Due to the Math Midterm on Wed. Oct. 25 and the Week 5 Seminar on Thu. Oct. 26, we have a somewhat non-standard schedule in week 5. All class meetings are in the regularly scheduled rooms.

• Sunday October 22: Physics Reading Response due via MasteringPhysics by 8pm
• Monday October 23:
  • 9 – 10:30am Math Quiz 4 on week 4 material, followed by a review session
  • 10:45 – 11:45am Physics Lecture
  • 11:45 – 12:15 All-Program check-in & announcements
  • 12:15 – 1:30 Lunch Break (optional: special topics & mini-lectures from 12:30 – 1:30)
  • 1:30 – 3:00 Chemistry Lecture
  • Physics Problem Set due via MasteringPhysics by 6pm
• Tuesday October 24: (reminder: meet in regular lab rooms at regular times)
  • Chemistry Lab Notebook check
  • Chemistry Lab Write-up due
  • 9 – 9:30am 8-8:30 am: Chemistry Quiz (all students in regular scheduled room in Lab 2 1241 or Lab 2 2238)
  • 8:30 am-noon: Chemistry lecture/workshop OR Physics lab/lecture/workshop
  • noon – 1:00 Lunch Break
  • 1:00 – 1:30: Physics Quiz (all students in regular scheduled room in Lab 2 1241 or Lab 2 2238)
  • 1:30 – 5:00: Chemistry lecture/workshop OR Physics lab/lecture/workshop
  • Chemistry Problem Set due via MasteringChemistry by 6pm
• Wednesday October 25:
  • Math Problem Set Notebook check during midterm exam
  • Physics Quiz Revisions due 9am
  • 9:00 – 11:00am Math Midterm, will be collected at 11:30am
  • noon – 1:00 Physics Lecture
• Thursday October 26:
  • Chemistry Quiz Revisions due 9am
  • Physics Quiz Revisions due 9am
  • 9:00 – 11:00am Week 5 Seminar & Pre-Seminar Writing Assignment
  • 11:00 – noon Lunch Break
  • noon – 1:00 Physics Workshop
  • 1:00 – 2:00 Special Math Session Exam Revision Workshop
  • No Math Lab due today, instead work on Pre-Writing Assignment for Academic Statement & Planning Workshop I
• Friday October 27: No Math Problem Set due today, instead work on Pre-Writing Assignment for Academic Statement and Planning Workshop I

Next week will be our second seminar from 9 – 11am on Thursday, Oct. 26. Schedule changes due to this and the Math Midterm are described here.

The readings for the seminar are on two topics, “Impostor Syndrome” and the ideas of fixed vs. growth mindsets.

• “No, You’re Not an Impostor”
• “Feel Like a Fraud?”
• “Mindsets” and “Inside the Mindsets”, excerpts from Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

We will hand out paper copies of these articles and book chapters in class Monday so that you can mark those with your annotations and questions, and have them available during Seminar (without people using electronic devices during the discussion).

Pre-Seminar Writing Assignment. Beyond reading the three pieces, we would like for you to respond in writing to the following prompts. Please type up your responses and bring them with you, along with the three reading handouts, to Seminar. Faculty will check these for completion and they will serve as your Seminar Entrance Ticket.

1. (not for class discussion) Which stories or experiences on the topic of a) impostor syndrome and b) fixed mindset vs. growth mindset are similar to your own? (This response is private; we will not require you to share this writing with anyone else.)
2. (for discussion) What was one specific element (or elements) of the readings on a) impostor syndrome and b) mindset theory that you found particularly striking or surprising? Why? This should be a story, experience, piece of data or research finding. Your typed response should quote, paraphrase, or summarize the element(s), indicate article and page, and describe why you chose it.
3. (for discussion) What have you heard or observed from classmates, friends, family, coworkers etc. that may indicate the impact of a) impostor syndrome and b) a fixed mindset in a way that is dis-empowering?
4. (for discussion) What could a) you (as students) and b) faculty do in response to such indications of a dis-empowering presence of either impostor syndrome or a fixed mindset, based on the theories presented in these readings?

A few students will be making up Quiz 3 Friday morning, so I will not be posting the “clean” copy of the quiz until tomorrow. I do want to make some remarks about the quiz itself as well as notecards and quiz preparation.

First, I think the first question was harder than I intended it to be, which is my fault. I suspect that this may have affected most students’ ability to do well on the remaining questions. Even so, my overall reaction is that I did not provide you as a class with sufficient preparation to succeed on this particular quiz. I shall try to do better; I’ve thought quite a bit about where I may have gone wrong and have some concrete ideas in mind for improvement on my part.

Second, I think many of you are having trouble working out in general how to prepare, particularly with regard to your notecards. I’d like to call your attention to two specific things that may help:

1. Chapter summaries. You should be able to identify in the chapter summaries the material we covered. I will generally assume you have and know how to work with equations and formulas listed in these summaries.
2. Physics is cumulative. Even if the quiz is on Chapter 3, the material in that chapter builds on Chapter 2. So for instance, the kinematic equations listed in Chapter 2 for motion with constant acceleration come into play again in Chapter 4 (and 5, and 6…). So you might also want to flip back a chapter or two for further pieces of information to add to your notecards. (Hopefully over time much of that will become second nature, particularly math skills like working with trigonometry to find vector components.)

Thank you all for your hard work on this challenging material. It’s a privilege to work with you!

PhysAssist Scribes invites interested Pre-Health professional students to sign up to interview on-campus this Thursday, October 19th at LIB 2102- SASS Conference Room for Medical Scribe positions in the Emergency Department at Providence Centralia Hospital. According to PhysAssist Scribes:

“Our Medical Scribes provide real-time charting for physicians by shadowing them throughout their shifts. As a scribe you will:
• Work side by side with physicians as they see patients
• Document the patient history and chief complaint
• Document the physical exam and procedures
• Record x-ray, lab, and diagnostic test results
• Prepare plans for follow-up care

To request an interview: Email requests for interviews to emily.angel@iamscribe.com”

It’s possible to use tools you learn in one part of the program to explore other parts of the program… here’s an example. In Problem 3.33 of Wolfson you should have generated parametric equations for x(t) and y(t) to describe the motion. After looking up how to build parametric plots in Desmos, I created an interactive graph of the solution, complete with sliders allowing you to adjust values for angles and accelerations (with conversions from degrees to the radians Desmos prefers for calculating sines and cosines built in).

Here you can see the power of doing your work symbolically. Once you enter the formulas, it’s really easy to explore how the results depend on various parameters. A solution obtained by early substitution of values would not be easy to translate into a computer tool like this.

Hi all,

I have now uploaded an example of a problem solved in the format required for Revisions in the (too-?) long post on physics quiz revisions from last week. You should peruse this before you finalize your quiz revisions (which are due 9 AM Wednesday). Remember that the revision should be written on a separate paper (or papers) from any (optional) corrections you make on other parts of the quiz. Both the revision and the original quiz (including any corrections you may choose to make) should be turned in Wednesday. Quiz corrections may be made either on the original quiz or on a separate document, as you choose.

As a reminder, your revision is essentially a solution, formatted along the lines of the IDEA problem solving strategy, to the following problem:

A sprinter runs a 100 meter race. Starting from rest, their acceleration is 4.5 m/s² for the first 2.5 seconds of the race, after which they run at a constant velocity the rest of the race. What will be the sprinter’s total time for the race?

Solutions to the Chapter 3 Physics homework

As it turns out, there are several notebook checks in the works soon… Please be aware of what you need to do for…

• Physics Lab: All Physics Lab Notebooks will be checked this week. Please bring your Physics Lab Notebook in Tuesday October 17 (field trip day). John will come by the chemistry lab to collect them. If you are not in the chemistry part of the program, please try to bring in your notebook before 10 AM (so we don’t need to take them along on the field trip).
• Chemistry Lab: Chemistry Lab Notebooks will be checked in Week 5; stay tuned for details.
• Math Problem Set Notebook check: Math Problem Set Notebooks will be spot checked during the Week 5 Midterm Exam as described in this post.

• Blank copy of Math Quiz #3
• Math Quiz #3 Revisions are due 9am Mon. Oct. 23
  

• Who should submit a Math Quiz Revision? All students are invited to submit a Math Quiz #3 Revision for as many problems as you choose to revise and resubmit.

• Math Quiz Revision Detailed Guidelines
  • You may utilize any resource available to you, but submitted work must reflect your own personal understanding of the material.
  • The care you take in presenting your work will be considered when evaluating it, so pay attention to organization, neatness, etc.
  • Revisions must be neat, complete, and presented in a logical, clear-to-understand fashion, on a new copy of the quiz.
  • Please do not re-submit original quiz – that is for you to keep.
  • Since these are revisions, a higher standard will be used to evaluate your responses. Essentially, your revised solutions should be of the highest quality you can produce.
  • You may revise any problems you choose, and must present a complete solution to any problem you choose to revise (not just a part of a problem).
  • For multiple choice/fill-in-the-blank type questions, your revised solution should completely and clearly explain your reasoning (even though no explanation was required on the original quiz).

From chemistry faculty member Dharshi Bopegedera (bopegedd@evergreen.edu):

“I am looking for a few student volunteers from M&M to do science with kids in the public library to celebrate National Chemistry Week.

• We are going to the Olympia Public Library on October 25^th. We will be there from 2:30-5:30. We can provide transportation to and from the college.
• I will provide simple, hands on, lab activities for our students to conduct with K-12 kids.
• We usually get about 45-60 kids in the library.

The theme this year is “chemistry rocks”. Your students would be just perfect (even if they know very little of chemistry or geology!). From past experiences, this has been a rich experience for our students regardless of their age, class standing, or knowledge of science.

I will appreciate it very much if you would please announce to your class and ask your students to send me an email if they are interested.”