SCI 1110:
Physical Science Syllabus Fall 2008
Updated 11/17/2008
Dr. John Truedson, Sattgast
301
Email: jtruedson@bemidjistate.edu
Phone: 755-2796
Optional Text: “Physical Science: An
Historical Approach: Part I” Dr. J. Truedson, 2008
Course Web Site: All current course information and grades will be posted using
the D2L software at http://distance.bemidjistate.edu/ Contact Computer services for login
information.
All updated information will be posted on the SCI 1110 site.
There will also be information posted on the Science program web site.
http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/departments/science/psns/psnshome.htm
However, the information posted here will not be updated on a regular basis.
Lectures are in HTML format and Notes are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Be
careful about printing files since some images may not print correctly on some
printers.
Course schedule as of
September 5, 2008 (subject to change with updates posted on D2L link)
Aug. 25
Course Syllabus, Science Survey, Ch.14: The Nature of science (Notes)
Aug. 27 Video
#1: “Secrets of the Psychics”
Aug. 29 Ch. 1
Units of Measurement (Notes)
Video #2: “Powers of ten”
Sept. 3 Ch.
2 Motion: Speed and Velocity; Free fall, car crashes (Notes)
Sept. 5 Ch. 2
Motion: Linear and Centripetal Acceleration; projectile motion (Notes)
Sept. 8 Video #3: “Medieval Siege: the
Trebuchet”(make-up on Tuesday at
8am in 301)
Sept. 10 Ch. 3 Newton’s
Law of Gravitation and Laws of motion (Notes)
Video #4:
Physics of Roller Coasters (make-up
for this video at 8:15 Tuesday)
Sept. 12
Video #5: Newton’s Dark Secret (Make-up
on Monday at 8:15 am only)
Sept. 15
Sept. 17 Ch. 4:
Power, Horsepower, and power plant energy; Review for Test 1 (Notes)
Sept. 19 Test 1: (Note: copies of
all exams from Fall 2007 are available in the print shop)
Chapter Practice problems: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Sept. 22.
Video #6 “Galileo’s Battle
for the Heavens” plus short talk by Dr. Chapman
Sept. 24
Sept. 26
Sept. 29 Video
#7: “Longitude: Lost at Sea”
Oct.. 1
Oct. 6
Oct.
8 Ch. 6
Astronomy of the Arabs and Native Americans (Notes)
Oct. 10
Test 2: (Note: copies of all exams from Fall 2007 are available in the shop)
Chapter Practice problems: Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Oct.
13 Ch. 7: The Birth
of Modern Astronomy: Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo, the
Planets, Discovery of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (Notes)
Oct. 15 Ch. 7: The Sun
and the Planets: (Notes) Video #8: “Meteors: Fire in the sky”
Oct. 17 Video
#9: “Meteors: Fire in the sky” Part II
Oct. 20 Ch. 7:
Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors; (Notes)
Oct. 22 Ch. 8:
The power of the Sun; Classification of stars; The H-R diagram (Notes)
Oct. 24 Ch. 8:
The Life and Death of the Sun. Neutron Stars and Black Holes (Notes)
Oct. 27 Video
#10:”Life Beyond Earth”
Oct. 29
Oct. 31 Test 3:
(Note: copies of all exams from Fall 2007 are available in the print shop)
Chapter Practice problems: Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Nov.
3 Ch. 9: The
Measurement of Astronomical
distances (Notes)
Nov. 5 Ch. 9: The
Hubble law; Cosmology and the Big Bang; The Drake Equation
Ch. 10: Minerals & Rocks
introduction (Notes)
Nov. 7 Ch. 10:
Properties of Minerals and Rocks, the Rock Cycle, Igneous rocks
Nov. 10 Video #11:
"Diamonds"
Nov. 12 Ch. 10:
Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks (Notes)
Nov. 14 Test 4:
(Note: copies of all exams from Fall 2007 are available in the print shop)
Nov.
17 Ch. 11: A brief
history of Geology: Hutton and Smith Aging the Earth, Relative & Absolute
dating techniques (Notes)
Nov. 19 Video
#12: “Earthquakes”
Nov. 21 Ch. 12:
Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Tsunamis, Plate Tectonics (Notes)
Nov. 24
Dec. 1
Ch.13 Mountain Building: Surface processes (Notes)
Dec. 3
Ch. 13: Geology, Oil, and the future of Fossil Fuels (Notes)
Dec. 5
Test 5: (Note: copies of all exams from Fall 2007 are
available in the shop)
Dec. 8 Ch.
