Lab Syllabus - Physics 21
Introductory Laboratory I
Fall Semester 2010
This laboratory course is designed to accompany Physics 11. Students registered in Physics 21 must now be enrolled in Physics 11 or have previously completed Physics 11 or Physics 31.
Please note! – Physics 21 labs require a background knowledge that is best gained from concurrent enrollment in, or previous completion of, the accompanying lecture course Physics 11. For this reason, students who withdraw from Physics 11 during the add/drop period must also withdraw from Physics 21 or risk being disenrolled!
Students withdrawing from Physics 11 after the end of the Add/Drop period (Sept. 13) may remain enrolled in Physics 21 Laboratory, but are expected to independently continue their study of the Physics concepts relevant to each laboratory experiment. Failure to do so may seriously jeopardize their chances of successfully completing Physics 21.
Course Coordinator: Tom Warnock, Room A414 Cook Building (phone: 656-0052)
Office Hours: Find your TA’s office hours by clicking on the link to “Lab Instructor & TA’s” in the left-hand menu bar of Physics 21 Blackboard, or under “Courses - Physics 21” on the UVM Physics Department web pages.
See Mr. Warnock if you have any specific questions about the
laboratory course, or special problems regarding
attendance or grades.
Reminder: Add, Drop or Section Changes must be done using the UVM
Registrar's web page, or directly through the Registrar's office.
Course Format:
Please note! - Physics 21 uses the “Blackboard” course resources delivered via the Web, as part of the course. Each week, videos and/or photos of equipment used in the upcoming experiments, plus experiment hints, safety instructions, etc., will be found on the Physics 21 Blackboard course pages. In addition, you will use Blackboard to take “pre-lab and post-lab quizzes” on-line, to discuss lab related questions with other students and your course instructor, and to check your Physics 21 lab grades.
You can access
Blackboard by clicking on “UVM a-z” in the upper menu bar of the UVM homepage ( www.uvm.edu ),
selecting links beginning with “B”, then choosing “Blackboard”. Log into Blackboard using your UVM “netid” as your Blackboard username (“netid’s” can
be found by searching using the UVM “directory” on the UVM
homepage, and is usually the same as a person’s “e-mail” account
username). You must use the same
password to log into Blackboard as you do to log into your UVM email. If you have not updated your UVM email
password with the past year, you will need to visit http://www.uvm.edu/account/ to do so.
One two-hour laboratory per week, held in Room A409 Cook Building. You must attend each weekly laboratory session, completing all data taking and analysis during your lab period. Your lab report, including data, graphs, and completed analysis, must be handed in at the conclusion of the lab period. Lab reports will be graded on a scale of ten possible points, and the average of all your lab reports will constitute 60% of your final lab grade.
Prior to each lab, you should carefully read each upcoming experiment in the lab manual, and review information about the experiment posted on the Blackboard Physics 21 web-pages, as well as in your text. This preparatory work should provide you with sufficient background to do well on the pre-lab quizzes. Each week’s pre-lab quiz will be available beginning Thursday at 5:00 p.m.until the following Monday (midnight), just prior to the start of the lab cycle, and may be taken on-line anytime during this time. These weekly pre-lab quizzes can be accessed by from the left-hand menu bar of any Physics 21 Blackboard page. You will have three attempts at each pre-lab quiz, but only your latest attempt on each quiz will count. The average of all pre-lab quiz grades will constitute 15% of your final lab grade.
After completing each experiment, you are required to take an on-line
post-lab quiz designed to test how well you understood the
experiment. The post-lab quiz should be
taken after you have completed that week’s lab, and must be taken prior to the
following Monday’s (
All quizzes are “open-book”, but must be completed on your own, without help from any other person. To be graded - each quiz attempt must be submitted within the allotted time-limit. Each quiz attempt will be graded on a 0-10 points scale. You should plan to take each quiz sufficiently far in advance of the quiz deadline to allow for communication with your lab instructor should any technical difficulties prevent you from taking or successfully submitting your quiz. No make-up quizzes will be given.
