Week 8 learning module is now UP.

I have set up the learning module for angular momentum, this week's topic. There is a concept guide and a miniquiz, and I think I will also get a digital video in there later today.

Writing assignment 1A is being graded

We will be grading your revisions in Writing Assignment 1A in the next few days.

For those of you who felt inspired to pen a haiku, I thank you! :)

Exam 1 question 3 updated

I made a partial credit variation of exam 1, question 3, about Sir Isaac Newton's law of universal gravitation. If you stumbled on the vocabulary term "celestial objects" but got the first part of the sentence correct, then you now have 4 out of the 7 points, instead of zero.

So take a look at your Exam 1 grade and see if you got a 4 point boost. I am happy to do this, so thanks for alerting Ashton and me.

Learning module for Week 7 is up.

You can also start work on the Week 7 learning module in Webcourses, starting with the concept guide for chapter 7.

Writing Assignment 1A is ready; new sentence required!

Read our tips for revising your Writing Assignment 1 paper.

You can now go into Webcourses and

1. Review the instructions for reading our tips for revising.
2. Carefully revise your paper, according to the instructions.
3. Turn in your revision, in "Writing Assignment 1A."

NOTE: There is a new sentence required for everybody, so read step #2 about the final sentence.

Writing Assignment 1 is graded. YAY

We finished grading "Writing Assignment 1" last night. This is a day past what we wanted, but, I will extend the due date for the revision assignment, "Writing Assignment 1A," by one day.

Look for "Writing Assignment 1A" to open on Monday for uploading your revisions. Also, I will have instructions for handling the comments we made while grademarking.

By the way, your scores are not all showing up in your My Grades page in Webcourses for some reason!

1. Some of you have them,
2. some of you do not.

Until we get them all clicked into the My Grades area, you can still click the GradeMark icon for your paper. Then you will see your grade and the comments we wrote for your revision.

N.b. "Writing Assignment 1A" will be graded in accordance with the comments we made, so definitely eyeball them carefully.

Exam 1 today

Your first midterm exam is today.

1. You will have 60 minutes to complete it.
2. You can start at lunchtime or anytime later up until about 11 PM.
3. If you start after 11:00 PM, you won't have the entire 60 minutes before the exam deadline, 11:59 PM.
4. 40 points, and 1 point per item -- though sometimes a matching question appears as one question with three items, so there might not be 40 individual questions.

Learning module for this week is UP.

You have your midterm exam on Thursday, but I still have to set up the week 6 module, which is about the physical vector called momentum, chapter 6. The concept guide and mini-quiz are now ready inside Webcourses.

Your priority for the next 48 hours is exam 1, but try also to get in a bit of study on chapter 6.

Writing assignments IN

I see that most of you got your papers in on time for Writing Assignment 1. Good.

What happens next:

1. I meet with TAs tomorrow (Friday) and map out our grading strategy.*
2. Start grading papers.
3. Make progress announcements here as we go, when we have grademarked a significant fraction of the 41 papers.
4. If your paper is graded, you should be able to see a little icon -- you'll click it to see our comments and recommendations.
5. When all are grademarked, we will consult with you about improvements, because...
6. Writing Assignment 1A will be revisions, to make your initial paper rock solid.

So for now, bear down on chapter 5 work, and start getting ready for the online midterm exam 1 next week. I hope to have everything graded by Thursday next week.

* Note: In our pre-grading strategy, you might get a second digital receipt from TurnItIn. This will happen if we upload your paper into a dummy assignment area that my TAs and I will use for working out our strategy. It is like a pad of scratch paper. So do not get nervous if you get another digital receipt.

Remember not to quote in Writing Assignment 1

Try to remember: quoting any text from the assignment sheet that I wrote, or from the articles is NO GOOD.

1. It lights up the plagiarism alarm, which you want to avoid, of course.
2. It is not necessary for this assignment.
3. Complicates your writing, which should be of simple construction.

Writing Assignment 1 is due on Wednesday!

There are two students with writing assignment 1 IN. We need the rest of youse guys to turn in your work by Wednesday!

GO GO GO

Concept guide for chapter 5 is ready to go.

You can now tackle the chapter 5 concept guide and its matching moni-quiz, inside Webcourses. This is the last learning module that we will cover on exam 1 next week!

Note: some of the centripetal acceleration exercises from chapter 4 are connected to gravitational acceleration exercises in chapter 5! (Image: Sir Isaac Newton)