Physics 10273 will satisfy the "Natural Science" and "Global Awareness" categories in the core. In order to meet this requirement, there are certain minimum standards we are required to ask of all students. In order to avoid later confusion, here are some of the basic ground rules of the lab course (this will be supplemented by the lab syllabus, to be handed out during the first lab week):

Labs will begin during the week of Monday September 9.

All labs will be held in SWR 360.

Sid W. Richardson 360 is a room in the Northeast corner of the building on the 3rd floor. All labs will meet here every week, as shown in the syllabus schedule, even if a supplemental lab is going on that week. There will be some scheduled opportunities for doing an outdoor observation lab, visits to the Noble Planetarium at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History or a lab exercise in the Monnig Meteorite Gallery. Students from all sections will be welcome to attend a supplemental lab in place of (or in addition to) a usual daytime lab. I will provide details about this in a later handout.

Required lab equipment

• notebook paper
• pen or pencil
• a calculator
• printout of lab text and lab worksheet (and lab data, if applicable)

There will be no lab manual for sale in the bookstore. Instead, the lab instructions and worksheets will be available in pdf form on the web prior to the start of the lab semester. You will receive an email with a link sometime during the first two weeks of lecture. You can print out individual lab instructions and worksheets there or the entire lab manual. You must have these printed out prior to coming to the lab section.

The calculator you bring to lab should be capable of performing calculations in scientific notation (you don't need a fancy graphing calculator, just a $10 scientific calculator will do), and you should learn how to use this feature prior to attending your first lab. If you do not bring your required equipment to the lab, your TA has the authority to excuse you from the lab with no credit or reduce your lab grade for that week.

Lab attendance is mandatory to receive credit for Physics 10273.

Even though the lab portion of the course is only worth 20 percent of your overall grade, you MUST attend at least 10 different labs and hand in a report for each lab at the end of each section. If you fail to complete 10 different lab assignments, you will lose one letter grade from your overall course grade per lab you are missing. Thus, if you have a "C" average in the lecture and miss one lab, your grade will drop to a "D". If you have a "C" average and miss two labs, your grade will drop to an "F". Be sure to check with your TA regularly to verify there hasn't been a mix-up in your lab grade. It is your responsibility to stay informed about your lab status and know how many labs you have completed.

If you wish to attend a lab section other than your scheduled section for a given week, you must sign up in advance as an "extra student" on the list outside the lab room for the lab you wish to attend. Usually, only 2 extra students will be allowed per lab section in any given week. If you try to attend a lab section that is not your own and your name is not on the extra student list, you may be asked to leave the lab.

In all cases, you are required to put the name of your original TA on your lab report. This is so your grades can be recorded consistently and completely and no labs are lost. It is also recommended that you keep all of your graded lab reports so that if there is a discrepancy later in the semester about a "lost" lab, you will be able to provide documentation to prove that you did indeed attend the lab section and turn in a report. In the absence of such evidence, we must assume that you didn't turn in a report, so please keep your labs for your own benefit (often, your TA will keep them for you, but not always)!

Each section covers the same lab each week.

All regular lab sections meet at different times, so each section will cover the same lab each week. This means that if you miss a lab, you must make up that lab during the same week as your absence. You will not be able to make up more than one lab during the last week of the term, so don't accumulate 2 or more absences or you'll find yourself heavily penalized and possibly flunking. If you ever reach the point where you have accumulated more than 1 missed lab, you should come by my office (SWR 315) and discuss your options with me at the earliest opportunity!

If you have a University-sponsored excuse for missing a given lab during a week, then you must make up the lab during another of the sections in that same week. Jobs, practices, rehearsals and other such "unofficial" events associated with extracurricular University-sponsored activities are not considered to be excused absences for the purposes of determining whether you should attend your lab or a make-up lab during a given week. The lab syllabus (and the Fall 2019 course schedule catalog) has a list of when all the different sections meet so you can plan ahead for excused absences.

In sum, if you have an excused or unexcused absence, then you must make up the lab during the week of the absence, regardless of when the absence takes place. If you miss a lab and are unable to make it up during that same week due to an unexpected absence caused by a documented medical or legal reason, then individual arrangements for make-ups will be made for you provided you can't make up the lab during the 11th week of the course (see below). If you have an excused absence for an entire week of labs that make it impossible for you to attend in a given week, you must present documentation to Dr. Ingram in his office (SWR 315) before the end of the following week. If you wait any longer to provide this documentation, it may not be accepted.

There will be one make-up week near the end of the semester.

During the week of Monday, December 2, an "11th week" of labs will be held. During this week, the same lab will be taught in all sections, and this will be a lab that hasn't been done previously during the course. At this time, any student who missed a lab (whether the absence was excused or unexcused) during the previous 10 weeks can make up one lab. If you've already taken 10 labs by this time, you may use this week's lab to replace your worst lab grade or you may simply ignore this week altogether. This week is considered to be the make-up week for any and all absences. If you have two or more entire weeks of excused absences for all the lab sections, individual arrangements should be made as far in advance as possible (preferably early in the semester if you know about them in advance) so you can make up more than one lab.