EveryDay Science
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| Class: | EveryDay Science, PHY103 |
|---|---|
| Instructor: | Dr. David R. Burgess, E-mail (dburgess@rivier.edu) |
| Semester: | Summer I, 2020 |
EveryDay Science is a core science course that can be taken to fulfill one of the general education science requirements at Rivier University. The course will help students to review and better understand some basic science content associated with the world around us. The course will not require attendance at chat sessions, nor will it require any face-to-face meetings. The course content and homework problems are accessed through our EveryDay Science website. You are not required to buy a textbook for the course, but some limited outside research may be needed from time to time.
The class is somewhat topical in nature. That is, you don't have to know the material in chapter one to understand the material in chapter four. A general focus throughout the class, however, will be on developing theories that explain our observations. Good theories agree with our observations. This is a major activity of scientists: to figure out how the world around us works and to create models (theories) that reflect their findings.
So, an overall focus of the course will be to investigate how we model the world around us. The topic outline is given below:
Science and MathTheories in ScienceScience in the Real World |
You should use the menus on this site to proceed through the course from top to bottom as given in this topic outline. Don't skip pages. You are expected to read every page on the website. Don't go directly to the homework. As you go through the topics you will be asked to think about what is going on and answer some questions about your observations. Most of the time this should be very straight-forward and for some of you it will look like an easy review of some of the most basic science. The questions are not trick questions and they should be answered using basic ideas. The answers should not be long or drawn out. Beware, however, of answering too quickly and not considering all aspects of the problem. In some of the modules you will be asked to think about it as if you were the teacher of a class. You may even be asked to consider what students might say if they were answering the questions. Hopefully this will help you look at the problem from different view points. When answering those questions, I expect you to write what the student would say, even if you don't think it is correct. For all of the review homework, however, you should provide the correct answers, not what you think a student might say.
Homework will be due twice a week, generally at 6 am on Tuesdays and Fridays. See the schedule for exceptions due to holidays, etc.
The homework is divided into three categories. Most web pages will have a short homework associated with it. Sometimes it is just a short answer question from the reading, other times it is a short multiple choice set of questions from the reading. All of these are required to get credit for the course. I will spot check these assignments, you will get the correct answers for most of the multiple choice assignments when you submit them and many of the short answer questions will be addressed on the next page after you submit your response, but I will not provide extended answers unless asked. The percentage of these completed will be 15% of your final grade.
Review homework will be given over several web pages and sometimes at the end of a major section. These will be graded. Your grade and the answers for these homework assignments are sent to you when you submit the homework, so only the grade for the first submission will be recorded. You should be confident that your answers are correct before submitting the review homework. Multiple submissions will not improve your grade. The percentage of correct answers will be 45% of the final grade.
In addition, there will be three short papers. They will be due approximately every other week (see the homework schedule below). The first two papers will each contribute 10% toward the final grade and the third paper (Paper #3) will count as the final exam and contribute 20% toward the final grade. There is a very specific format to be followed for these papers that will be explained later.
Navigation notes: You should go through the pages in order from top to bottom, including any overview pages and the submenus for each one as you go down the list. It is best to complete individual assignments in one sitting, but the "Back to Work!" link will take you back to the last page you were working on if you have to take a break or log back in.
When you submit homework the software will automatically send a copy to you and to the instructor. It will also take you to the next page. If you get the email and it takes you to the next page, you can assume that the homework has been submitted. The scores will not automatically go into Canvas. The instructor has to manually place the scores into Canvas, which may not happen until the due date.
One last homework note. The first topic, science math, is a little different in terms of homework from most of the rest of the course. In this first section you have to click on the "Homework" link at the top of the page to get to and submit homework. They are also all multiple choice assignments, without any short answer page homework involved.
