Density of Earth

Earth's density is about 5.5 gram per cubic centimeter, which, compared to water (1.00 g/cm³) is pretty high -- Earth has a thick rocky crust and mantle above a metal core of iron and nickel, very dense.

Good session -- but....

We had a useful Adobe Connect session, but unfortunately, I forgot to record it.

We will have another conference on Thursday, maybe reviewing momentum concepts etc. and looking forward into energy and angular momentum.

Adobe Connect session this afternoon

Let's try another session in Adobe Connect:

Adobe Connect Meeting.

Meeting Name: Exam 1 review and momentum preview

Summary: Go over some of the brain burners on Exam 1 and maybe take a peek into momentum concepts.

Invited By: Thomas Brueckner

When: Monday 30 May, 02:00 PM - 02:30 PM

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US and Canada)

To join the meeting: http://ucf.adobeconnect.com/r53796689/

Room Passcode: (in Webcourses)

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If you have never attended an Adobe Connect meeting before:

1. Test your connection: http://ucf.adobeconnect.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm
2. Get a quick overview: http://www.adobe.com/go/connectpro_overview

Two more learning modules going in

The learning modules for chapters 7 and 8 this week will become available Tuesday (Ch. 7) and Wednesday (Ch. 8). Keep your eyeballs open.

Learning module for chapter 6 is up.

The learning module for chapter 6 on momentum is now up.

The concept of momentum is where physics really starts getting interesting, because all kinds of symmetries of nature are "visible" in terms of momentum.

DUDE! Dr. B flailing

Man, that Adobe Connect session was mostly me flailing with controls plus a lot of static from one of the student's microphone. :/

But we did discuss one brain burner. So you can spend a few minutes viewing and listening to the recording, by clicking the link in the Adobe Connect folder on our home page in WebCourses.

Getting ready

I am getting ready for Adobe Connect session.

Exam 1 scores are UP.

Your exam 1 scores are UP.

Also: I posted a blurb in your My Grades page about mysterious rows labeled "UPS" and "XA" etc. You can ignore those rows because I usually insert rows with abbreviations like that so I can sort and search subgroups of students in the roster. So if you have a 1, a zero or nothing in those rows, do not pay it any mind. Focus on mini-quiz related rows.

Exam 1 office hours

I have new conferencing software, as of 3:30 PM today, so I would like to try out a short office hours session tomorrow morning. Here are the specs:

Adobe Connect Meeting

Meeting Name: Exam 1 review

Summary: Review concepts in Exam 1.

Invited By: Thomas Brueckner

When: Saturday 28 May, 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US and Canada)

To join the meeting, http://ucf.adobeconnect.com/r66058527/

Password: in Webcourses.

It is my first time using Adobe Connect since 2009, so it is going to be fidgety, but let's give it a try.

Exam 1 is GO.

I see that several students are taking or finishing Exam 1. Good. It's all working normally. So I will be away from the computer for a few hours. Back at about supper time.

Mini-quizzes go off the air at 11:30 AM.

Don't forget to view and try the mini-quizzes, because they always go off the air at 11:30 AM on exam days. Do not be caught napping by last minute study! After 11:30 AM, you will be on your own.

Exam 1 today

Exam 1 will be available at 12:05 PM today, about lunch time in Orlando. Right now it appears to have disappeared → because I am making last minute changes, diagrams etc. But at 12:05 PM, it'll be ready, and plenty of nice juicy brain burners!

Block out 60 minutes free in your schedule, anytime after lunch but you'll have to click the "Finish" button on the exam by 11:59 PM tonight.

Obojobo

Apparently Obojob is having indigestion linking its grades to Webcourses. I will be taking a look at it, but do not stress out over those two mini-modules. You know what your score is, hopefully it is good, and the data will be in Webcourses eventually, by hook or crook.

For now, focus on the Exam 1 prep. Tomorrow is a day of challenge!

Bonus point: create a good question for Exam 1.

There is a bonus point opportunity now in Webcourses, the Discussions area "Create a question for Exam 1 (bonus)," in which you can try for a bonus point.

You'll create a multiple choice concepts question for Exam 1, from chapter 2, 3, 4 or 5 concepts. Instructions are in the discussion area, and I started the discussion with an example question. If it is good enough to use on the exam, then you'll get 1 bonus point right after the exam PLUS you will know the answer for at least one of the exam items beforehand. So will anyone who studies your question in Discussions.

Nice.

So get in there and see if you can post something excellent before midnight tonight.

