Getting Started
PHY 321 is a course that has been organized to encourage your deep learning of classical mechanics, to provide you with opportunities for growth and agency, to initiate a process of lifelong self-education, and to enculturate you into the practices of physics. Because of this, it might seem there’s a lot for you to do. So this document will help you get started with the course.
Getting Started Checklist
Before the first class and into the first week
Read the administrative documents on the course website or linked in D2L.
Most importantly:
- make sure you can log into D2L and that you can find the course page,
- read about your teachers and the grading policy,
- review the textbook information and make sure you have access to the books,
- look over the schedule and let Danny (caball14@msu.edu) know if you have any conflicts.
- consider your views of using generative AI in your classes, do some research, and be prepared to discuss your thoughts in class. We will generate a class policy together.
- complete the pre-class survey by the end of the first week of classes.
- complete the office hours poll by the end of the first week of classes.
- join the course Microsoft Team for announcements and discussions.
Preparing for class each week
Classical Mechanics is a challenging course, but it is also a subject that is well-established with many examples, resources, and tools. For each class week, we will prepare a set of notes, links, and videos. They will be organized by the week and will be available on the course website, and linked in D2L.
The idea is to provide you with multiple forms of resources and for you to find the ones that work best for you. You should not feel compelled to read, watch, or listen to everything, but you should feel compelled to do something. This might mean reading the textbook, watching a video, working through a problem, or discussing the material with a classmate. The goal is to engage with the material in a way that helps you learn and grow.
We will have weekly pre-class surveys that will ask you to reflect on the material and your learning. These surveys will be due before Monday’s classes. These are both meant to help you reflect on your learning and to help us understand how to best support you. These surveys will be graded for completion only and factor into your reflection grade.
* There is far too much material for you to review and read in a given week.
- We expect you to spend at least 30 minutes per class hour reviewing materials that help you; that’s at least 90 minutes a week.
- We will provide suggested pathways through the material each week.
Look at Week 1 for an example of what to expect.
Content Check-ins
Each week, there will be a short content check-in on D2l that asks you to provide a brief response to questions about the material you read or watched that week (remember that we expect you to spend at least 90 minutes a week reviewing materials that help you).
These check-ins are helpful to the teaching staff to understand how well you are grasping the material and to identify areas where you might need additional support. They are also a way for you to reflect on your learning and to help you stay engaged with the material.
These check-ins will be graded for completion only and factor into your reflection grade. They will be due before Monday’s classes and available on D2L.
We will drop the lowest two (2) content check-in scores when calculating your final grade.
A typical class week
Each class week will have a similar structure:
Monday and Wednesday will be lecture days. We will have a mix of lecture, clicker questions, and small group work.
Tip
- These classes will follow the digital notes posted each week, so you can follow along, ask questions, and take notes as you see fit.
- While the examples are worked in the notes, and the information is explained there, the lectures will provide space for us to discuss and work through the material together to deepen your understanding and grow your physics, computing, and mathematical skills.
- We strongly encourage you to attend class regularly.
Friday’s class is a workshop day. We will work through activities and homework problems together, discuss the material, and work on computational problems.
Tip
- These classes will be more interactive and will provide you with opportunities to work through problems and ask questions in a smaller group setting.
- We strongly encourage you to attend this class in person. Most students have found this part of the class to be the most helpful for their learning, and we get to learn more about you, which is important for us as instructors.
iClickers
We will use iClickers in class to help us gauge your understanding of the material and to help you engage with the material.
How to setup iClickers.
🙋 RaiseMyHand
Danny has developed an anonymous question and comment tool called RaiseMyHand. We’ll use it in class so you can ask questions, share feedback, and flag anything that’s unclear—completely anonymously. If you see a question you also have, you can upvote it so we know what to address first.
If you run into bugs or have feature ideas, please submit them as GitHub issues. The repository is here: https://github.com/OER-Forge/raisemyhand
Homework Assignments
Our view of homework is that they should be helpful in deepening your learning and that you should be encouraged to work collaboratively on them. These exercises are often challenging, and it’s typical that a single student might not be able to solve them on their own – indeed, the time to solve and write solutions for them is often too long for a single student to complete. Moreover, we believe that collaboration not competition is critical to learning.
You may work collaboratively on homework assignments, but you must turn in solutions that are your collective work. This means that you should be able to explain the solutions to your peers and that you should be able to reproduce the solutions on your own.
That is, you are free to work in up to groups of 3.
Important
- You and your classmates must write up your own solutions. Each of you is responsible for keeping a copy of the solutions you turn in.
