Models of Motion – 2014-15

The detailed Week 4 Calendar page is posted.

For those of you who want extra support in working with our Calculus book, you should look at the student study guides that the author makes available at http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-textbook-spring-2005/study-guide/.  These resources are part of the open courseware course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which makes use of this same textbook.  The study guide highlights key ideas, provides problems with worked-out solutions, and has some solutions to selected even-numbered problems.

Here’s the Updated Fall Reading Schedule handed out in class on Tue. Oct. 14.

You can find password-protected solutions to the week 2 Calculus Problem Set (partial solutions produced by tutors) and Physics Problem Set linked at the Week 2 Calendar page, in the Assignments area for each subject.

• The detailed Week 3 Calendar page is posted.

• As announced in calculus lecture on Wed. Oct. 8, the week 2 calculus problems from section 1.4 have been postponed. The problems from sections 1.2 and 1.3 remain unchanged. The Week 2 Calendar page has been updated to note this change.
• At least one student noted a glitch in the MasteringPhysics version of problem 3.38, which did not display information required to solve the problem (the book version of the problem does have all that information). In case that is true for your MasteringPhysics, you can find the full information here. The information given should say “In a car moving at constant acceleration, you travel 270 m between the instants at which the speedometer reads 40 km/h and 80 km/h.” If this is the case for you, please report the situation to MasteringPhysics directly.

We’ve made some significant organizational upgrades to the program website.

• The Calendar pages are active. Use the navigation bar above to access the Calendar pages for Week 1 and Week 2. These include detailed information about reading and homework assignments as well as links for submitting assignments and links for program handouts. If you have thoughts on improving the usefulness of the Calendar pages, please share them with Krishna.
• We’ve added Class Forums for you to be able to connect with each other, form study groups, get homework help, ask questions, etc. See the navigation bar above. As with all the Forums, you will need to log in to this website using the Log in link in the right hand sidebar.
• You can now subscribe to the program website to get email whenever the site is updated. Read this post for more information.

A great deal of information has been added recently. Some highlights follow:

• Solutions to math and physics homework: Password protected solutions to the Week 1 calculus and physics homework have been provided to help you check your own work and to prepare for the quiz. Partial solutions to the calculus homework have been produced by the tutors, and can be found in the program Orca share in the Handouts folder, or linked at the Week 1 Calendar page. You can find solutions to the physics homework linked at the Week 1 Calendar page. These solutions are password protected, and you will be prompted for your Evergreen login information to access these resources.
• The calculus turn-in announcement procedure has been adjusted.
• Information about dedicated tutor times.
• Some guidance about the Reading Response assignment.
• A reminder about the Lab Safety Quiz.
• And more…

Just a reminder that our program tutor Seth is available Thursdays 3-5 in Sem 2 2107.  This is a great time to meet up with each other and Seth as you work on your math and physics homework problems due Friday.  At other times you can make use of the QuaSR center for similar support.

Also thanks to our tutors, we will have sample solutions to a selection of the math problems available by Saturday in our CAL (Orca) share math hw folder (look under Handouts).  This will help you as you study for the quiz, and supplements the short answers to odd problems in the back of your book.

• From our program Syllabus “Reading Responses: For each week’s physics Reading Assignment, you will complete a Reading Response. The Reading Responses are intended to help you keep up with the reading, orient you to the material for the upcoming week, and to give your instructor feedback on how best to use our class time, based on what you have difficulty with. You are welcome to use your book and other resources to complete the Reading Response, but should take it individually. Reading Responses are due on-line via MasteringPhysics by 6 pm Sundays (if you don’t have access internet access on Sunday, there are alternatives; please come speak with us). Additionally, to promote close attention to the calculus reading assignments, students will at times be asked to bring to class a written response to a question or questions about the math reading.”
• It’s completely fine if you get some of the Reading Response questions incorrect – this is valuable information to help make lecture time more useful.
• Some of you still don’t have access to MasteringPhysics. Here is a printable version of the Reading Response questions for this week. The formatting isn’t great, and you don’t get the benefit of interactivity and knowing if your answers are correct, but it’s a decent alternative. Please email Krishna your responses. If you can fill it out and scan it, fine. Otherwise, just give text responses in the email.
• Please don’t panic if you see notation (especially calculus notation) with which you are unfamiliar. At this stage, it is the concepts which are more important; we’ll pick up the notation as we continue in calculus and physics.
• Reading Response 1 is due by 6:00 pm Sun. Oct. 5.

• You can find the detailed Week 2 Calendar page using the link in the navigation bar above, or by going here.
• There is currently only a placeholder for the physics assignments; my apologies – I hope to have that filled in before too long. (updated 10/4) Physics assignments added – thanks for your patience.