Class times and location

Class meets:  MWF  10:00 to 10:50 AM  in 247 Phillips Hall

Instructor contact information

Duane L. Deardorff

Office hours: Wednesdays after class in the Physics Tutorial Center (Phillips 245) or by appointment

Office: 203 Phillips Hall

Office phone: 962-3013

E-mail: duane.deardorff@unc.edu

Course description

Physics 101 is an introductory physics course for non-science majors.  This course focuses on basic physics concepts and connections to everyday life.  Course topics include Newtonian mechanics, fluids, heat, vibrations, electricity and magnetism, light and sound, quantum phenomenon, nuclear radiation, relativity, and cosmology.  Connections to everyday life and society include energy conservation, global warming, nuclear energy, the origin of the universe, pseudoscience, and the search for extraterrestrial life.  While advanced mathematics is not required for this course, basic math with some trigonometry and simple algebra is utilized.  Proportional reasoning, estimating, and graphing skills are emphasized throughout the course.  Overall goals of this course include students' gaining an appreciation for the physical world, improved critical thinking and reasoning skills, and improved scientific literacy for a better-informed public that can make intelligent voting decisions.  Concurrent enrollment in a Physics 101 lab is required since the lab grade is included in the 4-credit hour course grade.

 Textbooks

Physics: Concepts and Connections, 4th ed. by Art Hobson (published by Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007)
Note:  This book is available electronically from Safarix for about half the price of a new print edition.

Physics 101 Laboratory Manual, (available from UNC Student Stores, Course Pack Publishing, Spring 2008)

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.


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 only minor emphasis on getting the "right" answers.


Homework questions and problems from the textbook and its Companion Website are recommended for study and practice, but will not be graded.  These are listed below the Daily Class Schedule.

Web Project. To help make connections between physics and the "real world" and gain experience with webpage development, 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 and will be posted on the Web for the world to view.  Each project will be reviewed by other students (similar to the process for peer-reviewed journal publications).


Service Learning.  Students have an opportunity to apply what they have learned in this course through one of several severice-learning experiences in the community coordinated by the APPLES Service-Learning Program.  A summary of this experience can be reported via the web as an alternative to the group Web Project.  Students who register for a special section of this course and commit to at least 30 hours of service can fulfill an Experiential Education requirement.

Exams. There will be 3 mid-term exams and one comprehensive final exam for this course. Consult the course schedule for the dates of each exam. Test questions will be similar to recommended exercises and problems  discussed in class and recommended for homework.  Each exam will have a format consisting of 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
• 1 take-home real-world problem using GOAL format - Synthesis, Evaluation


Lab. The laboratory portion of this course is required for all students and counts for 25% of the overall course grade. Consult the course schedule or lab website for the laboratory schedule and other information pertaining to the labs. Laboratory manuals are available in the Course Pack section of the campus bookstore. 

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	15%		A	90-92	93-100
Lab	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

• Physics Tutorial Center (Phillips 245 - consult schedule on door for availability, generally M-F: 9:00-4:00)
• Textbook Companion Website , class ID:  cm150554
• Physics Study Tips
• Hyperphysics - A nice overview of physics principles using concept maps and hyperlinks
• Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt, 10^th ed., Addison Wesley, with online tutorial.
  
• A World View by Kirkpatrick and Francis, 6^th ed, Brooks Cole
• SI prefixes and powers of ten
• Exams from Spring 2007:  Exam1, Exam2, Exam3
• In-class quizzes:  Ch.1, Ch.2, Ch.3, Ch. 4, Ch.6, Ch.7, Ch.10, Ch.11, Ch.12, Ch.13, Ch.15, Ch.16, Ch.17, Ch.18