What is special about Physics 11b?

INTERACTIVE LECTURES

Physics 11b does not use a standard (passive) lecture format. Instead of lecturing on material that is available in printed form, lecture periods are used in an interactive manner. Instead of spelling out each and every detail of the material, there will be reading assignments for each lecture and lectures will be used to cover the difficult parts of the reading in more detail. The classroom where the class is taught is equipped with an interactive response system. This system is used to poll the audience using short, collaboratively-solved multiple-choice questions, called ConcepTests. Besides making class more fun, this method of teaching, developed at Harvard, has shown to result in a better understanding of the material.

 

APPROACH

Physics 11b, places a heavy emphasis on understanding. For each topic, the concepts are introduced before any quantitative mathematical treatment is given. This separation of the development of the ideas of physics from the development of mathematics has shown to improve learning and retention and to result in better problem solving skills.

 

ORGANIZATION

A number of aspects of the course have been automated so as to give the staff more time to interact with students. Computers are widely used in the teaching of this class. While a class that makes extensive use of computers runs the risk of becoming 'impersonal', we use computers only to maximize teaching efficiency or to do otherwise time-consuming routine tasks like sectioning and testing. All course handouts are available at any time (and from any place on the Internet) on this web site. Apart from the interactive response system mentioned above, Physics 11b has a 24-hour web-based discussion forum. This allows the entire class to benefit from the questions and answers that get posted on the net. Finally, the entire teaching staff is reachable via electronic mail.

 

ACCESSIBILITY

The Teaching Staff for Physics 11 strives to be as accessible as possible -- we are there to help you learn physics:

• After lecture, we remain available in Science Center 104 to answer questions.
• We hold frequent office hours
• We can be reached via telephone from 8:00 AM until 11:00 PM!
• We are reachable via e-mail
• We regularly monitor the forum on this web site

 

GRADING

The grading policy is non-competitive and lenient (see the syllabus for details):

• There is no curve; we use an absolute scale!
• You can earn 20% by doing your homework
• You earn another 10% by doing your reading assignments
• Another 10% is added for doing your laboratory assignments
• You can get another 5% just by taking the workshop pretests in class and participating in class
• You can still get half-credit for up to two late problem sets
• The final exam can resurrect your grade and make up for points lost on midterm exams