Overview and Course Objectives

The Advanced Placement Physics course at Polytechnic is a demanding curriculum, designed specifically to prepare you for the AP Physics C test. Physics is truly the most fundamental of all sciences, and one of the most enjoyable (and most challenging!) to study. In here, you will receive a strong college-level foundation in physics: we will emphasize solving a variety of high-level problems, some requiring calculus. As the instructor of this course, it is my great pleasure and honor to assist you along this path you have chosen. It won't always be easy, but I'm sure that you will find the journey rewarding!

Course Objectives

This course is designed to provide the student with a college-level, calculus-based, introduction to the study of physics. At the completion of the course, all AP and Honors Physics students will be well prepared to take College Board's Advanced Placement Physics C Mechanics examination. AP students will be prepared to take the AP Physics C E&M examination as well.

Course Requirements

The time you spend on this course will consist of participating in classroom lectures/discussions, doing homework problems (lots of them), performing weekly labs and activities, and taking tests, all of which are designed to prepare you for the AP test. It is understood that you will have a well-organized notebook for the work we do in here, pencils, pens, and a "scientific" calculator, i.e., one that performs sin, cos, tan, exponential notation, exponents, and log functions. You are expected to know how to operate your calculator correctly, including interpreting answers in degrees or radians, using scientific notation, and interpreting the correct number of significant figures.

Grades

Your grade will be based on a weighted percentage, according to the following scale:

A  : 93% and above
A- : 90-92%
B+ : 87-89%
B  : 83-86%
B- : 80-82%
C+ : 77-79%
C  : 73-76%
C- : 70-72%
D+ : 67-69%
D  : 63-66%
D- : 60-62%
F: less than 60%

Assignments used to determine each student's grade will include tests (~65% of the total grade), labs (~20%), and homework, quizzes, and miscellaneous other activities as assigned (~15%). The tests in this course are necessarily difficult, so there will also be 1-3 optional extra credit assignments offered each semester to help you earn additional points towards improving your grade.

Homework

You will have assigned homework in this class most every night, consisting of approximately one hour spent reading the text and solving a number of problems. The noted Nobel laureate Richard Feynman cautioned that "You do not know anything until you have practiced," and we take his warning to heart: Do Your Homework! At the beginning of most class sessions, I will ask if there are any questions on the previous night's homework. Based on your questions, someone (perhaps the instructor, perhaps a student) will work out a solution on the board. Students working at the front of the class may or may not solve the problem correctly on the board--that is less important than learning the process of solving the problem, and having the opportunity to discuss it as a class.

It is extremely important to understand that watching someone solve a problem when you have not yet attempted it yourself is of little or no benefit. Students must at least attempt to solve homework problems before seeing the correct solution if they expect to make any progess in the course.

You should also understand that there is a big difference between an "answer" (the numerical result at the end of a problem) and a "solution" (the procedure by which one arrives at an answer). In physics, answers count for very little--solutions are everything!

Homework assignments will be collected on an occasional basis. On the day of a test, however, you will need to turn in a "homework packet" consisting of the homework assignments for that unit. This packet should have each evening's assignment clearly identified at the top of the page, with pages in chronological order (first assignment on top, last assignment on the bottom), stapled in the upper left corner.

For more information about homework, please see Homework in the AP Physics C Course.

Labs

Weekly labs are an important part of the course curriculum. They will give you practical, hands-on experience collecting and analyzing data, and reinforce the learning that goes on in the classroom. For more detailed information, please see The Lab Experience.

Tests

There are many reasons that a teacher may have for testing students. In this Advanced Placement class, each test will give me a means of assessing your progress in the class, give me a basis for assigning you a grade in the class, give you feedback on how well you are acquiring the material, and prepare you for the actual AP Physics test.

Chapter tests will be administered approximately every 1-4 weeks, covering 1-3 chapters' worth of material. Most tests will be worth 100 points, and consist of two parts: a number of multiple-choice questions and a smaller number of free-response questions. Questions will consist mostly of questions based on the current unit of study, but may include review questions from previous units. Both multiple-choice and free-response questions may include selections taken from actual AP tests.

Preparation for taking a chapter test should consist of:

• going over the chapter in the book,
• reviewing the class notes, and
• solving as many practice problems as possible.

In order to focus on the pertinent material, you should take advantage of the review materials available to you, in the textbook and occasionally on this website. Review materials are not to be turned in; they are simply to assist you in your test preparation. Successful completion of the review problems, while commendable, is not a guarantee of a successful test performance!

Students who show up to class on a test day are expected to take the test that day. In the event that you miss a test due to an excused absence, you must make up the test the first day you return to class.

Late Work

Assignments are due on the assigned date--late work is not accepted! If you have an excused absence on the day an assignment is due, the work is due on the day you return to class, including test makeups, lab reports, and projects. For unexcused absences and tardies, you may not make up missed work. While many students are accustomed to turning in late work, timely evaluation of your work requires that assignments be turned in on time. Please do whatever is necessary to ensure that your work is turned in on the day it is due.

