Physics 303L-MI, Fall 2012 (MWF 4-5, Pai 3.02)
Homepage: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~itiq/303LMI/chiu/
UT registration Unique numbers: 57485, 57490, 57495, 57500
Quest-account:
o This course makes use an online system, which is web-based Quest content delivery and homework
server system maintained by the College of Natural Sciences. This homework service will require
a $22charge per student for its use, which goes toward the maintenance and operation of the
resource. Please go tohttp://quest.cns.utexas.edu/ to log in to the Quest system for this
class. After the 12th day of class, when you log into Quest you will be asked to pay via credit card
on a secure payment site. You have the option to wait up to 30 days to pay while still continuing to
use Quest for your assignments. If you are taking more than one course using Quest, you will not
be charged more than $50/semester. Quest provides mandatory instructional material for this
course, just as is your textbook, etc. For payment questions, email quest.fees@cns.utexas.edu.
o Your account has been auto-created for you through Registrar/Quest
interface. It is identified by your unique number. For a student newly
transferred into this class it could take up to a 24hr delay to auto-create the
new Quest account. During the semester this account keeps track of all of
your record. Read FAQ to get you started. Please read “Register Iclicker” in
FAQ to put the serial number of your Iclicker into your account. The
underlined unique number will be used only to identify the hardcopy of the
exam.
1. Instructor: J.Yeazell, Office: RLM ????, phone ???
Office hours: Tentative MWF 9-10. Other time by appointment.
Email: jyeazell@austin.utexas.edu. Include “PHY 303L-MI” on the subject line.
TA: Name, Email
TA sessions: In the format of small group discussions. Will be taught by 303L TA/LA
team.
For additional help, see coaching service : RLM 5th level.
2. Course materials:
o Textbook: Chabay and Sherwood, “Matter and Interactions II” – Electric and
Magnetic Interactions, 3rd Edition. (Binder ready version, or paperback or
ebook can be used)
o Lesson plan (See last page of this handout )
o Homework of this course is assigned through Quest.
o Reference: Collections of clicker questions and IQ-library (See the menuitem: Lecture Related on the homepage).
3. Clicker sessions
Two types of sessions:
o Reading quiz: Please read the lesson material before the class. There will be
one or two questions on today’s lecture material at the beginning of the class.
o Interactive quiz: We plan to intersperse the lecture with interactive quiz (iq)
sessions on a relatively regular basis. During a session,
o each student is first to independently figure out the answer to the question
posed by the instructor.
o The student is then encouraged to discuss with neighbors
o and then use his/her clicker to answer the question.
The specific clicker to be used is called the Iclicker (old model). It is available at UTcoop. You need to enter the serial number of your Iclicker into your Quest account.
4. Syllabus: The syllabus has the lesson plan of this course. For each class, the
corresponding sections in the textbook are indicated. Students should be reading at
least one lecture ahead of the day’s lecture. Notice that there is a homework
assignment for most of the classes. No late homework will be accepted.
5. Midterms/Final:
 Midterms and Final exam: There will be 4 evening midterm exams and the
final. The syllabus page indicates time and place of these exams. During each
Midterm,
o No crib-note cards will be allowed.
o Programmable calculator may be used during an exam.
However, the memory needs to been cleared before using it.
o Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated.
6. Grading policy:
o Interactive quizzes (4 drops) 7%
o TA session: 7%
o Homework (3 drops) 15%
o Midterms (1 drop) 46%
o Final 25%
During the semester to gauge the ongoing performance, a student should look at
%scores of all non-exam items and look at both the % score(ps) and the scaled
score(ss) of each of the exams.
The lower end of the letter grade cutoffs for the percent-scores and scaled-scores
are as follows.
A[*]
AB+ B[*]
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
[*]
[*]
%-sc.
90
(87) (84)
75
(71) (67) (60) 55 (50) (45) 40
<40
600
585
570
525
510
495
469
450
433
417
400
<400
scaledsc.
