Instructor: Prof. Nadine Gergel-Hackett
Office: Pearce 417 Office phone: 540-887-7302 Email:nghackett@gmail.com
Office Hours: TBA
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(instructions will be given once in-class)
Meeting dates and times: TBA
Course information:
This full year course in physics provides a solid foundation for further study in physics and in related fields such as biology, chemistry, and pre-medicine. Topics include classical mechanics, wave motion and sound, fluids, electricity, magnetism, and light. In addition to the phenomena and principles of physics, emphasis is also placed on their real-world context, as well as methods and applications. Equations for physical laws are expressed and problems are solved using algebra, trigonometry, plane geometry, and calculus, as appropriate.
Laboratory work provides direct familiarity with the natural phenomena studied in the course. Prerequisites:
MATH 211–212 (MATH 211–212 is normally taken concurrently).
Required Materials :
• Text, PHYSICS FOR SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS , by Douglas C. Giancoli, 4 th Edition
• Registration with Mastering Physics for homework (often comes with new texts, or access can be separately purchased online if a student has a used text)
• Physics 201 lecture note templates, labs, and prelabs (downloaded from web site)
• One permanently bound notebook (spiral notebooks are not acceptable, but composition notebooks and lab notebooks are) is required, and an additional permanently bound notebook is recommended.
• Scientific calculator
• Also recommended: 3-ring binder and hole punch for organizing lecture notes (or bring laptop)
Course objectives: To learn basic concepts of classical physics, specifically Newtonian mechanics, within a big picture context of the real world. To develop and enhance critical thinking and problem solving skills. To acquire basic laboratory measurement and analytical skills. To deepen one’s understanding and appreciation of the world around us.
Class Preparation:
Prior to each class you should read the relevant sections in the text (as given in the table at the end of this document), review the lecture note template if it is posted online for the class, and consider printing any posted templates to bring to class to aid in note-taking. During class, key concepts and definitions should be highlighted in the notes when identified (all quiz questions will be pulled from these) and all example problems should be worked and carefully recorded (these are important for working test questions). You should also try your hardest to stay engaged and ask questions as they arise. I also recommend that outside of class you spend an average of a total 8 hours each week between: reading and studying the text and lecture notes prior to class, reviewing for quizzes, completing prelabs, and working on homework problems and tests.
Expectations for Classroom Behavior:
Please act in a manner that is supportive of fellow students and an environment that is conducive for maximized learning for all. I strongly encourage you to think of the class as a learning community, to help

each other, and to feel free to respectfully communicate to me your concerns and any ideas for how I can better help you learn as we move through the course.
While I encourage class discussion during the lectures and group discussion while example problems are being worked in groups, it is vital that everyone focus on only speaking during the appropriate times, and transition back to listening when I am speaking so that no one misses important information or inhibits others from hearing it. Also, please refrain from texting and using social media on laptops during class as it can be distracting to other students.
Class Attendance Policy: Although you will not be graded on attendance, it is highly recommended that you attend every class period. In order to encourage attendance, I will literally highlight key concepts and definitions each class that I will pull from for all quiz questions. While templates for the notes for each class are usually available online, they are not highlighted and do not include the example problems (that are essential to understand to solve test problems) that will be worked live in class only. Additionally, please try to be on time for class. I will often make important announcements at the beginning of the class. If you must miss class or arrive late, it is your responsibility to find out what you have missed from another student after class.
Homework :
Problems from the text are assigned and are to be completed through an online homework program. Students are required to enroll in the online homework at
. All due dates are given in a table at the end of this document. Each homework problem set will be graded based solely on the answers you enter in the program online. While the online system may take a little while to adjust to, it provides several advantages including: awarding partial credit for the correct answer after incorrect answers, providing hints upon student request, and walking students through tutorials.
Because carefully writing out each complete step while solving problems is essential for learning and later review for tests, it is recommended that all homework problems are neatly solved in a bound notebook dedicated for homework prior to entering final online answers. Students may turn in these notebooks twice a semester (see tentative schedule), but keeping these notebooks is not required and no grade will be recorded for the notebook if a student does not turn one in. if a student does turn in her hw notebook, it will be graded for completeness (including finishing/correcting incorrect hw problems) and format, and each hw notebook grade will be averaged in with her homework assignment grade. Thus, a well-kept homework notebook can act as “extra-credit” helping a student’s homework grades, whereas a poorly kept notebook could hurt one’s grade and should not be turned in.
After individually attempting the homework, students may help each other with problems, but all work must be written out individually and answers entered online without copying from a classmate or online source. Please make sure that all final answers are submitted online for each assignment by 5pm on its due date! No credit will be given for any late homework.*
The keys to success on the homework are to: start early in the two weeks prior to when each homework problem set is due, allocate approximately 6 hrs every 2 weeks for homework, work hard individually first on each assignment, then seek help from other students and/or the instructor, and make sure that by the time the homework is turned in make sure you completely understand the solution to each problem.
Tests : In order to administer comprehensive tests that give the students the optimal opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge while allowing them the privilege of schedule and work-style flexibility, tests will be open-notes, open-book, and take-home. This type of test also simulates the more realistic real-world experience of a scientist/engineer using learned physics concepts, principles, and problem-solving skills to solve complex problems using widely-available materials over a timeframe of several days.
Tests will involve real-world problem solving, will be similar in length and style to homework assignments, and will be available online approximately 4 days prior to their due dates. While students may use their notes, homework notebooks, and texts, students may not discuss the tests with any other person (including online) other than the instructor .
Discussing the tests and looking at another student’s answers

