Online office hours on Tuesday afternoon

I will hold online office hours on Tuesday afternoon, 1:00 - 2:30 PM. Look for the link in the Webcourses home page.

Learning module G

You are now cleared to work on learning module G, concerning quantum physics and the periodic table.

Image: electron diffraction.

Bank error in your favor.

A student discovered a glaring error on Exam 1: It was supposed to be a 48 point test!! I can hardly believe it! As plain as the face on your nose, yet I still missed it.

So to make up for the error, everybody gets +8 points, just like in Monopoly, when you get the "Bank error in your favor. Collect $50" card. Mentally add that +8 to the Exam 1 score from last Thursday, and that'll be your new and improved score. The extra 8 points are now in your Grades page as Monopoly +8.

Wednesday evening office hours

We will have another online office hours session on Wednesday night. Here are the specs:

2/5/14, 9:00 PM

Wednesday evening, Feb. 5 General online office hours, for any topic. Start Time: 02/05/2014 9:00 PM Duration: 90 min URL: http://ucf.adobeconnect.com/r2ifrksq9ej/ Password is located inside Webcourses.

Participation points from mini-quiz C

I just posted the participation points from mini-quiz C from last week.

This week's module is open, and mini-quiz D is due by Thursday, 5:00 PM.

Nice.

Online office hours; learning module C

Learning module C is ready for you to work on.

We will have online office hours next week, Monday night and Wednesday night, to prepare for Exam 1 on 1/30. Here are the basic specs:

Online office hours, using Adobe Connect
1/27/14, 9:00 PM	Monday, Jan. 27 PM Summary: Reviews and queries prior to Exam 1 on Thursday. Start Time: 01/27/2014 9:00 PM Duration: 90 minutes
1/29/14, 9:00 PM	Last chance office hours, 1/29/14 Summary: Last chance for queries and review for Exam 1 on Thursday. Start Time: 01/29/2014 9:00 PM Duration: 90 minutes

I published the URL and password for each session in Webcourses.

Mini-quiz B is UP.

I made a few modifications to mini-quiz B, and it is ready for your study now.

Participation points UP

I just racked up your "participation points" from mini-quiz A. Look in your Grades page.

If you missed today's deadline, you will be able to use the mini-quiz to study with, but you won't get the points.

I will publish Learning Module B maybe on Friday afternoon or Saturday AM.

Syllabus, textbook, grades etc.

The exam schedule is already up, and now the full syllabus is activated. It shows you the schedule of the various point-earning events for the semester:

1. exams
2. participation points from mini-quizzes

Also, the grade scales and various other instructions are there.

Note: Because there is a lot of turnover of enrollment during the first week, the actual work due this week is light: the Getting Started module.

Final exam now running, must be completed by 10 PM.

Final Exam today

available 10:05 AM - 10:00 PM

83 questions, 96 regular points plus three bonus point questions, so you can actually earn 99/96 if you crush this final. You must finish by 10:00 PM.

Regular participation points are now up to date.

Your semester grade is based on

1. 144 points from three midterms,
2. 48 points participation (i.e., making the mini-quiz deadline)
3. 96 points on the final exam, Dec. 7

Your regular participation points are now up to date, from mini-quizzes A - K. Therefore, items (i) and (ii) are on the books.

Note: your participation pointage from mini-quiz O are bonus points. That deadline is tomorrow, Nov. 27!

Your big grade ahead is the final exam, on Saturday, Dec. 7. It is 96 points, double the size of a midterm, but you get almost three hours to complete it. Check the syllabus handout page. It is cumulative.

THe final exam is mandatory, and no one may take it early or late, only during the free period on Saturday, Dec. 7, 10:05 AM - 10:00 PM. Be sure to schedule your Saturday carefully to leave a three-hour block of time between 10 AM and 10 PM. Clear everything NOW with your boss at work: academics has priority!

Mini-quiz O is ready now.

You can now log in to Mini-quiz O for Oceans. It is due next Wednesday, before the Thanksgiving Day vacation.

Learning module K is ready.

Your last learning module for Exam 3 is now ready. It includes a simple mini-quiz, calculating magma pressures underneath Mount Vesuvius.

Excellent.

Where your grades stand, as of today

You are probably wondering about where your semester grade is heading. Here is a short blurb about how to estimate the state of your grade, as of today.

1. Add up your two exam scores, total points possible = 96.
2. Add your semester subtotal of participation points, total points possible = 40.
3. So the total available right now is 136 points.
4. Next, calculate your percentage: (your points)/136.
5. Then look up your grade estimate on this table:

   Estimated grade	Points as of 11/3	Percentage
   A	123 or more	0.90
   B	102	0.75
   C	82	0.60
   D	68	0.50
   F	fewer than 68	< 0.50

The grades chart here rhymes with the grade scale in the Syllabus handout page except for the baseline pointage. Here the baseline is 136 points; for the true semester grade, the baseline is 288 points. We still have a lot of pointage ahead of us! You can still make a dent in a low grade.

Learning module for this week -- rocks and minerals

You have a new learning module for this week, concerning rocks and minerals, another application area for our understanding of the quantum world. We dip forward to Ch. 17.

On a side note, expect to see a few bonus points opportunities set up in Webcourses, for your grade-earning possibilities. Keep alert.

Learning module G is ready to go.

Learning module G, on the periodic table, is ready to go now. It is the last new module for Thursday's Exam 2... although, do not forget the first set of modules, because F = ma is always on the schedule in a physics class!

Learning module E2 is ready.

Your learning module for this week, E2, is now ready.

New: I have included a bit of extra reading, through the UCF Library network's Credo database.

Participation points update; grade status estimate

This morning, I updated your participation points from mini-quizzes B, C and D.

SO... there is now a total of 64 points possible to have earned:

1. 16 participation points, 4 from each of the mini-quizzes A-D;
2. 48 points from Exam 1.

So if you want to estimate your grade status as of this week, you can add up your participation points and exam score, then divide that by 64. That result will be your current percentage. Then go and look at the grade scale on the syllabus handout page.

I normally do not give out letter grades on exams, but if I were to give out semester grades this week, that is how you'd estimate it.

Midterm Exam 1 mandatory, this Thursday.

Your first midterm exam is on Thursday, Sept. 19th. It is mandatory: there is enough availability time that you can block out an hour of time for it during the day and NOT miss it. If you miss it, it goes down as a zero.

Specs:

1. 60 minutes
2. 48 points
3. multiple choice, matching and a few calculations. Multiple choice and matching questions are one point each, but calculation questions are for two or three points, so there will probably be a few less than 48 questions that make up the 48 points.
4. Available approximately 10:05 AM
5. must be finished by 11:59 PM

Important: You must be sure that your computer and your ISP are functioning perfectly, because the instructor cannot troubleshoot anything for you in that line. It is 100% the student's responsibility. If your computer or ISP flakes out in the middle of the exam, your exam is going to be toast. So be paranoid about computer and ISP. If in doubt, slide over to main campus and take the exam in the library.