thinking, that knowledge is established through collaboration and consensus, and that science knowledge can change over time.

*Applying principles of physics in the interpretation of real world phenomena.

*Learning about learning: To help you become more aware of how your own physics ideas change and develop over time, and how the structure of the learning environment and curriculum facilitate these changes.


"What you have been obliged to discover for yourself leaves a path in your mind  that you can use again when the need arises."     (G.C. Lichtenberg)



STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE

This is a GUIDED-INQUIRY and DISCUSSION-ORIENTED course.  There will be very little formal lecturing.  Indeed, all class sessions will take place in the lab.  The basic aim of this format is to allow you to take charge of your own learning, with the instructor as a guide.  During class you will spend most of your time performing experiments, working occasionally with computers, and discussing ideas with your   
classmates.  You are expected to continue your learning at home through a series of carefully designed homework assignments, several involving use of the web.


ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION

You will be primarily responsible for your own learning in this class.  By engaging in meaningful discussions with your group members, by actively participating in whole class discussions, and by performing interesting experiments, you will develop with your classmates a set of ideas.  Similar to the way in which scientists develop ideas, your ideas will be based on evidence gathered from the experiments you do.  At appropriate times, you will be able to compare your ideas with those developed by scientists.  It is expected that except for some special jargon, the ideas you develop with the class should be quite similar to the scientists' ideas.

In the case of an EXCUSED absence (documented NHC business, illness, family or personal emergency, religious observances), please notify me as soon as possible. It is a good idea to get the phone numbers of your group members.  Students missing 2 classes MUST arrange for a conference with me BEFORE returning to class.  This requirement is for your success.


ASSESSMENT

1) Experiments  25%

2) Exams (4)     40%

3) Homework    15%

4) Final            20%

There are NO make-up exams; however, one exam may be dropped.  The Final is comprehensive and may NOT be dropped.


HOMEWORK

Homework will be assigned almost every class period and, unless otherwise stated, will be due at the beginning of the following class period.  You can fill in the homework sheets in your workbook, or you can complete electronic versions of the homework which are accessible on the web.  

Reminder: Please, no cell phones, pagers, or FOOD during class/labs!

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

NHMCCD is committed to a high standard of academic integrity in the academic community. In becoming a part of the academic community, students are responsible for honesty and independent effort. Failure to uphold these standards includes, but is not limited to, the following: plagiarizing written work or projects, cheating on exams or assignments, collusion on an exam or project, and misrepresentation of credentials or prerequisites when registering for a course. Cheating includes looking at or copying from another student’s exam, orally communicating or receiving answers during an exam, having another person take an exam or complete a project or assignment, using unauthorized notes, texts, or other materials for an exam, and obtaining or distributing an unauthorized copy of an exam or any part of an exam. Plagiarism means passing off as one's own the ideas or writings of another (that is, without giving proper credit by documenting sources). Plagiarism includes submitting a paper, report or project that someone else has prepared, in whole or in part. Collusion is inappropriately collaborating on assignments designed to be completed independently. These definitions are not exhaustive.  When there is clear evidence of cheating, plagiarism, collusion or misrepresentation, a faculty member will take disciplinary action including but not limited to: requiring the student to retake or resubmit an exam or assignment, assigning a grade of zero or “F” for an exam or assignment, or assigning a grade of “F” for the course. Additional sanctions, including being withdrawn from the course/program or being expelled from school, may be imposed on a student who violates the standards of academic integrity.

Disability Services

Students with disabilities who wish to request accommodations in this class, must notify the Disability Services Office as soon as possible so that the appropriate arrangements may be made.   Students requesting accommodations must provide documentation of his/her disability to a Disability Services counselor.  For more information, call or visit the Disability Services Office at A 104, (281) 618-5481."

Division Counselor

Rhonda Cannon, Counselor for Math and Natural Sciences, is available in Winship 115G to assist you in meeting your academic, career, and personal goals.  Confidential counseling services are available by appointment to help you overcome academic challenges, make a career choice, plan your transfer, and to gain self-understanding.   To schedule an appointment call 281 618 5480 or email rhonda.cannon@lonestar.edu or stop by Winship 115G.  

Schedule: Tentative (subject to change).

COURSE OVERVIEW

The course is divided into seven cycles.  The goal of each cycle is to have you develop a set of ideas that can be used to help explain phenomena that will be explored within that cycle, as well as to consider issues of learning science. There are three types of activities and homework within each cycle: Developing Ideas activities, Applying Ideas activities, and Learning About Learning activities.

STRUCTURE OF THE ACTIVITIES

Each individual activity consists of several sections with slightly different aims.

Purpose

A short introduction describing the aims of the activity and how it ties in to the topic. It also poses the key question(s) for the activity.

Initial Ideas

Questions that give you a chance to express your own initial ideas on the topic of the activity, before you do any experiments. These initial ideas are important, as they will form the basis on which you build further understanding.

Collecting and Interpreting Evidence

Here’s where you do the experiments and record your predictions, observations and data that provide the evidence to support or refute your ideas.

Summarizing Questions

Working together, the whole class will try to summarize what they have learned in the activity by answering a few questions.

Throughout the activities you will be writing answers to questions on the activity sheets themselves. Three types of questions will be identified by small icons.*

              Prediction Question. A chance for you to use your current thinking to anticipate what you think will happen. In each case, your prediction should be justified in terms of your current idea(s). This is a vital step in your learning and should not be “glossed over”. If the results of an experiment do not agree with your prediction DO NOT go back and change it – this is valuable evidence of how your ideas are evolving.

              Observation Question: A place for you to record the results of experiments. These results may take several forms, including describing observations, sketching diagrams, or recording numerical values in a table.

              Making Sense Question. This is where you get to interpret the results of experiments in terms of your ideas. Do the results agree with your predictions, or not? If so, they provide evidence to support your ideas. If not, maybe your ideas need to be modified.

*NOTE:  The icons have changed in the second edition!

HOMEWORK

Homework is graded using the scoring key below:

 Translation of scores into grade: