Models of Motion – 2014-15

• Portfolios are due Thu. Mar. 12 by 9 am outside Rachel’s office, Lab 2 room 3268.

• From the Program Syllabus: “Throughout the program, you will maintain a portfolio of your work consisting of all the above assignments and assessments as well as any notes or other material that reflect your work. The portfolio will be submitted at the end of week 10 and will inform faculty evaluations. It will also provide a lasting record and resource for your own future reference. In addition to the above assignments and assessments, your Portfolio will also include a Self-Evaluation and updated Academic Statement.”

• Check back for the Winter Assignments and Assessments Account (available by Sunday evening) which may serve as a guide for the work expected from you this quarter and so what should be presented in your Portfolio. Use the Account as a portfolio checklist.
  • Consider carefully whether you should be producing new work just for your portfolio. The portfolio collects artifacts that represents work you should already have completed as part of the regular work of the program. We welcome the inclusion of completed work that you did not submit on time, or revisions of old work (e.g. quiz revisions), but it is probably best if you include work that you have already completed or would normally complete as part of your program work.

• Your portfolio and its various elements should be clearly labeled with your name, neatly organized, and carefully presented.
• Include a Table of Contents as the first page of your Portfolio.
• Put the fully completed Winter Assignments and Assessments Account immediately following your Table of Contents.
• Include printed copies of your revised Self-Evaluation and updated Academic Statement. Also post both documents to the appropriate place at your my.evergreen.edu (note: make sure to post an updated draft Academic Statement so you will be able to register for classes this spring for next year).
• Include your final Simonyi Ch. 5 Seminar Paper submitted for faculty review.
• Include your final Project Paper submitted for faculty review. Make a copy as needed so each partner has it in their portfolio. If you haven’t gotten it back yet, leave a placeholder space in your Portfolio.
• Include your Problem Set notebooks.
  • You do not need to include your Reading Responses.
• Include your graded Calculus Problem Sets including the attached feedback sheet. Organize in order.
• Include your Lab Notebook; update its Table of Contents.
• Include your Quizzes. Organize by Mathematics quizzes in order, then Physics quizzes in order.
• Include your Exams, and if applicable Exam Revisions (if you haven’t received them back yet, then you know we still have them; leave a placeholder space).

• You may include any other material that reflects your engagement and especially your learning (e.g. reading or lecture notes, quiz revisions you completed on your own, etc.). If you include such material, make sure to clearly indicate in your Table of Contents that you have included this supplementary material and clearly indicate that material in your Portfolio with some kind of clear visual marker (like a post-it note).
• If you have included required material that you did not submit on time, make sure to clearly note that in your Table of Contents and clearly indicate that material with a visual marker.
• If you did poorly on a MasteringPhysics problem set submission but your corresponding work in your Problem Set Notebook is a better indicator of your understanding, again note that both in your Table of Contents and also mark the assignment(s) in your Notebook.

Here is a third (and I hope close to final) draft of a proposed spring quarter class schedule. Click on the image for a larger version. Thanks for the useful feedback on the first draft (which discussed some design constraints) and second draft (which included the likely credit allocations). I adjusted class times to allow for a tutor to be present for calculus problem sessions (the later start time meant our current tutor would not be available).

• Some students have expressed concerns about the big breaks in the middle of the day. I appreciate that concern but found limited options. We will still have our spaces reserved until noon on those days so you are welcome to keep working, especially on Problem Session days. I’m likely also to see about having office hours during some of those breaks.
• Other students have shared anxiety about the work-load in spring quarter. I’m sympathetic to your anxiety. I would have different advice for different students, but here are some of the things I might say to you depending on your situation and your goals:
  • You might consider one of the partial credit options.
  • I am aware of the added load of following multiple, sometimes disconnected, threads in a single program. The homework load will take into account that some large fraction of you will be doing all 16 credits which means 4 different threads, which involves shifting from one subject/mode/instructor to another quite frequently.
  • Electronics Lab will not always go the full four hours (but you still need to block out that chunk of time for when it does go the full time).
  • I will work very closely with students in the design phase of their project to make sure that it is a reasonable amount of work for the credit allocation.

Here is what we discussed in class on Wed. Mar. 4 about next week’s schedule.

• Mon. Mar. 9, 9 am – noon, Lecture Hall 2: Physics Exam.
• Tue. Mar. 10, 9 am – noon, LIB 1005: Calculus Exam.
• Tue. Mar. 10, 1 – 3 pm, Lab 1 2046: Mandatory Lab Clean-up and Physics Exam Group Reflection.
• Wed. Mar. 11, 9 am – 1 pm, Lab 1 2046: Calculus Exam Group Revision, Self-Evaluation Peer Review Workshop, Quarter Wrap-up & Eval Conference Sign-ups.
• Portfolios due by 9 am Thu. Mar. 12 outside Rachel’s office, Lab 2 3268.

You are allowed to bring 1 personally prepared 3 inch by 5 inch notecard (both sides) to each exam.

Evaluation conferences will be the week of March 16. We hope to have conferences on Mon. Mar. 16 and Tue. Mar. 17, but don’t plan to leave before the evening of Wed. Mar. 18 until this is confirmed.

Here is a second draft of a proposed spring quarter class schedule. Click on the image for a larger version. Thanks for the useful feedback on the first draft. I was able to find some alternate rooms for our Monday morning meeting and for our problem sessions. I pushed problem session start times by an hour, and for now plan to have office hours at 9 on Tuesday and Thursday.

Anticipated credit allocations:

• Physics w/Lab: 5 credits
• Calculus: 4 credits
• Electronics w/Lab: 4 credits (taught by Prof. Neil Switz)
• Project: 3 credits

In class on Mon. Mar. 2, I outlined Mazur 30.23. At one point, there was an area A in the denominator and an area A in the numerator, and I casually cancelled them. However, the A in the denominator was the area of the plate (a fixed number) while the A in the numerator was the area associated with the flux, which in turn is associated with the Amperian loop. So I should not have canceled those two areas in the general derivation.

Seth’s tutoring hours on Thursday this week will be later than usual: he will be in Sem 2 E3107 from 5:30-7:30 (instead of starting at 4).  Note the time AND room change.

You can find solutions to the Week 18 problem sets in the Assignments area in that week’s Calendar page.

You can find a preliminary version of the Week 19 Calendar page. Check back for problem sets posted.

Our project presentations will be on Tuesday and Thursday of Week 9 in the following rooms:

Tuesday presentations will be in Sem 2 B1105 from 11-12:15

Thursday presentations will be in CAL west from 9-11

These rooms are both equipped with a computer and projection equipment.  As a reminder, your presentation day is listed here.

Some mistakes in the answers in the back of the Practices text:

• 29.35: should be 0.096 s
• 29.69: should be 4.2 V