14: the Nature of Science: Video #14:
“Science & Pseudo-science”
Dec. 11 or 17: 8 – 10
am Final Exam: Questions from previous exams. 85
questions total
The syllabus, lecture
presentations, and all information related to the course will be posted on the
course web site as indicated above. Any changes to the syllabus will be
posted on the web site and outside the lab room (Sattgast
301).
You are responsible for
keeping track of laboratory and exam dates. No excuse will be accepted
that you forgot about an exam or lab last week or 3 weeks ago.
You will notice that there is no required text for the course. All
of the information for the course will be referred to directly either in the
class lectures and presentations, laboratory sessions, and the exam review
handout. For each exam questions related to the lectures will be
assigned. These questions will be posted on the SCI 1110 web site and be
available in the lab room not less than one week prior to the exam. I
will not be collecting the responses to these questions. However, as an
incentive to making thoughtful and careful answers for the questions, you will
be able to use the responses to these questions, along with only your own
hand-written or typed notes, the text itself, and the review hand-out for use
during the exam. No other materials will be allowed during the exam. No
sharing of these materials will be allowed during the exam. Also no
cheating will be tolerated during the test. Any violations of these rules
will result in a grade of zero for the exam.
The exams will consist of multiple choice type questions and will occur on the
dates indicated below. If you miss an exam you must makeup
the exam by the makeup end date indicated below to avoid a score of zero.
If you know in advance that you will be missing an exam you can arrange to take
the exam up to two days early. The exam dates will not change except for an
extreme emergency on the part of the instructor.
Exam 1. Friday Sept. 19
Makeup end date: Wednesday
Sept. 24, 8:00 am
Exam 2. Friday Oct. 10
Makeup end date: Wednesday
Oct. 15, 8:00 am
Exam 3. Wednesday Oct. 29
Makeup end date: Monday Nov.
3, 8:00 am
Exam 4. Friday Nov. 14
Makeup end date: Tuesday Nov.
18, 1:00 pm
Exam 5. Friday Dec. 5
Makeup date: Must be taken before the Dec. 5 test date
(note change in syllabus)
Your course grade for exam
portion of the course will be determined by the percentage of the best four (4)
exams. If you take all five (5) exams the lowest exam score will be
dropped. However, the final exam will include questions from all 5
exams.
There will be thirteen (13)
in-class videos shown on the dates as indicated on the course schedule.
You will be required to attend and complete nine of the thirteen video quizzes.
The video will start promptly at 9:00 AM. Each person must submit only their
own sheet. Any person submitting a form for a person not in attendance will
receive a grade of zero for both themselves and the other person. Some
material contained on the videos will be covered on the exams. Extra
video sessions attended can earn you an additional 1.5% extra credit for each
video session. There will be a
single make-up time the following day after the scheduled in class video at
8:00 am in the lab room Sattgast 301. There will be no other makeup times.
There will be laboratory each week starting on Wednesday Sept. 3, 2008 in Sattgast 301. Labs on Monday and Tuesday will be
doing the same lab. Labs on Wednesday and Thursday will be doing the same
lab. If you cannot attend your assigned laboratory section, then contact an
instructor to attend another lab that same two day period. There will be
no makeup labs. Overall scores for the laboratory portion of the course
will be based on the percentage of the total lab points with the three lowest
lab scores dropped. You can receive up to 4% extra credit for attending
all 20 lab sessions.
There will a 3 - 4 page term
paper as part of the course. The paper will be due by Friday, November
14. The topic for the paper will be chosen by mid-September. Absolutely
no late papers will be accepted.
The distribution of points for
the semester will be as follows:
4 in-class
exams: 50 %
Paper:
5 %
9 In-class videos
10 %
Laboratory:
20 %
Final
exam: 14
%
Total:
100 %
Approximate percentage for
letter grades (subject to minor changes)
A 88 –
100 %
B
78 – 87 %
C
66 – 77 %
D
54 – 65 %