I’ve updated the Thursday schedule posted in Irregular schedule changes for Week 17 and on the Week 17 Calendar page.

I was able to re-schedule my travel departure a little bit, so we can have both an EM workshop and a CM workshop before I have to leave. It’s not ideal because we go from 9 – 1 before an official break, but we are in workshop mode from 11 – 1, so perhaps that’s not unmanageable.

As noted in the Week 17 Calendar, on Wed. Feb. 20, there will be tutoring in the Cave from 6:30-8:30pm (this change will also occur in Week 18).

This replaces tutoring from 5-7pm on Friday.

Friday tutoring from 2-5pm and Sunday tutoring remain unchanged.

• Week 17 Schedule, Reading, and Problem Sets available via the Calendar page link in the main navigation bar.
• Mostly because of the Monday holiday and last week’s weather closure, Week 17 has an irregular schedule of meeting times (see this post for details) and assignment due dates (see the Week 17 calendar page).
• Please note changes to the Reading Response Rotation assignments available at the PSAM Community folder, available by clicking here.

At video tutoring this morning, it became clear that I need to highlight/clarify the information in this post:

• Both EM PS#6 and QM PS#5, both originally with CSS contributions due this Fri. Feb. 15, have been postponed until Fri. Feb. 22.
• Because of school closure earlier in the week, there was already no CM PS due this week.

There will be regular PSAM tutoring available in the Cave today Fri. Feb. 15 from 2 – 7pm. I hope you will take advantage of the time to a) get caught up on past material; b) solidify your understanding; c) work ahead on next week’s material.

Tutoring on Sun. Feb. 17 is CANCELLED.

Here are some schedule changes for Week 17. The Wednesday change was in the original course calendar, while the others are mostly to accommodate some of the lost time from last week. For those times that are outside regular class meeting times, I’ve added some notes. I wanted to make sure to get these to you as soon as possible, as many involve the possibility of having to adjust your out-of-class schedule. Ask me via email if you have any questions so I can try to clarify.

• Mon. Feb. 18: No class meetings (Presidents’ Day holiday)
• Tue. Feb. 19:
  • 9am – 11:30am: QM. Note that QM starts at 9am rather than our standard 9:30am start time. From 9 – 9:30, we will have workshop on your first draft of QM Quiz Q4, so if you can’t make this 9am start, you can check in with your classmates outside of class.
  • 12:30pm – 3:30pm: CM. Note that CM starts at 12:30 pm rather than our standard 1pm start time. From 12:30 – 1, we will have a CM Quixam C3 workshop. From 3 – 3:30, we’ll have CM problem session workshop (like we normally would on Thursday afternoon).
• Wed. Feb. 20:
  • 9am – 10:30am: APLS Instrument Seminars on Microwave Interference/Optics, Physical/Fourier Optics, Superconductivity & Magnetic Susceptibility. EA workshop on Ch. 9, 10 moved to Thursday afternoon. Note that we will start right at 9am with Instrument Seminars, so it’s particularly important to be on time ready to start.
  • 10:30am – 1pm: EM. This is on the original course calendar, to accommodate missing Monday’s class due to the holiday.
• Thu. Feb. 21:
  • 9am – 11am: QM. Note the 9am start time.
  • 11am – 12pm: EM problem session workshop. Note the 11am start time.
  • 12pm – 1pm: CM problem session workshop. Note the 12pm start time.
  • 1pm – 2pm: Break. Note the non-standard break time.
  • 2pm – 3pm: Error Analysis Workshop on Ch. 9, 10 material.Student-facilitated.

I’ll be available in a Google Hangout at this link from 9 – 10am on Fri. Feb. 15. You might need to say my name to get my attention.

• Campus remains closed, still, again, on Thu. Feb. 14.
• At this point, I’ve heard back from nearly all of you, and I’m relieved that you are all at least ok if not better.
• I take some (many) deep breaths and resign myself to the situation at hand. Given that we haven’t been able to meet at all this week, that you didn’t have regular access to tutors on Friday or Sunday, and that many of you have reported poor internet access this week, here are the changes we’ll make:
  • Bring your first draft of QM Quiz Q4 to QM on Tuesday morning for a quiz workshop; the revised version will be due Thu. Feb. 21 at the beginning of QM. You will submit CM Qu¡xam! C3 at the beginning of CM on Tuesday afternoon. Please continue not to discuss either of these with your classmates or anyone else (other than me) until after Tuesday.
  • Both EM PS#6 and QM PS#5, both originally with CSS contributions due this Fri. Feb. 15, have been postponed until Fri. Feb. 22. Because of school closure earlier in the week, there was already no CM PS due this week.
  • Because of the Presidents’ Day holiday on Mon. Feb. 18, our original course calendar had EM Qu¡xam! E3 scheduled for an at-home version. We will delay that until the following week and take it in class.
• I’ll post a Tentative Updated Course Calendar soon.
• It is hard to see how we will be able to be successful with this week’s APLS EA, EM, and QM material, now postponed till next week, unless you seriously engage with the curated material, described in this post. As of this posting, the material has been available for over a day, and I have not yet seen anyone contribute. Of course one of the challenges this week has been irregular internet access for some of you. But please do contribute to the curated materials, as soon as you can.

• Campus remains closed on Wed. Feb. 13.
• I’ve heard from nearly all of you, and am relieved that you are managing. I am concerned about the few of you I haven’t heard from; if you are in touch with your classmates, please check in with them and see if they’ve gotten in touch with me. I’ve responded back to everyone who has checked in with me as of Tue. Feb. 12.
• I will be available for online hours on Wed. Feb. 13 from 8:30-10:30am. Please take advantage of this resource.
• In the APLS folder in our CSS folder, I’ve created a shared document for you to ask and answer your questions from Taylor Error Analysis Ch. 8, which we would have discussed during the EA Workshop on Wednesday morning. This can be one use for Wednesday morning’s online hours. I’m still figuring out how to spread out the Instrument Seminars we would also have done on Wednesday morning. Hidden Figures presentations will also be re-scheduled, so check in on the APLS page for updates by the beginning of next week.
• I’ve created a shared document for this week’s QM material; this would also be a good use for Wednesday morning’s online hours
• Similarly, I’ve created a shared document for this week’s EM material; again, this would also be a good use for Wednesday morning’s online hours.
• Please note that the Google Hangout I’ve created for the morning’s online hours should be available at all times, whether I’m present or not (please let me know by email if that is not the case), so you can arrange for meeting up with your classmates there to continue to work together on this week’s work as we dig out of our weather-related challenges.
• I expect that we will have class on Thu. Feb. 14, and so QM Quiz Q4 and CM Quixam C3 are both due Thu. morning (unless you have contacted me in advance to discuss an extension).

For those of you who have internet access, I will be available at this Google Hangout from 8:30-10:30am Wed. Feb. 13. If I’m not on-screen or not actively paying attention, please say my name to get my attention.

I highly encourage you to check in during this time.

There’s plenty of work for you to be doing, either solo (QM Quiz Q4 or CM Quixam C3, both due Thursday 9:30 unless you contact me in advance to discuss an extension) but also collectively (though we will have to re-schedule our Instrument Seminar for this week, you can be doing some prep using the materials available via this post; on Thursday in class, we’ll continue with QM Townsend Ch. 4 and EM Griffiths 3.3 and 3.4; there are some EM curated materials and QM curated materials for you to go over and contribute to).