PHYS 10164 - General Physics II with Lab  (Laboratory Course)             Summer 2009

Laboratories: MWF 13:00-15:00@ SWR 361/364

 

Instructor: Yuri M. Strzhemechny

Email: Y.Strzhemechny@tcu.edu

Web: http://personal.tcu.edu/~ystrzhemechn/

Office: SWR 373

Phone: 817-257-5793

Office Hours: MWF 8:30 am-9:30 am & by appointment

 

Before you begin: Before you begin with PHYS 10164 Laboratory Course, you should read and understand the Safety Guidelines that must be followed in this course. Take time out now to look over these guidelines and even print them out and keep them with you.

 

Lab instructions: Distributed via the Internet.

 

Course Description: This is part two of a two-semester algebra-based physics course. We will cover material dealing with electricity and magnetism, light and optics, as well as modern physics. This laboratory course will provide students with “hands-on” experiences that will anchor and reinforce the content of their corresponding lecture-based course.

 

Course Administration: Instructions and other materials are distributed via the Internet from my website:

 

http://personal.tcu.edu/~ystrzhemechn/Classes/2009/Summer/Summer2009.html

 

Students will find the following course features available online:

 

  1. Course syllabus (these pages)
  2. Detailed lab instructions (via file download)

 

Course Design: This course is designed to encourage students’ maximum access to and hands-on experience with the range of physics phenomena being studied. A strong emphasis is placed on fundamental concept and skill development. The structure and intent of all course elements should be understandable and functional. The course is constructed with the following main components:

  1. Lab Activities are instruction-guided physical measurements, calculations, data analysis, and/or experiment-related questions.  Each activity results in a set of graded Report pages.  Instructions are downloaded via the Internet, to be studied prior to lab attendance.
  2. Lab PreQuizzes encourage preparation for lab and are given during the first 5-10 minutes of the lab section meeting. Before you can start the experiment you must take a quiz, which is based solely on the information in the lab manual.  There will be three questions related to the experiment.  The quiz will be returned to you with the report and will count for 20% of the total grade.
  3. Lab Report pages provide a summary of the individual student’s lab results and conclusions.  Specifications and questions for each lab report are contained in the downloaded instruction files.  The experiments will be conducted in groups of two or three students.  Each student should submit his/her own report. Lab Reports are to be turned in WITHIN ONE WEEK PERIOD after the lab class to your TA (unless otherwise specified by the TA or the course supervisor); they will be considered late if not turned by the specified deadline (see above);  late lab reports forfeit 10 points immediately and 10 points for each additional day after the deadline.

 

Lab report praparation

1.         Type your name, date, the day of the week you did the lab, and the name of the instructor. (5 points)

2.         Introduction: (15 points)

To write the introduction you may select one of the two options.  (i) You may focus on answering questions posted in the last section of the manual called “Report” or (ii) write a standard introduction.  If you select the latter option briefly give a general overview of the experiment, your expectations, and theory behind it. Summarize the whole point of doing the lab. Most key points to writing your introduction can be found in the Introduction section of the manual. Your introduction should be about one page long.

3.         Results: (20 points)

Present the data in the form of a table or a graph. Usually you will give details of what you observed in the lab. Only important information pertinent to the lab should be presented.  Show any calculations carried out, etc.  Remember to add units.

4.         Conclusion: (40 points)

Discuss in your own words and from your point of view your results. Example: Looking at your results, tables or graph, can you see any general trend? What is the behavior of the graph/line? What was the aim of the experiment? Have we achieved anything? If not, how large is the error? Does your result make sense? Can you compare your result to those from the books?  What does the book say?  Is your observation justified by the relevant equations from the test? Have you answered any question asked?

 

Grading: The final grade a student earns for this course will be determined by their completion of the assignments on or before the scheduled deadlines. Each section’s TA will maintain a record of student points. The course grades will be determined as follows:

 

A: 100 – 90.1 pts., B: 90 – 80.1 pts., C: 80 – 70.1 pts., D: 70 – 55.1 pts., F: 55 and below.

 

For each lab grade, the credit breakdown is:

 

Pre-lab quizzes: 20 %

Lab reports: 80 %

 

Grades

Each experiment will be graded on the scale from 0 to 100 (up to 20 points for the quiz and up to 80 points for the report).  By the end of the semester, we will determine the average by dividing the total number of points by 10.  During the last week the students will have an option to run a make-up lab.  At this time, any student who missed a lab, regardless if the absence was excused or unexcused, can make up two labs.

 

Overall lab course grade will be determined as an average of all the lab grades.

 

Even though the lab portion of the course is only worth 20 % of your overall grade, you must attend all 10 lab sections and hand in a report for each lab. 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 "B" average in the lecture and miss one lab, your grade will drop to a "C". If you have a "C" average and miss two labs, your grade will drop to an "F".  It is 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 lab reports for your own benefit!

 

The last week will be allotted for lab make-ups. Students with unexcused absences will be allowed to run make-up labs.  If you need to make up a missing lab, you will have to arrange this matter with your TA. If you miss a lab due to an unexpected absence caused by a documented medical or legal reason, then individual arrangements for make-ups will be made for you. If you have an excused absence for a lab that makes it impossible for you to attend on that day you must present documentation to Dr. Strzhemechny in his office (SWR 373) before the end of the week. If you wait any longer to provide this documentation, it will not be accepted.

 

Lab attendance and participation: Students should attend the lab section they are enrolled in and they should make full and constructive use of the entire assigned lab time. Under special circumstances, students may attend additional or alternative labs (if and only if sections and space are available, with approval of the cooperating TA’s), in order to obtain additional supervision time for experiments, data analysis, and lab report writing.  Early student dismissal from lab is only warranted if the student has turned in the Lab Report page(s) for that lab. A student who has not attended a lab cannot obtain any credit for the corresponding Pre-lab quiz and report – an automatic total forfeit of 100 % per lab.  If a student has not actively and fully participated in the collection of a valid set of experimental measurements, observations, in-lab data analysis, and follow-up, then the student may not obtain any credit for the corresponding lab report – a potential total forfeit of up to 85 % per lab (level of participation judged by the supervising TA).

 

Class calendar: The labs will be run in the order listed below, however, since there will be two different experiments running simultaneously you should ask the lab assistant which experiment you will do on the next lab.

 

Dates

Lab numbers

Topics

7/8

8

Electric field mapping

7/10

1

Electric measurements

7/13 (or 7/15)

9

Measurement of the mass of electron

17

Temperature coefficient of resistivity

7/17 (or 7/20)

12

Magnetic field of a solenoid

4 (following Lab 12)

Magnetic force on a current-carrying conductor

6

AC circuits and electric resonance

7/22 (or 7/24)

19

Microwave optics

15

Reflection and refraction

21 (following Lab 15)

Spectrum of hydrogen

7/27

 

Make-ups

7/29

 

Make-ups

 

 

Academic Misconduct: I would like to remind you about policies and procedures regarding your rights as well as responsibilities that are published in the TCU Student Handbook. You may have a paper copy but it is also available on line at http://www.studentaffairs.tcu.edu/handbook/Student_Handbook.pdf. Specifically I would like you to review Section 3.4 regarding Academic misconduct, i.e. cheating, plagiarism etc.

 

Disabilities statement: Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities.  If you require accommodations for a disability, please contact the Coordinator for Students with Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services, located in Sadler Hall 11.  Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at 817-257-7486.

 

Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations.  Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator.  Guidelines for documentation may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/DISABILITY.HTM. Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.