Ch. 23 concept guide is ready; new podcast.

The chapter 23 concept guide is ready to use. It is way different from the other concept guides, but hopefully it will be useful for studying.

There is a new visual podcast in iTunes U. It is related to a part of the chapter 23 reading.

I will try to make up a mini-quiz to go with chapter 23 by Monday.

ALSO: concept guide coming soon for chapter 24. Maybe Monday you will see that.

Week 5a learning module is going.

We now launch into the last three chapters of the semester, starting with Ch. 22, about electromagnetic radiation. We leverage that big concept to learn about the quantum world.

Learning module 5a is available, and it will have some chapter 23 and 24 concept guides by Saturday.

GO! GO!! GO!

Bonus questions, Exam 4

You can now propose bonus questions for Exam 4, in Discussions.

By the way, I chose two questions for Exam 3, but I forgot to type them into the test! By way of making amends, I will use them on the final exam as BONUS questions. Nice.

Ch. 21 mini-quiz is UP.

I just cleaned up the Ch. 21 mini-quiz and it is up and ready for your study activity.

Week 5

Almost all of the Week 5 learning module is now ready for you. I only have the Ch. 21 mini-quiz to fuss with. Expect it later today, maybe tonight.

If you have not already figured it out, this part of the semester, our Week 5, is a bit easier... not so many homework exercises, more conceptual questions emphasized, a few sections in chapters getting skipped over etc.

BUT, do not let me catch you nappin' on Exam 4, Thursday!!!

Week 4a learning module is up

Chapter 15 gets a simple treatment, just a few main concepts to work on. The concept guide is set up now in the Week 4a Learning Module in Webcourses.

GO! GO! GO!

Whewwww! What a test! New subtotal.

OK, Exam 3 is now on the books, and you can look at your score in My Grades.

Also, I just activated the "Exams subtotal" row in My Grades, which will eventually have 200 points' worth of testing in it two weeks from now. But right now, it has 110 points (or fewer) from the first three exams. You can estimate your semester grade -- if I were to give smester grades this afternoon -- by dividing your subtotal by 110 and then looking it up in the percentage column of the "Exams, grades" PDF on the home page.

Water columns

There is a new visual podcast with calculations etc. related to water columns and water pressure. Check iTunes U.

Suggest question for Exam 3 (bonus)

The "Suggest question for Exam 3 (bonus)" discussion is open in Webcourses. You can earn a bonus point, one half of a percentage on your semester grade, IF it is good enough to use on Exam 3.

By the way: I did not use any of your suggested questions on Exam 2. Lots of good ones, a few I had to reject outright. However, I did like one of the questions a LOT, but it is better for a final exam than for a midterm. SO...... One of these questions will be on the final exam. And that student will get the bonus point after the final exam on Aug. 6.

Learning module 4 and eleven visual podcasts

There are now eleven mini-podcasts for you to use in studying chapters 11, 12 and 13 this week, most of them from the exercises that might be tripping you up.

Also: Learning module 4 with concept guides is up, a replication of module 3a.

Chapters 12 and 13 UP

If you view the Week 3a learning module, you will see the concept guides for chapters 12 and 13 now available.

Chapter 12 is one of my favorite chapters, because I love the Bernoulli Effect!!

Learning module for the rest of this week.

We are now applying our basic scientific concepts to larger critters -- gases and atmospheres, liquids and oceans, solids and crystals, with culmination in thermodynamics of matter and radiation. The first concept guide, for Ch. 11, "Structure of Matter," is up and ready to go.

There will be some more readings, too -- asteroids and YORP.

Now open, "Suggest question for Exam 2 (bonus)" discussion

You can now create questions for Exam 2, in the "Suggest question for Exam 2 (bonus)" discussion area in Webcourses.

Love those bonus points. Two students nabbed one for Exam 1. Nice.

Mercury mini-podcast

I just set up a new mini-podcast on the orbital angular momentum of the planet Mercury. It explains and works out Exercise 82 in chapter 8. Look for it in our iTunes U area.

ALSO: there is a nice digital movie from a few semesters ago, with two UCF students demonstrating angular momentum. Sorry, the audio is iffy -- it was my first ever digital movie!

Chapters, chapters, chapters

I made up a PDF of the chapters that will be covered on each exam, including the final exam. Look for the coffee cup icon in our Webcourses home page.

New mini-podcast, Ex. 7.71

I just uploaded the new mini-podcast for Exercise 71 in Ch. 7.

Three more mini-podcasts

There are three more mini-podcasts in our iTunes U area, all three about momentum concepts. I created them for the 6th edition of the textbook, but we can use each for our 7th edition, viz.

1. Grade school for momentum, now Exercise 50, p. 113.
2. Woman who jumps on the skateboard, recorded with slightly different masses and initial speed, but same strategy as our Ex. 64, p. 113.
3. Popups, now Exercise 58, p. 113.

I will be trying out a new podcasting method today, so look for an energy-related mini-podcast sometime this afternoon..

Week 3 learning module is UP.

Your week 3 learning module is in place -- click the light bulb icon on the Webcourses home page. As a matter of fact, it has been available since yesterday, and it is the same as the Week 2a learning module, so....... GO FOR IT!

