This is the course navigation page for Physics 40B (Sec 001): General Physics with Professor Flip Tanedo at UC Riverside, Winter 2021.
Prerequisites: Physics 40A or 40HA Co-requisite: Math 9C or 9HC
This course will be semi-asynchronous and mostly flipped classroom style.
We will be using our time a bit differently than a traditional lecture.
Tuesday: overview of material
9:30 - 10:30am: lecture recording (Zoom, recorded)
Thursday: discussion of quick surveys, chance to ask questions
9:30 - 10:00am: lecture recording (Zoom, recorded)
10:00 - 10:30am: question & answer session (not recorded)
Friday: TA office hours (to be determined)
You are not required to attend lectures, all videos will be posted to this course webpage. The Thursday 10:00-10:30 question and answer session is not recorded and is a great way ask about the course (or anything else).
We will not have any exams in this course. I do not believe in high-stakes examinations as a way to assess learning. We will not be using the final exam time slot for the course.
During this term, you will have a total of two group interviews: one with Prof. Tanedo and one interview with TA Ian Chaffey. These two interviews will be scheduled either during your discussion section time or at 10:30-10:50am on Tuesday/Thursday. These two interviews are the only mandatory real-time participation for the course.
Assignments are due at 11:59pm on the day specified. Details about the assignments are below.
Monday: explainer videos & peer reviews due, Mastering Physics assigned (due Fri)
Tuesday: explainer videos (due next Mon) and quick surveys (due tomorrow!) assigned
Wednesday: quick surveys due
Thursday: peer reviews assigned (due next Mon)
Friday: Mastering physics due
Textbook: Physics for Scientists and Engineers: A Strategic Approach with Modern Physics, 4th Edition, by Knight.
You are required to also have the Mastering Physics online subscription through Pearson.
Tech Stack: We will use the following
Zoom: video conferencing to attend lectures and interviews in real time; also useful for your own recordings
Slack: we will have a Slack workspace to ask homework questions
Mastering Physics: some of your assignments will use the Pearson Mastering Physics website. Our course id is tanedo18896. Instructions to log into Mastering Physics.
Google Forms: we'll be using Google Forms to submit url links to your assignments and to answer the quick surveys.
All homework questions should first go to the class as a whole in our Slack channel. You are encouraged to work with one another. If someone was really helpful, you should give them a shout out in your video and your survey.
You can also ask questions during the Thursday 10:00- 10:30 Q&A session. (If there are no questions, this can also be an ask-me-anything or a time to send each other entertainment recommendations)
The TA office hour on Friday is the "last chance" to ask questions to the teaching team before the homework is due.
e-mail policy: for issues that can't be solved on Slack, you may contact Prof. Tanedo or TA Ian Chaffey by email or via a direct message on Slack. Please make sure that the subject of your e-mail includes the phrase "Physics 40B" or else it may get filtered out. Note that we will be checking our 40B emails approximately twice a week, so this may be the slowest mode of communication.
We are running this course as a "flipped classroom." The main part of this course is not watching me talk, it's about you doing and presenting your work. We will try to spend most of our time focusing on your work, rather than on me talking.
My role: I will guide you by highlighting which parts of the textbook are most relevant and how these ideas come together. I expect you to do the actual reading yourself—you can read the textbook, or you can read any other reference you like. I do not expect that my lectures alone are either necessary or sufficient to do the problems. Your job is to do the problems, your resources are the teaching team and your classmates... and whatever external resources you want (cite them).
Disability Accommodations: if you have a disability may affects your ability to participate in this course, please make arrangements with the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) within the first week of class, sdrc.ucr.edu/.
Counseling: this is a challenging course during an atypical quarter. If you are concerned that you feel overwhelmed, depressed, or in need of someone to talk to during your time at UCR, you are encouraged to contact Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS), counseling.ucr.edu. CAPS is confidential and is a resource that many in academia have turned to at one point or another.
Remote Learning: UCR's Keep Learning website contains remote learning resources including instructions for recording a video, using Zoom, and accessing technology.
