Mini-case study is ready to go.

The mini-case study is now up and available to start working on. It involves some reading on an excellent web site about Leonardo da Vinci and an article in Nature about the North Korea nuclear test last fall.

Due date is Sept. 4, next Tuesday, at 11:55 PM. You will post your writing inside the Discussions area. Click on the man-carrying-pencil icon on our homepage inside Webcourses for full instructions.

Sign-in method via my.ucf.edu portal

In case you encounter weird password troubles at the standard Webcourses sign-in page,

http://webcourses.ucf.edu

you can also try the My.UCF.edu portal. They have a new sign-in feature that will show all your online course areas, whether in the old WebCT or the new Webcourses.

Instructions for New! Online Course Tools Tab.

The modification to your portal page is kind of weird - you deactivate some stuff in order to activate the new tab. But it seems to work. Here is what the new "Online Course Tools" tab looks like on my portal page,


(dark grey tab by fountain)

Mini-quizzes for each chapter

There are some new mini-quizzes since yesterday: one for each of chapters 2, 3 and 4, and more will be released soon, so that you have one for each chapter in the Sir Isaac Newton Learning Module.

So click on the home page's little Sir Isaac Newton icon, and you will see all the mini-quizzes plus the rest of the study materials in the learning module.

Sir Isaac Newton Learning Module is now UP

The first learning module for the semester, the Sir Isaac Newton
Learning Module, is now UP on the homepage in Webcourses. Click on
its icon to see a bunch of study activities to work on, and keep you
eye on it over the next few weeks, as I add new stuff in to work on.

Password help to Webcourses

There are two help links if you have password troubles when trying to enter Webcourses.ucf.edu.

1. Login Help
2. Login and Password information

Both of these links are on the Webcourses sign-in page.

First week to-do list

You can now click in to the PSC1121-0W62 area of Webcourses. Your objectives until Sunday evening are the following:

1. Work on the "First Week To-Do List" which is a small learning module, linked on the home page.
2. Get your textbooks.
3. STUDY AHEAD: Skim and eyeball the diagrams and figures in
   1. chapter 5 (gravitation),
   2. chapter 15 (waves), and
   3. chapter 20 (electromagnetism).

Final exam, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007

Our final examination will be on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007, between noon and 11:55 PM. Make sure to clear your schedule to have that day free for your exam. You will need a two-hour block of time for the final exam.

Day 1

I will probably open our Webcourses area for you on Wednesday.

Until then, you can do these things:

1. Read the announcements on Blogspot. Our announcements for fall semester PSC1121-0W62 are at

http://online1121.blogspot.com/


2. Purchase the two required textbooks. I have them listed at the above Blogspot. I suggest buying them online; I have not asked the UCF bookstore to supply your textbooks this semester.


3. Do not buy anything other than the textbook and problem solving manual. WebCT Access codes are not required and we will not use them. ThomsonNOW access codes are not required and we will not use them. There are no clickers required and we will not use any of them.

4. If you already have the textbook, you can start skimming and looking over diagrams and figures in chapters 5, 11 and 20.


On Wednesday, after lunch, there will be a list of things to do for the first few days before we launch into the first main learning module.

Wednesday, I will also have the midterm exam schedule and grading scale up, inside Webcourses.

Required textbooks

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS

1. Authors: Kirkpatrick and Francis
   Title: Physics: A World View
   ISBN: 049501088X
   Edition:6


2. Authors: Kirkpatrick and Francis
   Title: Problem Solving for Physics: A World View
   ISBN: 0495010936
   Edition:6