Class times and location

Class meets:  MWF  10:00 to 10:50 a.m. in 215 Phillips Hall

Instructor contact information

Duane L. Deardorff

Office hours:  by appointment

Office: 203 Phillips Hall

Office phone: 962-3013

E-mail: duane.deardorff@unc.edu

Course description

Physics 100 is an introductory physics course for non-science majors.  This course utilizes working objects found in everyday life to motivate the understanding of basic physics concepts.  Students investigate objects such as computer memory and tape recorders, roller coasters, refrigerators, light bulbs, automobiles, clocks, laser printers, and magnetically-levitated trains.  Physics topics include Newtonian mechanics, rotational motion, energy, fluids, heat, thermodynamics, vibrations, sound, electricity and magnetism, electronics, light, electromagnetic radiation, nuclear radiation, and relativity.  While advanced mathematics is not required for this course, basic math with some trigonometry and simple algebra is utilized.  Proportional reasoning, estimating, and graphical interpretation are also utilized.  Verbal and written communication of scientific ideas is emphasized throughout the course.  

• To learn how things work in order to satisfy natural curiousity and improve the functionality and safe use of common equipment and gadgets.
• To improve physical intuition, critical thinking and reasoning skills.
• To improve scientific literacy for the benefit of individuals and society

 Textbook

How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life, 4th ed. by Louis A. Bloomfield (published by John Wiley and Sons, 2010)
Note:  While class references will be made to the 4th edition of this text, earlier editions could suffice for much of the course.

Instructional Philosophy

Through this course, you will have the opportunity to analyze the physical world around you and improve your critical thinking skills. The instruction for this course places significant emphasis on qualitative physical reasoning as an important foundation to quantitative problem solving. The instruction focuses on student-centered learning and involves active participation from the students.  The instructor will act more as a "coach" who facilitates student learning, as opposed to a "lecturer" who transmits knowledge without necessarily requiring thought or action on the part of the student.  Since the instructional focus is on learning rather than teaching, students are expected to take more responsibility for their own learning than might be required in a more traditional lecture format.  To the extent possible, the instruction is aimed to meet a variety of learning styles.  You are encouraged to spend a few minutes examining your own learning style using the on-line Index of Learning Styles survey.

 
Critical Thinking

Most students take this course to fulfill a General Education perspective requirement, so the level of instruction is not as rigorous as a course for students who plan to major in physics.  However, you will be expected to comprehend fundamental concepts and apply physical reasoning to a variety of situations.  Many students find physics difficult because it goes beyond memorization by requiring higher level thinking skills (levels 4 through 6 below).  Learning physics is also like learning a foreign language since new words and symbols must be understood and applied correctly within the context of various physical situations.

Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain:

    1.  Knowledge - memorization of facts, words, and symbols

    2.  Comprehension - understanding the meaning of knowledge

    3.  Application - applying concepts to various situations

    4.  Analysis - breaking apart complex ideas

    5.  Synthesis - putting individual ideas together to form a complete explanation

    6.  Evaluation - judging the merits of individual ideas and making decisions

Not only are these skills needed for physics, but employers consistently rank critical thinking and problem-solving ability near the top of their list of desired traits in valued employees.

 
Collaborative Group Work

This course encourages collaborative teamwork, which has multiple benefits for you both as a student and in your career.  Most jobs require at least some interaction with other people, and consequently, most employers place a high value on their employees' ability to work well with other people. Also, many good ideas and solutions to problems grow out of discussions with colleagues. As many teachers will attest, you will find that the concepts covered in this course will become clearer to you as you discuss and explain problem solutions to your peers. As you work together, you should help your peers to understand confusing points, ask each other questions, and carefully critique any group assignments. You can learn a great deal by teaching each other!

Course Work

Readings.You are responsible for reading the textbook and working suggested exercises on your own. Time spent in class is intended to be a review and elaboration on the information you should have already gathered from the textbook.


Pretests. These are multiple-choice questions on the reading material to be taught in the coming week. These tests will be accessed and submitted via the Blackboard. The idea behind these is to confirm your understanding of the textbook and get you thinking about the course material before coming to class.  The lowest Pretest score for each student will be dropped when calculating final grades.

Class Participation is an important part of this course.  There are many opportunities for active student participation, both in and out of the classroom, including: responses to in-class questions, surveys that are submitted in-class or on-line, predictions for classroom demonstrations (extra credit is given for volunteering to participate in certain demonstrations), and "Minute Papers" (written feedback to the instructor on how you are doing in the class and questions that you have).  Responses to in-class questions are scored primarily on effort, with secondary emphasis on getting the "right" answers. Attendance and participation in discussions, questions, and quizzes are tracked using a class response system called "i-Clicker."  We will be following the text closely, so there will be little need to take notes in the typical sense. Much of the class time will be occupied with demonstrations and class discussion. The PowerPoint presentations for the class will be available via Blackboard so that you can focus on the class discussions without the distraction of having to take detailed notes.

Homework questions and projects will be assigned throughout the course as indicated on the Class Schedule. These will be due in class on the date assigned; 10% off for assignments submitted after class, until 5 PM, and NOT accepted after then. You are encouraged to work with other students on the homework (but not more than 2 or 3), but in the end, your write-up must be your own.

Web Project. To help make connections between physics and the "real world" and gain experience with webpage development using a wiki, students are required to publish an on-line group report that explains the physics of some form of technology of interest to their group. This project is due near the end of the course.  Each project will be reviewed by other students (similar to the process for peer-reviewed journal publications).

Exams. There will be 3 mid-term exams and one comprehensive final exam for this course. Consult the class schedule for the dates of each exam. Test questions will be similar to those discussed in class and assigned for homework.  Each exam will include a variety of problem types to address multiple learning styles and encourage students to learn at all cognitive levels:

• multiple choice or T/F qualitative conceptual questions - Knowledge, Comprehension
• short quantitative problems - Analysis, Application
• essay questions - Synthesis, Evaluation

Grades

Course grades (+/-) will be assigned based on your overall, weighted class average as follows:

Weighting Scheme and Letter Grade Divisions

Component	Weight
Class Participation	10%			-		+
Pretests	5%		A	90-92	93-100
Homework	25%		B	80-82	83-86	87-89
Web Project	5%		C	70-72	73-76	77-79
Exams (3)*	30%		D		60-66	67-69
Final Exam	25%		F		0-59

Learning Resources

• Supplemental Instruction - SI sessions are provided three times each week by Jeffrey Cohen:
• Mondays 6-7 pm, Wednesdays 5-6 pm, Thursdays 6-7 pm (all in Phillips 215)
• Physics Tutorial Center (Phillips 245 - consult schedule on door for availability, generally M-F: 9:00-4:00)
• Student Companion Website - provided by publisher, John Wiley & Sons.
• Author Lou Bloomfield's companion website - additional information for students and instructors
• The Physics Classroom - good resource for reviewing principles and practice problem solving
• Physics Study Tips
• Hyperphysics - A nice overview of physics principles using concept maps and hyperlinks
• SI prefixes and powers of ten