Concerns about the course: You are strongly encouraged to speak directly to the instructor early in the quarter if there are concerns about the course. If you have concerns regarding severe problems with the course or instructor that you do not feel comfortable bringing to the instructors attention, you may reach out to the ombudsperson, help.ucr.edu/office-ombuds. You are, however, encouraged to speak to the instructor or TA first.
In addition to the Physics 40B lecture and your discussion section, you are required to enroll in the associated laboratory section. These labs are run separately from lecture and will begin on Week 2. The laboratory instructor is Professor Michael Anderson (michaelg.anderson@ucr.edu); please direct inquiries about the lab to him. Your final grade for Physics 40B will combine your lecture and your laboratory grades in a 4:1 ratio.
See the full UCR academic calendar for more details.
First day of lecture: is Tuesday, January 5th.
Last day of lecture is Thursday, March 11.
Last day to drop this course: Jan 15
Last day to withdraw from the course: Feb 26 (requires adviser approval, $4 fee)
Last day to change grading basis: Jan 22
Course load: By UCR Senate Regulation 760, one unit corresponds to 3 hours of course work per week. This is a 5 unit class = 3 units of lecture + 1 unit of discussion + 1 unit of lab. You are expected to spend 12 hours per week on the lecture + discussion parts of this course: this includes reading course materials, asking questions on Slack, working on problems, preparing your videos, and interviewing with the teaching team. If you find that you are spending significantly more than this time on the course, please contact the instructor.
Equity and Inclusion: we are committed to creating an inclusive learning space where we respect one another regardless of race/ethnicity, gender identities, gender expressions, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, disabilities, religion, regional background, veteran status, citizenship status, nationality and other diverse identities that we each bring to class.
No bullying: this course requires students to share work with one another. We will treat each other with respect in our constructive criticism and we will not share each others' materials outside our course without their explicit written permission. Do not be a troll or a bully; we are each offering some vulnerability to support this learning environment. The teaching staff reserves the right to punish misbehavior with zero credit on assignments or failure in the course. Seriously, don't be an asshole.
I'm stuck on the homework: Here's what you do:
Discuss with your classmates (e.g. on Slack) and/or ask a question during class or the question & answer session.
If you and your colleagues are confused, contact the TA.
If you are all confused (or there's potentially an error on the homework), contact the instructor (e.g. on Slack)
Attendance: Most of this course will be asynchronous. Recorded material will be distributed online. However, you will be required to participate in two real time interviews with the teaching staff.
Late homework will not be accepted. The peer critique aspect of this course is only fair if your peers have access to your work in a timely manner.
Academic integrity: See the UCR Academic Integrity page. All students are expected to abide by the highest standards of academic integrity. Academic misconduct will be reported to the UCR Student Conduct & Academic Integrity Programs and will be penalized to the fullest amount.
You are encouraged to collaborate with others on homework and presentations. You must write your solutions based on your own understanding.
You are allowed you use any references outside of the assigned course materials. You must cite any sources beyond the textbook in your submitted work and presentations.
When in doubt, ask.
Communication policy: any general questions about the course or material should be asked in the Slack channel. You may contact the instructor by email for specific issues, but please know that we only check course emails twice a week.
This section describes how you will be graded for this course. The percentages correspond to their weight in your final grade. The most significant part of your grade comes from your explainer videos.
Weekly assignments are due by 11:59pm of the date listed.
Each week you will create five minute videos where you teach your classmates how to solve problems from the textbook. Each video should be targeted to a hypothetical classmate who has asked you for help. You will be graded by your peers (with some checks and re-calibration from the teaching team) according to the video grade rubric. Due on Mondays.
Each week, you will review some of your classmates' explainer videos. You will grade them based on a rubric, give constructive feedback, and ask questions on steps that are not clear. Your critiques must reflect your own understanding of the material. Due on Mondays.