More mini-podcasts up

I just activated a handful of new mini-podcasts to support your study activities in chapters 4 and 5. Fire up your iTunes application and vie these mini-podcasts.

More learning modules up.

The other two learning modules are now up for this week:

4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5

Plus there are some follow up study tools on Newton's Second Law and constructing Δv vectors on graph paper. They take you to the university's OBOJOBO server, and the performance links back to Webcourses, so your score shows up in your My Grades page, even though it is just a study tool and not a part of your semester grade.

Beehive

The area in Discussions for laws of motion is becoming a beehive of activity.

Excellent!

Question strategy

One of the nice things about Webcourses is the Discussions area. You can post a question about a homework or study question and then get some feedback from me or from a classmate. If you know a bit of HTML, you can even use subscripts and exponents, like F_net = 22.3 kg m/sec², if you check the "Use HTML" box in your post. Nice.

If you want F_net = 22.3 kg m/sec² then check the "Use HTML" box and type in F_net = 22.3 kg m/sec²

Ethics video

Please view the Ethics at UCF video and then take the brief anonymous survey.

Online journal access

I have fixed up a folder on our Webcourses home page that links to the journals Science and Nature. No specific articles are assigned yet, but you can click through and look around, maybe even LEARN something! :D

Chapter 3 learning module is UP.

You can now start working on the Chapter 3 learning module for this week.

How to use iTunes U

View this YouTube before trying out our iTunes U links in Webcourses. It shows you how to view all the equations, formulas and diagrams in each visual podcast.

Textbooks etc.

I just published a blurb about getting the textbook. Of course, your first option is the UCF Bookstore. But the blurb sheet also has a few other options.

Also, you will see how to register your library card for required online journal access.

Learning module for chapter 2

You can now try the outline in the Chapter 2 concept guide. It has concepts, vocabulary, homework exercises to try and various comments. We will be pacing two or three chapters per week. With the chapter 2 mini-quiz, it makes up a bundle known as the Ch. 2 Learning Module.

More later on. Stay tuned.

Where to start today

For early birds wanting to get going fast, try reading through chapter 2 of the textbook and as you go, try the Ch. 2 mini-quiz. It is a study tool for reading and will be converted to points on your semester grade. SO get a first look at it -- you will have unlimited number of attempts.

Welcome, Monday, May 16, 2011

Good morning!

A quick announcement for the first day of classes. Here are some items of information for the first day:

1. I will be inserting learning materials this morning, so expect more and more stuff to work on, hour by hour.
2. Bookmark this Announcements Blogspot, Online1121.blogspot.com which carries announcements every day. They come in sometimes several times per hour. It is necessary to check here before asking questions in Webcourses or digging up info, since the information you need is sometimes already here.
3. Prepare to purchase the textbook...
   1. through the UCF bookstore, or
   2. through some hyperlinks to the publisher, which I will set up here today, eventually.

First week of classes is designed to be fairly basic activity, since people are coming and going, dropping and adding. Most of the regular syllabus type information will be in place today or tomorrow, and some learning activities, too.

So keep an eye on Webcourses and Announcements, and we will bring this group up to speed by Friday!

Twitterness

We will dominate twittering concepts by lunchtime today.

Final exam scores

I forgot that Sunday morning they shut down Webcourses for maintenance. So converting your 84 point exam to a 100 point equivalent is still on my to-do list.

What I eventually will be doing is:

1. Divide your exam score by 84. This gives me your percentage. E.g., 69/84 = 0.82142857
2. I multiply that percentage by 100. So in the example, I would get 69/84 → 82.142857.
3. Then, to keep things simple, I round UP to the next whole number. To complete the example 69/84 → →83/100 for the final exam score conversion.

So this is why you will see some hipsy-dipsy maneuvering with rows in your My Grades page.... as soon as Webcourses comes back on.

Bonus points; My Grades weirdness.

On a final exam, I usually set up maybe 4 or 5 bonus point opportunities. Therefore, since I could not squeeze in some Ch. 24 exam questions etc. on the final, I converted your Chapter 24 mini-quiz work into bonus points, 1, 2, 3 or 4 bonus points based on your average for the 4 attempts. The bonus points appear in "Bonus activity X" row of your My Grades page.

And Webcourses just burped on me again. >:|

UNbelievable! Well, the bonus data are in there. Also, your final exam score is released now.

I will be working on grades for the next two days or so. For this reason, you might see a bonus point file disappear and reappear suddenly, a midterm change position or some similar weirdness on your My Grades page. Do not stress out -- iit is just a sign of me arranging and rearraging data in the klunky Webcourses grade book!