A “Lab Practicum”, given during your regular lab meeting time (see the “Experiments” schedule), will count as 10% of your final lab grade. There is no final exam in Physics 21.
Required Course Materials:
Physics 21: Introductory Laboratory I Manual must be purchased from the UVM Bookstore (downstairs, near the Physics 11 textbooks) before attending lab.
Laboratory Notebook (quadrille ruled) duplicate pages with carbon, available in the UVM bookstore – look for “Physics 21 tag” on shelf in notebook section(upstairs); a transparent metric ruler; pencil with eraser; and an electronic calculator with trigonometric and exponential functions, and scientific notation.
Your Laboratory Notebook: All data must be recorded, as it is being taken, directly in your laboratory notebook. Make sure that you use a carbon under each “tear-out” page so that you have a record of your data and analysis. All entries should be clear and complete concerning what is being recorded and the details and conditions of the experimental setup. If you must redo a measurement, explain the reason in your notebook and cross out the old data in such a way that it can still be read. Never erase! General guidelines for preparing acceptable lab reports are given in the Introduction of the Physics 21 Introductory Lab manual. At the end of each lab period you are expected to hand in, to be graded, the “tear-out” original (not carbon copy) of all pages containing data and the analysis of the data including graphs. Also include any changes or additions to the published experimental procedures. Your laboratory report will be graded within 3 school days after it has been submitted and available for you to pick up either from the blue-hallway return boxes, or directly from your lab TA. All of your grades will be posted directly on Blackboard. If you wish to discuss your lab report, please see your lab instructor during their office hours.
Attendance : Attendance at all laboratory sessions and the lab practicum is mandatory. Failure to attend at the regularly scheduled time will result in a grade of zero for that activity unless you have received permission from Mr. Warnock to attend a different session. If you anticipate that you will be unable to attend your regularly scheduled lab, you must reschedule it with Mr. Warnock at least one week prior to the lab that you will miss. If you miss a lab due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond your control, (such as serious personal illness or a death in the family), contact Mr. Warnock as soon as possible. If space is available, you may be given permission to attend another laboratory session in the same week. Be prepared to provide documentation of the reason why you were unable to attend at the regular time. If you miss a laboratory due to legitimate circumstances beyond your control and are unable to arrange to attend another session the same week, apply to Mr. Warnock for an excused absence. There is a limit, however. A student missing three laboratories, for any reason, must “withdraw” or make a formal request to their Dean for an “incomplete”, to avoid a failing grade. If you have been given permission by Mr. Warnock to attend a different session for one week because of a particular scheduling problem or illness, you should hand in your report to the instructor of the section you attend. Your report will be graded by that instructor and posted on Blackboard.
Evaluation: Your final grade for Physics 21 will be determined approximately as follows:
Laboratory reports 60%
Pre-Lab quizzes 15%
Post-Lab quizzes 15%
Lab practicum 10%
Letter grades will be assigned to final course averages as follows:
A's 90-100% ; B's 80-89% ; C's 70-79% ; D's 60-69% ; Failures - below 60%.
(In unusual circumstances, or when necessary to compensate for significant differences in grading between different lab sections - final course grades for students in a particular section may be adjusted.) Students who are concerned about their performance in the course are encouraged to discuss the matter with Mr. Warnock. Please note that Monday, Nov. 1, is the last day to withdraw from courses.
Students are expected to comply with the University's Code of Academic Integrity. Please consult the website of the “Center for Student Ethics & Standards” for details. In addition to the matters described there, please note that it is a serious offense to submit a report, or use data, from an experiment in which you did not actively participate. Cooperation with laboratory partners is encouraged during the setting up and data gathering parts of each experiment, but your analysis, conclusions, and write-up must be your own individual work. You are encouraged to use the relevant Blackboard discussion forum (found under “Help” in the left-hand Course Menu bar of Blackboard) to discuss in advance the material being covered by a particular quiz with other students in the course. However - quizzes must be taken individually, and your answers must represent your own understanding and effort. You may use your text, lab manual and notebook, a calculator, and notes you have individually taken.
If you require special testing accommodations, you must contact Mr. Warnock as soon as possible so that the necessary arrangements can be made.