These are short online assignments on the Pearson Mastering Physics website. The assignments are instructive and will prepare you for your explainer videos. You will be credit for completing the assignments, not the 'grade' on Mastering Physics. This is to encourage you to focus on the physics rather than the decimal points. (Not to mention that the software's auto-grading isn't always reliable.) Use this as an opportunity to practice your understanding on a platform where you'll not be penalized for getting the wrong answer. Due on Fridays.
After lecture on Tuesday you will answer a brief survey on Google Forms with conceptual questions about the material. The survey will be a chance for the teaching team to check for common misconceptions and for you to give direct feedback. These will be due on Wednesday, one day after the Tuesday lecture: so make sure you do them right away.
Once during this term you will have a 15-minute interview with Prof. Tanedo. You will be placed in a group with 4 other students and will be given a general topic for the interview ahead of time. During your interview, you will each be asked one question about the topic and will have the opportunity to comment on the responses of the other students. Half of your grade will be an average grade for the group, the other half will be an individual grade. You are welcome to reach out to your interview group ahead of time.
Same as above, but with TA Ian Chaffey.
This is an active course. Some additional credit may be given for participation in the class Slack channel, particularly thoughtful peer feedback, or participation during the question & answer sessions.
There may be additional assignments for bonus points; these will focus on peer critiques or explainers for extra topics in the course.All extra credit opportunities will be announced to the whole class, do not ask for any extra credit assignments just for yourself.
Your total grade for Physics 40B will be a 4:1 average of your grade in the lecture with your grade in the laboratory course. For example, if you get a A (4.0) in the lecture and an C (2.0) in the lab, your total Physics 40B grade will be a B+ (weighted average: 3.6).
High-stakes exams are poor ways of judging learning. In my professional life, I've never had to memorize a physics equation for a high-stakes timed exam. Why should you be forced to learn that way?
An ability to communicate science effectively is (i) a critical skill for educated adults, and (ii) a good way of (self-)assessing learning. (See, e.g. the Feynman method.)
Even though we're learning remotely, we will learn in a way that is collaborative and draws on your UCR classmates. In this way, there is value in this class beyond a massive open online course.
Learning is a challenge that requires work, commitment, and time.
It is dangerous to go alone. Collaborate.
Instructors should never do for students what students can do for themselves.
Communicating ideas to peers requires a higher-level understanding of the material.
I'm not interested in this "cat-and-mouse" arms race that goes on in college classrooms. Every week some naive professor is freaking out because they found their exam on Chegg or some other website. It is a waste of everyone's time to create more elaborate ways to uphold some arbitrary examination; especially when there are no "physics midterm exams" in the real world.
In the real world, you are allowed to use worked examples and apply them to your own problems. Let's focus on using what we learn in a meaningful way. So I don't care if you use Chegg to solve a problem (but cite it): you will be graded on showing that you understand the solution thoroughly enough that you can teach it.
We abide by the UCR Keep Teaching Privacy and Security guidelines.
All lectures will be recorded and made available to class members for the duration of the term. The purpose of these recordings is to make the course accessible to those unable to attend in real time. Students attending the live lecture agree to appear on the recording if they ask questions using their microphone and/or video. Chat transcripts will not be posted, but the instructor may respond to questions in the chat by name unless asked privately. The question and answer sessions will not be recorded.
All student-generated recordings (explainer videos) will be hosted on the student's own web space with links only shared internally with members of the class. Students have full control of removing these files after the course. Interviews will not be recorded.
Students are not allowed to download other students' videos without their permission. Each video is the sole intellectual property of the creator. The instructor grants students the right to download any of the instructor's videos for their own instructional use. In order to maintain a strict separation of private information (including course participation), we have a separate internal course webpage where students may access one another's work for peer review.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this syllabus a legally binding document?
The instructor reserves the right to update this syllabus and to inform the class by e-mail of any significant changes.
I don't like this "semi-asynchronous flipped classroom," are the other Physics 40B offerings similar?
I get it, this is different and it's not for everyone. You are encouraged to see if you can transfer into one of the other Physics 40B lectures (Sec. 020 with Prof. Long, Sec. 030 with Prof. Yu). You can also consider taking Physics 40HB (honors) with Prof. Barsukov.