Instructor: Pete Schwartz, Cal Poly Physics:, Pete's Webpage: pschwart@calpoly.edu, Cell phone - leave a text only if necessary (805-748-6341)

Diversity, Inclusivity, Sustainability: Cal Poly's mission statement includes "...Cal Poly values free inquiry, cultural and intellectual diversity, mutual respect, civic engagement, and social and environmental responsibility." Issues of diversity, inclusivity, and environmental responsibility have recently taken on great importance, globally as well as at Cal Poly. As an instructor, I wish to nurture awareness of how our actions affect others, near and far. I strive to maintain a classroom environment in which meaningful dialogue and debate is encouraged. We will welcome individuals of all ages, backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities, national origins, religious affiliations, abilities—and any other visible and non-visible differences. In any decision-making process, we will remind ourselves that our knowledge is not complete and that we can benefit from other perspectives that contrast our own. I believe that good problem solving is inclusive, requiring application of empathy, critical thinking, and ethics to all aspects of the problem-solving process. Lastly, I think it’s our responsibility to make the world a happier place – all of us, all the time.

Grading: Your grade is very easily computed consisting of your performance on assessments as long as you prepare for class (read on Perusall, and watch videos on PlayPosit) participate in class discussions, and do both your projects. I grade on your understanding of the material as determined by exams. The reason I do this is so that you will focus on increasing your understanding of the material rather than on getting homework problems done for the points. Of course, students who do homework score better on the exams.

Your final grade will be determined by a rubric: 30% for the final exam, 60% for weekly assessments and 5% for each of two projects; AND your grade will be lowered if you do not prepare for class by watching videos (on PlayPosit) and writing comments (on Perusall). We all need you to be prepared for and engaged in class to make this an enjoyable, productive learning experience for you the others in your working group. ... more on that below. The two lowest assessment grades are dropped, AND the final exam grade replaces any assessment grades lower than the final exam grade. 

Preparing for Class (Videos and Reading) -A Big Part of your Grade: It is imperative that we come to class prepared. You are required to watch videos on PlayPosit and read Perusal before each class. Please prepare on time for every class. For videos, you need to answer all the questions (but you don't need to answer correctly) and watch until the end for full credit. For reading, you have to leave at least three comments (or fewer if it is indicated). If you do 90% of the preparation on time, then your final grade will be calculated as above. However, if your participation is less than 90%, your final grade will be lowered by twice the % your preparation is less than 90%. So if you have 75% participation, your grade will be docked (90% - 75%)*2 = 0.3, which is the difference between an "A" and an "A-" on our 4-point scale. If you don't prepare for class at all, but get an "A" on all your tests, your final grade will be a "C"... so please prepare for class.

Text/Work book: I wrote a short guide for this class. It is linked to the main class website. You are welcome to use any other textbook that you may find, but the assigned activities come from our book. You will read the chapters through Perusall, which will record your participation as described above.

Weekly Assessments: We will have a short (~ 20 minutes) assessment on each Tuesday. The grades from the first two weeks will not count. Of the final 8 assessments, the top 6 grades will be taken. AND the final exam grade will replace any assessments of lower value than the final exam. Hence, if you miss (or botch) an assessment, you can take a zero which will be one of the two grades dropped, AND a fine performance on the final exam will compensate for all assessment shortcomings.

Assessments and Exams: You are graded on your ability to communicate to me that you understand physics. Thus you will receive no credit if I can't read or follow your logic, or if you provide no logic, but simply calculate the answer with a formula. You will earn an A, B, C, D, F, based on ability to communicate physics accordingly:

D: Make a drawing and correctly identify an appropriate physics concept and provide reasons supporting this concept a majority of the time.
C: Besides that required for a D, provide a relevant, labeled drawing illustrating the physics being discussed.
B: Besides the statement and drawing required for a C, set up a method to solve the problem.
A: Besides the statement, drawing, and method required for a B, solve the problem, correctly use units and verify whether answer makes sense.
F: If you do not achieve the threshold for D.

Other: We will do an Empathy Reflection in Week 6. Your participation will count as three videos.  We will have online surveys (online quizzes). Participation counts as a video.

Problem Sets: Usually due Thursday by class time. These are graded A,B,C,D,F based on the above criteria. The grade is recorded, but will not be used toward your final grade, but you will see that the assessment questions are very much like the homework problems. I encourage you to work problems with your groupmates. These problem sets will be graded by your group's Learning Assistant.

It would be a very good idea to completely understand the past homework assignments, class problems and previous assessments before each assessment.

Idea Sheets: You are welcome to build your own idea sheet with no more than 50 ideas bits = word strings + formulas. Any drawing counts as 10 ideas. I provide you with no ideas during an exam. I recommend that you start an idea sheet immediately (keep it in the back of your notebook) and add material as we cover it. You might start with a reminder of how you approach a problem, and the 4 lenses. If you gather more than 50 ideas, you will need to start dropping off ideas that you already know. If during a test, I judge your idea sheet to have too much information, I'll ask you to tear it in half.

2 Video Group Projects:

- A video analysis of motion is due during week 3. You will make a video of (your) human power production and analyze the video. Projects must include displacement, speed, and acceleration graphs as a function of time, and some calculation of force, work, power, energy or conservation of momentum.

- In week 7, we do a research project on something related to mechanics (for instance it can not be about quantum physics, electricity, light, relativity, etc.) that interests you. It may involve reading and research, or building and calculating, but ideally will involve doing an experiment. You will document it with a ~ 5 minute video that you will post on YouTube for the rest of the class to see. The project description link is on the main class page.

Everyone is expected to support their group's effort toward a successful project in order to share the project's grade. So, please find a group, have fun, and fully participate for both projects.

Assessments: Assessments cover all the material up to and including the most recent class. I started giving weekly assessments in Fall of 2019. You have access via my shared curriculum page to all the assessments and exams I've given (except final exams).