Office: 322a Bell Bldg. |
The text for this course is "The Physics of Solids," by Richard Turton. We will supplement the material heavily from other sources.
If you have a question, please ask it. If you have a comment, please make it. Even an anonymous note under my door or in my mailbox is fine. Communication is the essence of the classroom experience. I am pleased to see you any time you can find me.
This is a senior-level course. It assumes senior-level sophistication and independence in the use of mathematics, physics, and computers. More specifically it assumes math through Differential Equations, physics through Modern Physics, and the ability to use Mathematica and other computer tools,
I expect you to have studied the relevant material for each day. Assume that I may give you a short quiz at any time to help motivate you to be prepared for class. The most common, and perhaps the deadliest habit is to postpone your assault of the material. You are expected to diligently apply yourself, since it is your future you are working for. Assume that I may give you a short quiz at any time to help motivate you to be prepared for class. The best advice I can give you is come to every class, take good notes, read the book, do the problems, talk with your classmates, and keep up. I know these sound trivial, but they are all too often ignored.
Attendance, timliness, and participation are critical to the learning process and an integral part of this course. Since class time is heavily invested in supplemental material you cannot possibly make up missed material simply by studying the text. I often circulate an attendance sheet that you initial so I can keep track of attendance. In general, I believe that absence is its own punishment, that is, you miss things you can't possibly get by going over a classmate's notes. You are responsible for material covered that day. Contact one of your classmates for the notes. Failure to attend class on the day an assignment is assigned or due does not mean that you may turn in a late assignment without penalty. There are certain aspects of the course for which the information can be obtained only in class, thus, a student who misses class will miss material they will need on quizzes and tests. There will be no makeup quizzes. If you have a catastrophe please contact the undergraduate dean's office to get it documented. After I get notified by the Dean's Office I will judge whether you get an excused miss or a zero for the late or missed material.
A key word in education is RESPONSIBILITY. I have responsibilities as the instructor. You have responsibilities to yourself, me, and the class. One responsibility is to be in class every day and be there on time. As a student it is your job. Another is to read the day's reading before class. Also please do not think it is my job or my responsibility to teach you. IT IS NOT. It is my job to create an environment and to create situations in which you can teach yourself. This course is organized by the above goals and objectives in order to achieve this end. The goal of education is to empower the individual student to be self-taught. I can't do this for you, but I can help a lot.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the assigned day. Late assignments may be accepted (at my whim), but will ordinarily be penalized substantially.
Work problems neatly using only one side of the paper. Put your name on the top right corner on the back of the page. Neatness counts. Computer help, such as Mathematica, is appropriate, just be sure you print out your worksheet and turn it in with your assignment.
I may give pop quizzes without notice. If you keep up on your homework, reading assignments, and classroom activities you should have little difficulty with the quizzes.
We will have a quiz covering each topic or two. They may include problems, graphs, sketches, and explanations. I generally do not have multiple choice or true/false questions. If you question your score on a quiz you must bring it to my attention within 24 hours after the graded quizzes are returned in class.
Since I can't write exams in such a way that I know in advance precisely how difficult they are, I can't give you an advance guarantee of points resulting in a specific grade. I assign letter grades to exams when I return them to you. I encourage you to see me at any time for my assessment of your work. Below are the relative weights of the pieces of your semester grade.
Homework & pop quizzes 20%