Syllabus for PHY251

Spring 2012

 

LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS

• Text: Course packs for PHY251 are available at the Spartan Bookstore in the International Center or may be purchased online at www.spartanbook.com. You must bring your lab manual with you to lab each week.

• Calculator: Trigonometric and logarithmic functions are required. Statistics functions will be very useful, but are not required.

• PHY 251 on the Web : http//www.pa.msu.edu/~huston/phy251

SCHEDULE
PHY251 labs will begin on January 9, 2012 and run through April 27, 2012. There will be 10 experiments and 2 practical exams. The purpose of this course is to teach you how to make measurements of physical quantities and how to analyze and interpret them. During the experiments, working in groups of two, you will take measurements, tabulate and graph your data, evaluate uncertainties in your measurements, analyze the results of your experiments, and answer the questions given in the lab manual. The practical exams will test your ability to accomplish these same tasks individually so you will work alone for those 2 lab sessions.

PREPARATION FOR THE LAB SESSIONS
It is essential to prepare for lab ahead of time, i.e. read and study the materials for the laboratories before you come to class. Being prepared before you come to your lab session will enable you to finish on time, enjoy the lab more and help you get a higher grade. During the first 10 minutes of every lab period (including the first lab) a closed book quiz will be given aimed at testing your readiness to perform that day's experiment and/or your understanding of the previous experiment.   Please arrive on time or you will miss the quiz and the credit. All the materials to be graded (including data sheets, graphs, answers to questions, etc.) must be completed during the one hour and 50 minute lab period and handed in to the instructor before you leave the lab.

The lab report will consist of a data sheet in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, formula view of the Excel spreadsheet, graphs with observations and answers to the questions in the manual. Write your name, your student number, lab partner's name and section number on the top sheet of your lab write-up.

The week before each practical exam you will be given a write-up which explains exactly what will be covered on that lab. The practical lab will be based on one of the experiments that you have already completed. It will consist of measuring and analyzing data plus answering a set of questions. During the practical exam no outside notes, calculators or discussions with other students are allowed. The time limit on the practical lab will be 45 minutes.

GRADES
Labs will be graded by your instructor on a 20 point scale and will be handed back at the beginning of the next lab. The points will be distributed roughly as follows: quiz (4 pts), acquisition of data including accuracy (5 pts), graphs and calculations (5 pts), answers to questions (6 pts) . Practical labs will not have an associated quiz and will be worth 20 points.

Your grade will be based on the total number of points during the semester.  Since the instructors for the various sections do not necessarily grade identically, the scores for a given instructor's sections will be considered as a group for grading purposes.  Each of the groups will receive approximately the same average grade in the course, so that there is no advantage to having one instructor rather than another.  Within the group, the grades will be assigned strictly in order of points achieved.  The grade will be assigned by a curve, not a "straight scale".  In the past, the average for the course was about 2.6. Please obtain from your instructor and save your graded lab reports and quizzes. You will need all of these, if you think your score wasn't correctly calculated at the end of the semester.

MISSING LABS/MAKE-UP LABS
Because personally participating in each lab experiment is an essential part of this course, you must be present for each session. Should you find yourself in a position where you must miss a lab, you must inform your instructor at least one week beforehand, and provide an explanatory note with suitable documentation. Make-up labs will be limited to attending another lab section during that same week that has less than 20 students enrolled. Please note that most of the sections are full so it may not be possible to accommodate a make-up. If you miss a lab for an unanticipated reason, such as illness, you must notify your lab instructor no later than 24 hours after the missed lab and provide suitable documentation (i.e. a note from your doctor). If a make-up lab is granted your lab instructor will make the arrangements and tell you which section to attend. Your lab report must specify your usual instructor so that the make-up TA can forward your lab write-up to the correct instructor. It is the student's responsibility to verify this communication. To ease the burden on students who miss a lab due to a legitimate reason, we will drop the lowest lab score of the semester before computing your grade. An unexcused absence will not be considered as your lowest score.

Your lab instructor is in charge of all aspects of laboratory procedures. Please confer with your instructor if you have a problem, since he or she can ordinarily solve them. Communications regarding the day-to-day operations of your section (i.e. a missed lab) should be directed to your instructor and NOT the lab coordinator. You can find a schedule of the instructors for given lab sections and their email addresses here .

The laboratory coordinator for this course is Prof. Joey Huston. Appointments with the coordinators may be arranged by sending e-mail to huston@pa.msu.edu.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS AND HINTS:

• No food or drinks of any kind are allowed in the labs...there are no exceptions.
• Bring a flash memory stick so you can save your files as you work. There is no space on the computers to save your lab files!
• SAVE YOUR DATA OFTEN!! If something happens to your work during the lab and it is destroyed, you will have to start the lab over again.
• All the necessary computer software and spreadsheets will be on the computer when you start, so you should not have to search for them.
• You are not allowed to bring to the lab any lab reports previously completed by another student. The first time you are found with such a report, you will receive zero for that week. The second time you are found with such a report, you will receive a zero for the course.