The percentage of Page Homework, the average score of the Review Homework, and the grades for the papers will count as described above and shown in the following table:
| Criteria | % of Grade |
| Page Homework | 15% |
| Review Homework | 45% |
| Paper #1 | 10% |
| Paper #2 | 10% |
| Paper #3 | 20% |
The final grade will be determined using the criteria for Academic Assessment at Rivier University. A student with a Page Homework percentage of 87%, a Review Homework average of 84%, a grade of 80% on the first paper, 83% on the second paper, and a grade of 86% for the Final Exam (Paper #3) would get
(0.15)(87) + (0.45)(84) + (.1)(80) + (0.1)(83) +(0.2)(86) = 84.4
and would receive a B for their final grade.
Email questions are encouraged. You can use your Rivier email from your own client (put PHY103 in the subject) or use the email form in the main menu. I prefer the form on this website because it identifies the email with this class and I am more likely to see it when it is buried among all of my other emails. Do not use the Canvas conversations tool. It causes me more work! Every attempt will be made to quickly answer questions, but don't leave things to the last minute! The instructor will not normally be available on Saturday and will never be available on Sunday. Also, since the homework will start to be graded at 6 am, he will likely go to bed early the night before homework is due!
I will post questions and answers on our Canvas homepage when it will be helpful to the whole class. That homepage will be like a discussion page for us in this regard.
Note: Only the first submission of the homework will be graded. Do not submit the same homework multiple times. Also, you will have to be patient. Watch for the note at the bottom left of the browser that says "Waiting for chemistry.rivier.edu" when sending homework. If that is there, it is going through Rivier's email system and it doesn't help to click on the submit button a second time!
Homework should be completed and to the instructor by 6:00 am of the due date. Think of this as a Monday and Thursday evening course where you are given until 6 am the next morning to get the work in. In the table below, MA1 - MA4 means MA1, MA2, MA3, and MA4 are all due. All of those pages should be done before attempting the Math Review Homework #1.
| Week | Topics | Homework | Due Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introductions / Science Math |
First Homework, MA1 - MA4 Math Review #1 |
Tuesday 19 May |
| Science Math | MA5 - MA10 Math Review #2 - #3 Final Math Homework |
Friday 22 May | |
| 2 | Balls and Ramps | BR1 - BR21 BRreview 1-4 |
Tuesday 26 May |
| Science and Math | Paper #1 | Friday 29 May | |
| 3 | Scientific Theories/Scientific Merit Floating Forks |
merit 1-2, Floating Forks 1-5 Floating Forks Review |
Tuesday 2 June |
| Teeter-Totter | Numerical Theory Statement (A 10 point review homework) |
Friday 5 June | |
| 4 | Cooling by Boiling | cooling 1-8 coolingReview |
Tuesday 9 June |
| Making Ice Cream | Colligative 1-10 ColligativeReview |
Friday 12 June | |
| 5 | Floating and Sinking | density 1-10 densityReview |
Tuesday 16 June |
| Scientific Theories | Paper #2 | Friday 19 June | |
| 6 | Atomic Theories Light and Color |
AT1 - AT5, atomicReview LC1-LC5, LCreview 1 |
Tuesday 23 June |
| Light and Color | LC6-LC14 LCreview 2-5 |
Friday 26 June | |
| 7 | Review Homework | Last Homework | Tuesday 30 June |
| Nature of Science | Paper #3 | Friday 3 July |
A 15 week, three credit course usually requires three hours (50 minute sessions) in class per week, plus 2-3 hours outside of class for every hour in class, for a total of 9-12 hours per week. The 9-12 hours per week rule is also appropriate for this three credit on-line course when taught during a regular semester. Since it is now offered in only seven weeks, the time may be approximately doubled. This, of course, will vary dramatically from student to student depending on the background of each student, but it is an important consideration especially if it has been some time since you studied basic math or science.
You will need a computer that has access to the internet with a resolution of at least 1024x768. You must also have the latest version of either Firefox, Chrome, or Edge and accept cookies from StudentWorldTeacher.net and rivier.edu (it may help to make them trusted sites). Some multimedia may require flash. Some browser configurations will also require that you accept third party cookies. Your browser must be CSS (cascading style sheet) enabled, which is the default for most browsers these days. Most browsers work without making changes, so don't do anything unless there is a problem.