For each exam, determine your ps-letter grade and the ss-letter grade. If the two
letter-grades are not the same, the better of the two is the letter grade you have
made for the exam.
After the final exam a separate semester-grading-program independent of the
QUEST-system will be used to evaluate the precise scaled score to percent score
conversion for each exam. This is done through a linear interpolation process using
following 6 anchor points.
o Four intermediate anchor points are indicated by [*]: (ss = 400 corresponds to
ps = 40), (450 to 55), (525 to 75), (600 to 90).
o The two end points are ( ss = 200 corresponds to ps = 0) and (700 to 100).
The conversion from the ss to ps is explain in one of the miscellaneous comments
on the homepage.
“adjusted % score”: It is the better between the original percent-score and the
converted-percent score.
Using the grading policy stated, this program determines the semester-grade. In
this program % scores are used for all non-exam items and the adjusted % score
for each exam.
No make up midterm will be given. A student is required to take all four
midterms. At the end of the semester, the midterm with the lowest adjusted
percent exam score will be dropped. If a student misses a midterm, the missing
midterm will be the one which will be dropped. If the missing a midterm is due to a
legitimate reason approved by the instructor, the student may alternatively elect a
no-drop option, where the student's final exam score appropriately scaled may
replace the score of the missing midterm. After a midterm is missed, the student has
a legitimate excuse and would like to request the no-drop option, the student must
contact the instructor immediately by email. For the no-drop option to be applicable,
the student must take all of the other three midterms.
7. TA session: TA session is a part of this course. TA session grades will be
determined by the TA. Deadline of complaints on TA session grades is the last day of
class. No dispute of TA session record beyond the end-of-class day will be accepted.
8. Good participation status(gp-status): The gp-status policy is intended to
encourage the student to work hard and work persistently in all aspects of this
course throughout the semester. The gp-status will be determined based on
student’s pre-final QUEST-record. Student’s checking on the accuracy of his/her
QUEST pre-final record is one of the requirements toward achieving the gp-status.
(If a student found an error in the pre-final Quest-record after the second no-class
day of the semester, Tuesday Dec. 6, the correction of this error will not lead to the
change of his/her gp-status. )
To achieve gp-status, student’s record must satisfy following triple 80% -criteria.
1) Homework score (after 3-drops) >80%
2) TA sessions score >80%,
3) Iq-score (after 4 drops) > 80%. See the link “iq-score grading policy” on the
homepage of the course.
Following special considerations will be applied to any student who has achieved the
“gp-status”.
o For a borderline case, where student's % score is within 2 %-points below
the cutoff, the next higher grade will be assigned to the student.
o If the final exam “hard letter grade” ( which is determined based on the
cutoffs of paragraph 6. The gp-status does not enter into the
consideration here.) is higher than the letter grade of semester average
(where the final and after drops have been applied), the semester average
grade will be pushed up by one level.
These considerations will not be available to a student who has not earned this
status.
First class reminders:
o Items needed for this course: the textbook, and the Iclicker.
o Enter I-clicker serial number into your Quest-account. Take a look at Appendix A:
Review-vector (near the top of the main page), Ch14 HW1 and Ch14 HW2.
Notice that the homework due time is at “11:30pm”.
o Start reading today’s and next time’s sections in the textbook (use the lesson
plan as a guide). Keep in mind, there will be one or two questions on the day’s
lecture material at the beginning of the class.
o Work on today’s homework, Rev-3d then move on to ch14 homework1, …
o Collection of clicker questions: See the link on the home page. Selected questions
will be used in the clicker sessions during the class period.
o To take this course, you must enroll in 103N lab. No lab this week. Check with
the lab supply room RLM8.316 (471-5352) for the lab schedule. See the link at
the top of homepage on MI references for 103N lab.
o One week after class-begins, also check the pre/co-requisites audit-list which
will be posted outside of the lecture hall. If your name is on this list, please see
undergraduate coordinator (471-8856) in RLM 5.216