Enigma machine for Ch. 20 concepts

There is a new Enigma machine for testing your grasp of Ch. 20 concepts.

If you have not tried Enigma machines before, it is like the tv show, Jeopardy -- only sideways.

You might find it helpful for study as you prepare for exam 2!

Chapter 22 mini-quiz is now UP

Your electromagnetism mini-quiz, for chapter 22 is now up. It has 21 questions and some study tips as you read through the chapter, so read carefully.

As usual, this mini-quiz closes on Wednesday evening, being as how we have a midterm exam on Thursday.

GradeMark for first draft

In the next week, I will be grading up your first drafts, using the TurnItIn.com GradeMark method. You will be able to see my comments and your points when you click on the little apple icon.

In Webcourses, I have posted a PDF of a grademarked dummy paper of mine, so you can see how yours might look. It is item 7.4 in the Writing module.

I will be grading papers Monday-Friday. So while I am grading, YOU get chapter 22 and all the other chapters squared away for midterm 2.

Deadline almost here, 45 minutes away

Deadline for first draft is almost on us. The submission period at TurnItIn.com ends at 11:59 PM tonight.

Twenty papers now

More papers are in at TurnitIn.com, twenty total. We are looking for all to be dropped off there by 11:59 PM tonight.

First paper is now IN at TurnItIn.com

OK, good, the ball is rolling, with one paper now turned in at TurnItIn.com. Jacob, good work

Let me caution everybody on their bibliographies: You can certainly keep it to 2 entries only, if you desire:

1. Grillo + 1 new source, for Leonardo da Vinci writers
2. Dalton + 1 new source, for Younger Dryas writers.

And the "new source" must be from Nature or Science.

If you include more sources, it is acceptable, but only from Science or Nature. I do NOT want to see any bibliography items from MSNBC.com or Wikipedia or anything like that. Consider them to be contraband. We are writing from scholarly journals only, Nature and Science. I will mark down any paper I see with contraband.

Intro paragraphs are few but nice

I have looked over a bunch of intro paragraphs tonight, in your private discussion areas, and although I had to rip apart a few of them (in a friendly way) :) most of them were good.

Make sure that you eyeball my comments on your intro paragraph before you submit your first draft tomorrow. Deadline is Friday night, March 28, 11:59 PM. Don't be late.

Ch. 21 currents mini-quiz, extended deadline

I forgot to open up the mini-quiz earlier this week, so I will extend the deadline for the chapter 21 mini-quiz til Sunday evening.

Don't forget your first draft papers are due tomorrow. See item 7.1 in the Writing module.

Also: even more, don't forget, we have a midterm exam next Thursday, lunchtime start and midnight deadline.

First draft assignment instructions now ready.

First draft instructions are now activated. Look in Writing assignments module, items 7.1, 7.2, 7.3.

First draft due date is in the instructions page.

First draft instructions will be out this afternoon

I am working on the last details of the instructions for the first draft of your writing assignment, which will be due Friday evening, March 28. Stay tuned.

Younger Dryas on History Channel

I watched a decent new program on History Channel, "Journey to 10,000 BC" which covered some of the concepts in the Dalton article about the comet impact. It was bigger than just the comet impact conjecture, though... It also had some other scientists talking about mammoths etc. Lots on carbon spherules, not much on iridium. Allen West and Albert Goodyear mentioned in Dalton's article are also in the program. Overall, fairly decent.

Next replays will be April 1, 7 AM... so you guys in Younger Dryas groups will have to make some coffee on April 1. :)

daVinci1 is cooking

The Connotea group daVinci1 is starting to cook pretty good. Their group library in Connotea is building up, and judging from discussions in the Webcourses discussion area, they have some good ideas for their spec sheet.

Ch. 20 mini-quiz is ready

Make sure to use the chapter 20 mini-quiz for study purposes this week. Look in Webcourses under the Photons learning module. Electromagnetism is going to be VERY helpful for almost every writing topic!

Tactics (1)

A few comments on tactics:

1. Sometimes the search mechanism in Nature and Science come up empty without good search terms. So experiment and try different keywords, such as
   1. "renaissance"
   2. "pigment"
   3. "Martin Kemp" (co-founder of Universal Leonardo)
   for da Vinci topics, and
   1. "spherule"
   2. "comet, carbon"
   3. "detonation"
   for Younger Dryas topics. Experiment and be creative.
2. You won't find an article that is dedicated completely to your answer, "The answer is that..." which would be nice. Your answer must be put together from pieces of information, so read carefully and look for nuggets that help you build up your answer.
3. There is sufficient room in these questions that each member of your group might have a significantly different perspective on the answer. E.g, someone might concentrate on iridium and another on carbon. So don't be put off by that, but learn from it and become more wise.
4. The journal Science is weird. If the two archive links, items 6.2 and 6.3 in the Writing module, are not working for you, especially 6.3 for Science, then go in through the UCF Library's website directly, which you can all do. Log in, then click the Online Journals link and type in Science in the Journal Title box and hit the GO button. This will get you rolling.

How to proceed

You each now have your question.

The writing project will be a paper (first draft, then final draft) in which you state your answer and why... backed up by solid scientific information.