The AP Test

The Advanced Placement Test in Physics will be given on Monday, May 10, 2005, and actually consists of two separate hour-and-a-half sections, one on Mechanics, and one on Electricity and Magnetism (EM). Each of these sections in turn consists of two parts, a multiple-choice and a free response section. The multiple-choice section of each AP Physics C exam consists of 35 questions which must be answered in 45 minutes without the use of calculators or formula "cheat sheets" of any kind. The free-response section of both AP Physics C exams consists of three "free response" questions, each worth 15 points. For these three questions only, you may use a calculator and the formula sheet provided with the test. All students enrolled in AP Physics are required to take the Physics C exam.

We will spend a considerable amount of time in class preparing and practicing for these tests. Based on the results of your AP examination, your university may grant credit and/or advanced placement in your college program. All students, whether they receive university credit or not, will find themselves better prepared for serious academic work at the university level as a result of taking this class.

The Website

The class website, at www.crashwhite.com/ap, will be a valuable source of info throughout the school year. Here, you'll be able to:

• view the course calendar
• download lab assignments
• check your grade
• view classroom lectures
• contact the teacher...

I won't emphasize how important the website is to what happens in this course--it will become very clear to you in the first few days of school!

Academic Integrity

In addition to assisting students with learning material, teachers are often responsible for assessing their progress. In order to do this, students may be given a number of different types of assignments: homework, quizzes, tests, in-class activities, laboratory experiments to conduct, research papers, individual and group projects, presentations, etc.

It is understood that for some of these assignments, students may collaborate with one another. Four lab partners may perform an experiment as a group and share data. A student team may design and present a project together. Students might consult each other to find out how to solve a homework problem. In these cases, collaboration is accepted and even encouraged.

However, in other cases, the teacher desires an individual assessment of the student, ie. an answer to the question: "How much progress has the student made in mastering the material?" These assessments, usually in the form of quizzes and tests, are to be performed without assistance from any other sources or students.

There are many ways that a student may cheat, but they all fall into one of three categories:

1. giving or receiving unauthorized information on tests, examinations, or other work (including labs)
2. using any unauthorized aids on tests, examinations, or other work (including labs), or
3. submitting someone else's work, in whole or in part, for your own.

Thus, looking at someone else's test paper to copy the answer to a problem, discussing a test problem or sharing its solution with another student, copying test problems or answers and sharing them with another student, stealing a test, stealing the answers to a test, and using notes during a test that have not been expressly allowed by the teacher are all prohibited.

The penalties for cheating vary, depending on the institution, the department, the teacher, and the nature of the infraction. Commonly, a student caught cheating will receive a failing grade on the assignment and be subject to disciplinary action, including suspension and a letter being placed in the student's file. A friend of mine who is a professor states that at her university, there are a total of ten disciplinary actions possible in response to cheating, including: "expulsion, suspension (withdrawal from the University for a given period of time), mark reduction on the assignment or exam, reduction in the final course grade, a grade of F in the course, conduct probation, written reprimand, suspension of any degree already awarded, rescinding any degree already awarded."

An extended discussion of the ethics of cheating is beyond the scope of this note. What IS important to understand is that any form of academic dishonesty, at any level, is taken very seriously by ALL academic institutions. Cheating places your grade at risk and jeopardizes your academic career. And it's just plain WRONG.

Don't do it.

SPECIFIC EXPECTATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES AT POLY

Expectations

1. In a testing situation, you will write your own answers, without using any notes, preprogrammed calculators or the like, unless you have been given express permission from the instructor to use such resources. Specifically:
   • You will not look at another student's paper during a test, quiz, or other individual assessment.
   • You will not allow another student to look at your paper during such an assessment.
   • You will not discuss the test, quiz, or assessment with any student who has not yet taken it.
   • You will not help any student study for a test, quiz, or assessment which you have taken but they have not.
   • You will not ask other students for information about a test, quiz, or assessment that you have not yet taken.
2. If you collaborate with another student on a lab exercise, you are permitted to share data, observations, and results with your partner. However, you each write your own report--including calculations, graphs, analyses, conclusions, etc.--in your own words.

Consequences

If you fail to meet these expectations there will be consequences for you, depending on the severity of your failure. These consequences will include a zero on the assignment, and notification of the incident to parents, deans, and the Upper School Director.

Help?

Learning to solve physics problems can be difficult and frustrating, and you are encouraged to find study partners, share phone numbers, and exchange Instant Message names and e-mail addresses early on in the course. Although we will be proceeding at a fairly rapid pace through the material, I will attempt to schedule as much time as possible in class for us to work together on solving problems. In addition, I usually schedule review sessions a day or two before each test. This is an opportunity to meet with other students in the class to study, do review problems, and go over any difficulties you are having with the material.

For additional ideas on how to get help in the course, please see the Frequently Asked Questions section of the website.

Contact Info

Due to the intensive nature of this course, most students have difficulties at some point. At such times, you are strongly encouraged to contact me as soon as possible so that we can discuss your situation and figure out a way to deal with it. Likewise, parents or guardians who wish to discuss the course or who have concerns regarding their student's progress are encouraged to contact me, by e-mail (rwhite@crashwhite.com) or by phone, at 626-792-2147 x505.

For other info on how to reach me, please see How to Contact Mr. White.