(including one from a previous semester) are honor code violations. You will be graded on your ability to convince me that you understand the physics, which involves showing your work and/or clearly answering the conceptual questions. A correct numerical answer will not receive full credit if not accompanied by the clear and correct intermediate steps taken to set up and solve the problem, and partial credit will be given for correct intermediate steps even without the correct numerical answer. Topics included in each test are cumulative (i.e., anything we’ve previously covered is fair game). Tests are due as listed, are to be handed to the professor in-person during the assigned time, and late tests will be given no credit. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that she receives a receipt upon handing in her final exam. If the professor does not have her exam, does not remember her handing it in by the assigned time, and the student does not have a receipt from handing it in, she will receive a grade of zero on the final exam.
Cramming and memorizing equations will not help you with tests. Keys for doing well on the tests include: attend all classes and keep up with all material as we go, make sure that you understand all steps to all problems solved in class and in the homework as we go, start the test as soon as it is available online, after carefully reviewing and thinking about the test come ask me for any clarification regarding wording of the problems, work on the test in increments (do as much as you can on the test, put it aside and ponder it, then hours or days later work on it some more, and repeat until finished), and allocate at least as much total time as you usually spend on each homework, in blocks with breaks throughout the week, to work on the test.
Quizzes: In addition to evaluating the application of knowledge and problem-solving skills through open-book tests, it is important for you to also have certain basic information “in your head” (just as certain simple concepts are just expected to be memorized in the real world). To ensure this, short quizzes will be timed, closed book and notes, and given in class as listed in the table at the end. All quiz questions will be pulled directly from the key concepts and definitions that were highlighted in class, but quizzes are cumulative and everything previously highlighted will be fair game. To study for quizzes, I recommend attending all classes and making sure that all highlighted concepts and definitions are clear as we go. I recommend spending up to
2 hours prior to each quiz making sure that you completely understand all of these highlighted terms and concepts and that they are “in your head”. Students will receive no credit for a missed quiz and I will not administer makeups.*
Labs: There is a lab exercise scheduled for each major topic. I will make every attempt to introduce the material pertaining to the lab before you perform each experiment. However, in some instances the pace of the class may prevent this from occurring, in which case there may be a brief mini-lecture before the start of some labs. Students who arrive on time may choose their lab groups, as long as the groups have no more than four students per group and there are no more than four groups per lab section.
Prior to each lab, a prelab (available online) must be completed in your lab notebook. The prelab will be checked during lab, is required to be completed before lab starts, and is worth 50% of each lab grade. Lab assignments are to be completed in the lab notebook during lab. Each lab assignment written in a lab notebook will be due to me by the scheduled end of lab. Lab will not run over the allotted time and I will not accept lab notebooks after the end of lab. Because the hands-on experience gained from the lab is essential for in-class learning as well, any student who receives a grade of “F” for the lab will automatically receive an
“F” for the class.
Lab Attendance Policy: Students will receive no credit for any prelabs and labs assignments if they do not attend that lab and turn in their lab notebook by the end of the allotted lab time.* Please be on time for lab.
Any student who is late for lab: (a) will not be able to choose their lab group and will be placed into a group by the instructor, (b) may wind up working in a group of 1 or 2 if the other groups are already full by the time she arrives, and (c) will be expected to complete the entire lab by the allotted end (and graded thusly) even if the students who arrived on time are excused from completing a section.

Assessment: Your grade will be determined according to the following:
Homework* 15 % 93 – 100 A
Test #1
Test #2
10%
13%
90 – 92 A-
87 – 89 B+
77 – 79 C+
73 – 77 C
70 – 72 C-
Test #3, Final 17%
Quizzes*
Labs*
20%
25% (lab grades are 50% prelab
83 – 86 B
80 – 82 B-
67 – 69 D+
60 – 66 D
and 50% lab assignment)
* At the end of the semester you can choose for me to drop two scores out of the following: your lowest hw score, your lowest quiz score, or your lowest lab score. Because of this policy, I will not be lenient about you missing any labs, homework, or quizzes without a doctor’s note or substantiated serious family emergency, seeing as anyone can miss two of these scores without it hurting his/her grade. But remember, if you attend all labs and turn in all assignments you can still drop two of your lowest grades.
Week 1 Measurement, error, units (Read Chapter 1) 1.
Measurement and Error
(Remember for all labs: there is a prelab assignment available online that is due at the beginning of lab)
Quiz #1: includes material up to wed of this week
Week 2
Motion in 1-D (Ch. 2)
Forms of energy, conservation of energy (Make sure to read the lecture notes for Section 2 available online, and in text Ch. 8.4 and 8.5)
Week 4 Vectors and Motion in 2D ( Read Ch. 3)
2. Acceleration of Gravity and
Conservation of Mechanical
Energy
3. Graphing 1-D Motion
4. Projectile Motion
HW #1 due
Quiz #2: includes material up to wed of this week
HW #2 Due
Force and Motion ( Read Ch. 4) Apple day week-no lab Tues or
Wed
No quiz or hw Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
More Force and Motion (Read Ch. 5, 6, and 8.7) 6. Forces and Newton’s 2 nd Law HW #3;
7. Gravitation Work and power (Read Ch. 7)
No Class Friday: Fall Break –see note about quiz being given on Wed instead of Friday
Quiz #3: NOTE: on Wed; includes materials

Week 8 The relationship between force and energy, power
(Read Ch. 8)
No Class Monday-Fall Break
Test #2: available online (Friday), due in class by 1 pm (Wed)
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11 Rotational Motion (Read Ch 10) and angular momentum ( Read Ch 11)
11. Torque and equilibrium
Week 13
Week 14
Test #3 (final) None through Mon
HW #4 due
Quiz #4: includes material up to
Wed of this week
None-TG break
HW #6 due
Project
Presentations
None