122 Policies

A. General

The course during this Summer Session commences on Monday, June 2 and concludes on Thursday, July 3. There are no Monday sessions and each section will have an additional eight days on which it does not formally meet. Five of these days are reserved for "make-up and final interviews" as described below. A schedule of experiments and meeting dates is distributed with this Syllabus. Laboratory Sessions are scheduled on Tuesday - Friday from 10:40 AM until 12:40 PM.

Help-Study sessions are for the students' benefit in gaining assistance with the conceptual and procedural basis of an experiment. The Help-Study Hall (PSH-360) will be staffed by the Instructor and Teaching Assistants from 1:00 until 3:00 PM each day except on PHY-121 examination days (June 9, 17, 26, and July 3). Teaching Assistants will not otherwise keep office hours except by appointment, but will alert their respective sections to the hours which they will be present in the Help-Study hall. However, assistance may be solicited from any member of the course staff on duty.

B. Laboratory and Grading Policy
There are five experiments scheduled for the term. In order to obtain a passing grade (D or better), a student must have completed four of these. AN "A" GRADE REQUIRES COMPLETION OF ALL FIVE.

The laboratory format is based on cooperative learning. Students will work together in teams of three or four. Teams will be organized by the section TA before the first two experiments, and reorganized before the final group of three experiments; thus, during the term each student will have two sets of teammates. Within a team, the division of responsibility will be as follows: one team member will be responsible for the equipment and its setup; one team member will coordinate the taking of the data; one team member will be the data recorder; and one team member will oversee the analysis of the data. (In groups with just three members, recording of data will be the responsibility of the analysis overseer.) All team members are expected to participate in all aspects of the experiment and to understand each aspect thoroughly, including the physical basis of the experiment and the conclusions drawn from the data. This understanding will be evaluated on the basis of a team interview, to be conducted by the TA and/or the course instructor, during which team members will be questioned on facets of the experiment other than those lying within his or her assigned responsibility. For example, the equipment coordinator may be asked quesitons about the data acquistion or analysis, but questions about the setup and maintenance of the apparatus will be directed to other team members. Thus, it is imperative that each member of the team be sure the others understand thoroughly his or her part of the experiment. Also reviewed during the team interview will be the data, the analysis and the conclusions, which must be preparted beforehand in an acceptable format (see below under Data Recording and Presentation of Results).

The team will be given a team grade based upon this interview. It is expected that team grades will be A's or B's. A C or less will require a follow-up (or final) interview. It is anticipated that most teams will successfully pass the first interview for each experiment.

A student's grade for the course will be based essentially on the accumulated team grades. However, the section TA has the option of lowering the course grade for an individual based upon appropriate reasons including, but not limited to, absence or failure to participate fully with one's team. Likewise, the TA may recommend a higher grade under suitable circumstances. However, it is reemphasized that each individual's grade is influenced by his or her effectiveness in the conduct of the experiment and in preparing the rest of the team for the interview.

C. Data Recording
Data are to be recorded in ink on 8(1/2) X 11 quadrille sheets (5 X 5). Team members should share the cost of a pad of quadrille paper.) These are to be no erasures or "white-outs". Errors are to be lined out. At the end of each laboratory period or the conclusion of the experiment, each data sheet is to be dated and initialed by all team members and section TA. Data should be recorded in tabular form with well-labeled columns, or otherwise distinctly entered onto the data sheet. The data may be transferred to computer spread-sheets, etc., for analysis if the team so desires. Each team member should obtain photocopies of all signed data and analysis sheets. (This is for your own protection.)

D. Presentation of Results
Under the interview structure and in light of the Sessions's compact schedule, no individual formal written experimental reports are required. However, the data are to be analyzed, with full attention to experimental and statistical uncertainties and the results are to be presented in tabular and/or graphical format as appropriate. There should also be a clearly written description of the analysis process complete with pertinent equations. All these documents, initialed and dated, as well as the original raw data sheets, are to be presented at the interview, with a photocopy of the entire packet made available to the interviewer.

E. Scheduling of Interviews
Most interviews will occur during the last hour or so of the second day on which the particular experiment is scheduled ('FIRST INTERVIEW' on the calendar schedule sheet) on a first-come first-served basis. Teams that need to revisit the experiment and/or repeat their interview can do so in the 'MAKE-UP AND FINAL INTERVIEW' period during the third day of the experiment cycle. Interviews normally will last no more than ten or fifteen minutes.

F. Relation to Lecture
The Department of Physics and Astronomy cannot afford to stock sufficient equipment to allow all students to conduct the same experiment at one time. Therefore, it is impossible to coordinate closely the laboratory work with material covered in the PHY-121 lecture. Consequently, some students may encounter a concept or physical principle in the lab before learning about it in lecture. This is not necessarily a bad ordering of the learning process; many prefer it. On the other hand, some students may wait for a week or more after learning the physics theory before doing the relevant experiments.