Angular momentum

The rather curious vector quantity called angular momentum is now set up for study, using the ch. 8 concept guide. You also have the chapter 8 mini-quiz to work on. GO FOR IT!!!



Angular momentum and spin, in a distant star system with planets, β-Pictoris.

Chapter 7, energy... plus readings

Your readings about the gravitational tractor are now up in the Week 2a learning module, though you have actually had links for two weeks or so. I will be asking questions about the concepts of asteroid diversion on Exam 2. To help you break down the articles, I also slapped a tip sheet on the readings into the Learning Module.

Chapter 7's concept guide and mini-quiz are now available, too. GO FOR IT!

Chapter 6 concept guide and mini-quiz

You can go for the chapter 6 concept guide now. Also the chapter 6 mini-quiz is ready.

I have two more chapters to update, and I will set them up asap.

Exam feedback

You can view the feedback blurb for each exam question by selecting "View Submission" from the Assessments page. I never publish the exam questions themselves, but these feedback blurbs let you see what each missed question was about, roughly.

Deluxe dynamical quantities in chapters 6, 7 and 8

You can start reading and studying about momentum, energy and angular momentum in chapters 6, 7 and 8. I will have concept guides available in a learning module by supper time today. Exam 2 will cover these three chapters.

Exam 1 scores now available.

I just made your exam 1 grades visible on your My Grades page in Webcourses. The examination average was about 21.7 out of 30 points. That is on the C-,C borderline.



I do not give letter grades on exams, only points. But if I did give letter grades, the diagram above would show where the exam shakes out. For simplicity, this histogram shows the four large grade categories, (A- and A), (B-, B and B+), (C-, C and C+) and (D-, D and D+).

Notice that a large fraction of the class did not pull a passing grade. If you are in that group, you want to modify your study activity.

Exam 1 proceeding normally.

I just took a peek at the exam 1 activity. About a dozen have finished, grades spread normally, high to low.

So it all works -- I always find it remarkable that Webcourses does this stuff. ;)

Anyway: get in there and start your Exam 1 attempt before 10 PM, so that you can get your full 60 minutes before the exam turns back into a pumpkin at 11.59 PM tonight.

Interaction low

These last few hours before your exam I will be working like a maniac to get it ready for you. So I will not be responding very much to course mail messages, discussion postings etc.

You guys focus on your test preparation. Study everything. And expect the unexpected.

Trouble ahead

Activity graph for the four mini-quizzes. Still weak.



Nearly half of class is not on the scoreboard yet... looks like trouble ahead.

Suggest question for Exam 1 (bonus point)

The "Suggest question for Exam 1 (bonus)" discussion area is now open for input from you. It is a study tool that can earn you a bonus point.

And do not sneeze at one bonus point. There are 200 regular points on exams, so each bonus point is another one half of a percentage point. Considering that only 2.5 percentage points separate A- from A, you MIGHT want to snag every last bonus point possible.

But you have to earn it. Be creative and on the mark with your question. Instructions are in the discussion area, and I have set up one example question to go by.

Week 2 learning module

Your week 2 learning module has been up since about Saturday or so. It is mainly a reiteration of Week 1, with a few extra links for Discussions and iTunes U.

GET GOING!

I sometimes look at the amount of activity on mini-quizzes to see where you all are doing in your study. It is not a perfect indicator, but it is useful nonetheless.

This is where the class is as of 7:30 AM today. Right now there are 113 students officially enrolled. This weak activity looks bad.



You had better get hustling! Summer B is over before you know it.

Special comment to seniors: Thirty of you are seniors. If you need this class to graduate, you had better pull it out and get down to business, because if you do not earn a passing grade, there are no special considerations: you will get an F. I have no reservations whatsoever about doing that.

New mini-podcast about tides

I just created a new mini-podcast about tides. It works through questions 43-46 on p. 95, in the chapter about gravitation. It is available in iTunes U.

New podcasts, how to correlate

I just dropped a new visual podcast into your iTunes U area, "How to correlate mini-podcasts to the 7th edition," which will help you use the old mini-podcasts that I made from the 6th edition of the textbook.

I also dropped in a few more mini-podcasts, re-organized them a bit, so you now have a little bit of podcasting for each of chapters 2 - 5.

Exam 1, and concept guides for this week's learning module.

The set of chapters we will cover for Exam next week is:

2. Chapter 2: Basic concepts concerning position, velocity and acceleration. These are MUST UNDERSTAND concepts.
3. Chapter 3: Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion. We will use these concepts every inch of the way this semester.
4. Chapter 4: Two special kinds of accelerated paths, uniform circular motion and the path of a baseball heading for the outfield. These are the simplest applications of Newton's three laws.
5. Chapter 5: Newton's great victory, the Law of Universal gravitation, a model of the scientific enterprise at full maturity.

The concept guides for the chapters 3-5 are now available in the Week 1 learning module, as promised. Plus, there are mini-quizzes that you can use for practice.

Remember to post questions in Discussions if the homework exercises throw you for a loop. You must crush Exam 1.

Working

I am working on some more concept guides for you today. They have to be updated for the 7th edition of the textbook. I hope to have them ready later in the day, and they will constitute the remainder of the work for you leading into Exam 1 one week from today.