Course Syllabus - College Physics Laboratory II- PHY 131L

Cal Poly Pomona, Physics Department - Spring 2005 - Dr. H. Mireles

CRN 31885

Section 18 - Wednesday 12:00 pm - 2:30 pm - Room 3-203  

Course Description:

Laboratory to Accompany General Physics Lecture Series. Experiments in mechanics, hydrostatics, wave motion, thermodynamics, optics, electricity and magnetism. 1 three-hour laboratory. To be taken in sequence concurrently with PHY 131.

Instructor:      Dr. Hector Cordova Mireles

                        Office: Building 8 Room 228,

                        Phone: (909) 869-6730,

                        email: hcmireles@csupomona.edu

                        webpage: http://www.csupomona.edu/~hcmireles/

Office Hours:

            Tuesday:                     2:30 - 3:30 pm

            Wednesdays:          2:30 - 3:30 pm (In tutoring center 3-213)

            Thursdays:                  10:30 - 11:30 am

            Fridays:                       10:30 - 11:30 am AND 2:30 - 3:30 pm

Textbook:       Physics 131L lab manual (revised 7/04)

Reference:      Physics for Scientists and Engineers, (5^th or 6^th Ed.) Serway and Beichner

Course Webpage:

http://www.csupomona.edu/~hcmireles/courses

            http://webct.csupomona.edu 

Grading:         The final numeric grade will be determined using the following weighting scheme.

Lab Notebook:25%

                                                Participation:              10%

                                                Exam #1:                    20%

                                                Exam #2:                    20%

                                                Quizzes:                      25%

Lab Notebook: 

Each lab will be completed every day in class and the notebook collected by the instructor. Write your name and the name of your course and instructor on the front of the notebook and the inside jacket of your notebook. This is your only protection against losing your notebook in a sea of notebooks in the physics department. You may personalize the notebook with something to make it distinguishable and easier to find, but you must use the standard hardcover grid notebook available at the bookstore.

            Your lab notebook will be graded on the basis of the following criteria.

Criteria Sheet: Each week’s lab manual will be supplemented by a sheet of paper, listing the entries and calculations that MUST be on in your notebook.

•          (6 points). Objectives: Completion of all items on the criteria sheet.

•          (4 points) Self-Containment: You may write up your experiment as you wish, but you must have at least the following items in there.

                                    ♦          Title:

                                    ♦          Abstract: Precise and concise technical writing is essential in this course. In a few sentences you must communicate clearly, what you did, and the main outcome of the day.

                                    ♦          Calculations: All calculations must begin with well-defined symbols and finish with the result underlined or boxed in. This includes propagation of error calculations, when called for.

                                    ♦          Legibility: If I can’t understand your entries, they will be treated as absent.

                                    ♦          Significant figures and units: These must in good shape, for your results to have any physical meaning.                                   

Quizzes:          A short on-line, pre-lab quiz will be placed on this course’s WEBCT page several days prior to the lab session. This timed quiz will test your understanding of the introductory section of the lab material. It will be due one hour before the class meets. The quiz is immediately graded and your score given to you. If you do poorly, you will have the opportunity to retake the quiz once more, but only after a 20 minute delay.

Exam #1 and #2: You’ll have about 50 minutes for these exams. They will each cover one half of the experiments. You will use your lab notebook to help you on these exams so make them legible.

Participation: Your participation will be evaluated in a portion of the grade. This grade takes into account excessive tardiness and your capacity to work with your group. If there are any problems with your group, see the instructor. Otherwise you are expected to work efficiently and productively as a team.

Absences: It will be possible for you to make up one and only one missed lab. No exceptions. The make-up lab period is at the end of the semester, just after the final exam.

Cheating:

The 2001- 2003 university catalog defines four general forms of academic dishonesty (page 54) and describes the university procedures for handling cheating. These will be observed in this course. A student in this class would be considered cheating if he or she were to submit a lab report for credit, with work that she or he did not do in the lab sessions. Furthermore, a student in this class would be considered cheating if she or he were to submit exam material, which is not theirs, or which they copied from another exam. Students are strongly encouraged to work together on complete the procedure and the WEBCT quizzes. Indeed finding a good group to work with may give you valuable insight in the problem sets. Your participation grade will reflect the degree to which you participate in the lab procedure.