The solid scientific information is what you must now hunt down in Nature and Science, bookmarking in Connotea if the article is really good for your paper. Talk over your hunting strategies etc. inside Webcourses discussions, in your group's private discussion group.

You won't be writing a textbook, so don't get carried away, but be free with discussion and hunting interactions. Kibbitz, coach and gab about finding information.

Next Monday I will release the specific guidelines and instructions for writing the first draft, so do your hunting this week.

If you can come up with one or two good sources, bookmarked in Connotea with an SFX link that works, you will be in great shape. Help each other find one or two good sources.

Let's go.

All Connotea groups activated

In Webcourses            In Connotea

---

Da Vinci 1daVinci1

Da Vinci 1adaVinci1a

Da Vinci 2daVinci2

Da Vinci 3daVinci3

Da Vinci 4daVinci4

Da Vinci 4adaVinci4a

Younger Dryas 1YoungerDryas1

Younger Dryas 2YoungerDryas2*

Younger Dryas 2aYoungerDryas2a*

Younger Dryas 3YoungerDryas3

---

Connotea column links to each group's library

Da Vinci 2, Da Vinci 3, Younger Dryas 1, Younger Dryas 2 and Younger Dryas2a have a few members not registered with Connotea yet.

These groups are now activated in Connotea

Our writing activity will occur in Connotea and Webcourses, so you will belong to a mirror group in Connotea that corresponds to your Webcourses discussion group. Here are the groups that are full in Webcourses and completely activated in Connotea:

In Webcourses            In Connotea

---

Da Vinci 1daVinci1
Da Vinci 4daVinci4
Connotea column links to each group's library

---

The following two groups are full inside Webcourses, but some members are not registered in Connotea yet.

1. Da Vinci 2, Sarah not on Connotea
2. Younger Dryas 2, Austin and Evan not on Connotea.

Which makes this a good point to remind you: no more points are available to you for the writing assignment unless you are part of Connotea. There are only 11 of you that have not gotten to this task, so get it done ASAP.

Here is the list, in no particular order, of all Connotea groups that have at least one student activated:

18. daVinci1
19. daVinci2
20. daVinci3
21. daVinci4
22. daVinci4a
23. YoungerDryas1
24. YoungerDryas2
25. YoungerDryas2a

Join a writing group! GO FOR LAUNCH

Time to join a writing group!

Look for this Connotea icon on the home page. It is the entryway for the writing/bookmarking group signup sheets. Double check the questions we selected and then find a group dedicated to that question.

As soon as you click to sign up, your Da Vinci or Younger Dryas group's private discussion area will automatically appear. Look in "Discussions related to the writing assignments" in Discussions. There are already two postings for you to read and act on. We will be grading your participation in the private discussions.

Also, look through the Writing module, especially the March-April schedule (item 1.3), Connotea catchup (item 4.3), and the blurb on how I will add your username to a Connotea group that corresponds to your WebCourses group.

Deadline for group signup is lunchtime, Monday after vacation. After that, we are going to proceed forward. If you miss this deadline, your grade for the writing project will be kaput.

Writing groups signup almost ready...

I am just fussing with ticky-tacky details now. I expect to activate signup sheets tonight! I will announce here when they actually ARE ready to roll.

Also: I have typed up a writing tasks schedule sheet for the next two months til the final exam.

Stay alert!

Maximum overlap waveforms spreadsheet file is now in Photons module

As promised, the spreadsheet mentioned in the visual podcast on superposition is now in Webcourses. The spreadsheet is called max_overlap.xls, and it has two access links.

You can change the snapshot time from t=5 sec to any other time, and the waveform will re-calculate and re-draw itself. Pretty slick. Try it out and see if it makes sense to you. Look in the "Photons, electromagnetic waves and energy" module.

Writing groups: sneak preview

I have set up a sneak preview of the questions we will use for writing groups. Take a look at the Writing module, item 5.1! Signups will begin maybe Wednesday afternoon or so.

Brand new podcast episode at Uvision; ex. 13

There is a brand new podcast episode for brain-burner exercise 13, p. 311. It is at out Uvision podcast site. It is a visual podcast, so it is best viewed in iTunes or an iPod. Your web browser might be OK. Always toggle to full screen.

The Uvision podcast site is linked in our Webcourses homepage. Look for the globe-on-page icon on the homepage. Enjoy.

Writing groups - signups will be this week.

Your topic group will form this week -- signup sheets in Webcourses -- starting Tuesday or Wednesday or so, and the deadline will be lunchtime, Monday after vacation. You cannot earn further points on your writing assignment without being in a group and without having your Connotea library up and running.

Once you join your group, there will be discussion tasks, research tasks in Nature and Science, Connotea bookmarking tasks,which you can work on while the rest of your group joins up. Those tasks will lead up to first draft of your paper, due date TBA. All will be located in Writing module, linked to the homepage icon of the man running with pencil.

As always, when I activate new tasks, I will announce them here in Announcements.

Chapter 15 mini-quiz should be up tonight

I am working on the chapter 15 mini-quiz right now. I expect to get it up and running by tonight. Remember to study the waves topics in concept guide 2!

Figure at left is related to exercise 13, p. 311, which is the chapter 15 brain-burner of the ages.

Remember to get your Connotea library activated and mailed to Ashton, PLUS make sure to take the two question selector quizzes.