- You must list the name of the person you worked with on the assignment. If you worked alone, you must write “I worked alone” on the assignment.
- You must be able to explain the solutions to your peers. Do not copy solutions to problems or parts of problems with questioning every part, that is antithetical to the learning goals of the course.
- For assignments where you are asked to complete the exercise alone, you must do so (of course, discussion of the exercise with others is perfectly ok).
More details on homework assignments can be found on the assignments overview page.
We will drop the lowest homework score when calculating your final grade.
Exercise 0
Each homework assignment will have an individual exercise called Exercise 0. This exercise is meant to introduce you more to physics culture, history, and practices. It is also meant to help you reflect on your learning and growth as a physicist. Here, we take a broader view of what it means to be a physicist and to do physics and what is valued in the physics community.
Exercise 0 will be graded for completion only and factor into your reflection grade. It is also submitted along with the rest of the homework assignment, but on D2L, it will be a separate submission.
Homework Submission
You will submit Exercise 0 on D2L.
You will submit the rest of your homework assignment on Gradescope.
Homework Reflections
In addition to the homework assignments, you will be asked to write a short reflection on your learning for each homework assignment. These reflections are meant to help you think about your learning, to help us understand how to best support you, and to help you grow as a learner. They are also helping us to ensure that you and your classmates are working productively on homework assignments.
These reflections will be graded for completion only and factor into your reflection grade. They will be posted on D2L along with Exercise 0.
We will drop the lowest reflection score when calculating your final grade.
Midterm and Final Projects
There are no exams in this course, instead, we will have two midterms and a final project. The midterms will be take-home exams that are similar to the homework assignments, but they will cover a broader range of material. They often require you to synthesize material from multiple weeks, and to apply your knowledge in new ways.
Midterms
The same rules apply to midterms with respect to collaboration; you are welcome to work with your classmates, and the teaching staff to complete the exams.
Midterm Collaboration and Guidelines
You may work with up to two other classmates on the midterms.
- The take-home midterms will be open for almost two weeks; you can often start some exercises early as they cover older material.
- They are meant to be challenging, but we will provide you with the resources and support you need to complete them.
- There is no homework due during the period in which the midterm is assigned.
- You may again turn in your midterm with up to two other collaborators.
Final Project
The final project will be a computational project that will be due during the final exam period.
The project will be a chance for you to explore a topic of interest to you, to deepen your understanding of the material, and to grow your physics and computational skills. Here, we are hoping you synthesize the various concepts and methods we have developed to investigate a physical problem of your interest.
We will provide you with a list of projects to choose from, but you are welcome to propose your own project. We will provide a few examples of such projects later in the semester. The final project can be completed with a partner or alone.
Final Project Partners
You may work with up to two other classmates on the final project.
You will need to decide on your up to 2 final project partners (if any) by the midterm 2 due date.
Why?
Project scaffolding exercises will appear on later homework sets; those will be submitted separately and do not need to be completed with your project partners (who might not be your homework partners).
We will collect those on D2L in order to provide feedback as you develop your project. D2L and Gradescope have different group management systems, so this separation helps us manage submissions more effectively.
Extra Credit Opportunities
Homework Extra Credit (Attending Events)
In this course, you can earn extra credit by attending optional workshops, participating in physics-related events, or professional development activities. These opportunities will be announced throughout the semester.
You can earn 5% on your homework assignment each week if you participate in an extra credit opportunity that week and write a short reflection (about 200 words) on your experience.
Midterm Extra Credit (Professional Development)
You can earn extra credit by working with Danny to develop a career or professional development plan. This plan will help you identify your goals, strengths, and areas for growth. You can earn up to 5% extra credit on each midterm grade by completing this plan and meeting with Danny to discuss it.
Midterm 1 Extra Credit Plan (5% on Midterm 1)
- Before Midterm 1: Meet with Danny to discuss your career goals and develop a plan.
- By Midterm 1: Submit a written plan (about 500 words) outlining your goals, strengths, and areas for growth.
Midterm 2 Extra Credit Plan (5% on Midterm 2)
- Between Midterm 1 and Midterm 2: Meet with Danny to discuss your progress and any adjustments to your plan.
- By Midterm 2: Submit a revised plan (about 1000 words) outlining your progress and any adjustments to your goals, strengths, and areas for growth.
- By end of the semester: Complete at least one professional development activity (e.g., attending a workshop, networking event, or informational interview) and write a reflection (about 500 words) on your experience.