PHYSICAL SCIENCE 103 COURSE DESCRIPTION FOR SPRING 2008.

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. John E. Poling, Science E-38, phone (ext. 1583), e-mail (jpoling@calpoly.edu), web page (http://www.calpoly.edu/~jpoling)

OFFICE HOURS: Will be posted at my office and on my web page. I encourage you to come to my office hours for help with the course. Please try to have specific questions in mind so that the time can be used efficiently.

TEXT: Earth Science, 11th Edition, by Tarbuck and Lutgens

EXAMS: Three midterm exams and a semicomprehensive final exam. The exams will be a combination of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and a few numerical problems. The questions on exams will ask about the material covered in the lectures, in the homework, and in the activity sessions. The final exam will actually be a third midterm over the material covered beyond the second midterm exam and a semi-comprehensive final exam over some of the material covered by the the first two midterms. These two exams will be separately written and numbered, but will be stapled together. I will take the questions for the semicomprehensive final from the the first two midterms as an incentive for you to learn the correct answers to any questions you missed on those exams, but I will change many of the questions slightly - if you understand the answer to a question on one of the midterms you should be able to answer a slightly altered version of that question.

I will allow you to bring one three inch by five inch note card with notes written on both sides to each exam. These notes must be handwritten and cannot be photocopied or computer printed, and I am serious about the size of the card. You may bring three such cards of notes to the final exam. You will probably want to bring the cards you made for the first two exams and a third card for the third midterm. The dates for the two midterm exams will be announced in class at least one week before the exams. The final exam will be given at the time listed in the Final Exam Schedule.

If you will not be able to come to an exam, you must notify me before the scheduled exam time . You may notify me in person, by a call to my office voice mail, or by e-mail. The best way to communicate with me is by email. You must also communicate with me before the next meeting of the class so that we can decide when and where you will make the exam up. I will offer you a makeup exam only if you follow these rules, and the limit is one makeup exam unless the circumstances are very unusual.

Forgetting your calculator or you note card/s could cause you a serious handicap on an exam. Try not to put yourself into that position, but if you do please let me know about it before you begin writing the exam. I will allow you to go home to get your materials and begin the exam late, or even take the exam later in the day, but once you have started writing the exam you must finish it. If you are significantly late for an exam I will either give you extra time at the end or allow you to take the exam later in the day. If you are too sick to take an exam or were too sick to prepare for it properly, please tell me about your difficulties before you begin writing the exam. After you begin writing an exam it is too late to put the exam off.

PERSONAL DIFFICULTIES: If you have medical or family or personal problems which may make this a difficult quarter for you, please talk to me early in the quarter in case there is anything I can do to help you. If you wait until you have received a very low exam score, there will be little I can do. If you are a DSS student, I want to discuss how you will take the exams.

HOMEWORK: Homework assignments with some conceptual questions and some numerical problems requiring calculations will be handed out in class. You should have a simple calculator for the problems. The homework will not be collected. The answers will be provided on the web page so that you can check your work. You should also answer the assigned review questions at the end of each chapter. The assigned review questions will be listed on the web page I prepare for this course. The homework questions I provide and the assigned review questions at the end of the chapters will provide only partial preparation for the exams. You must also study your lecture and activity notes carefully.

ACTIVITIES: We will have 8 activity sessions. Attendance is by checking yourself in on the roll sheet when you arrive. Missing an activity session counts against your class attendance, and may cost you some of the attendance extra credit points. Try not to miss even one activity because they are a very

important part of the course and will be covered on the exams. It is not possible to offer makeups since the equipment will be set up for only one day. You should attend the activity section you are registered for unless some special circumstance makes it necessary for you to attend the other section, and this should not happen more than twice during the quarter. You should bring a simple calculator to the activity sessions. Be sure to write careful notes to yourself on your activity sheets so that you will be able to study the activity sheets before each exam.

CREDIT FOR PERSONAL FIELD TRIPS: Personal Field Trips are worth a maximum of 10 points each, and three field trips are required. Descriptions of possible Personal Field Trips for the subject areas we will be studying (astronomy, geophysics, and oceanography) will be found on the web page. I sometimes make revisions to the Field Trip descriptions during the quarter, so you should take a look on the web page shortly before you go on one of these Field Trips to see if I have made any changes in the description. Print out the Filed Trip description before you do the work.

You need to hand in a written report for each Personal Field Trip with a minimum of one full page of written information which should include all of the following:
1. repeat any information about the subject which I provide in the Field Trip description
2. provide any information I specifically request
3. include an account of your experience on the Field Trip
4. provide at least some additional information pertinent to the Field Trip which you have found in your ext book or in other reference books, or on the web. You must provide at least some additional information to earn full credit. Be careful to tell me where you obtain the additional information, including web addresses.
Additional pages beyond the first page will usually be needed for drawings or photographs, or information printed from the web. Your report must be well written in terms of organization, grammar, punctuation, and spelling, and must be computer printed.

I suggest that you read through the Field Trip descriptions near the beginning of the quarter and think about which trips you think you want to take. You do not need to wait until we cover the material for the field trips in class. It might be a good idea to get them done early in the quarter before you get too busy.

RULES FOR HANDING IN PERSONAL FIELD TRIP REPORTS: Your first field trip report must be handed in no later than 4/17 in class. Your second field trip report must be handed in no later than 5/8 in class. Your third field trip report must be handed in no later than 5/29 in class. There will be no exceptions made for any reason, sickness included, so it would be best not to wait until the actual deadlines to hand your reports in. You will lose 2 points for each day your report is late. If you have a week with more time available than usual, consider doing the work for several field trips. I strongly encourage you to write your report very soon after taking a Field Trip, before your memory begins to fade.

ATTENDANCE: I will take attendance at every lecture and activity session beginning with the second week, and I will give you 12 extra credit points for good attendance. You may miss a total of two lectures or activity sessions with no penalty. If you miss three lectures or activity sessions, you will receive 8 points. If you miss four lectures or activities, you will receive 4 points. If you miss five or more lectures or activity sessions, you will receive 0 points. The 12 extra credit points may not seem like much, but they will probably be enough to raise your grade by one ± grade (from a B+ to an A-, for example).

WEB PAGE: The web page for this course will contain the homework assignments and the answers for those assignments, the list of Personal Field Trips, and the Personal Field Trip descriptions.

CONTACT ME: Please feel free to email me when you have any questions or concerns.

YOUR GRADE: Grading scales for the two midterm exams will be announced in class to give you some idea of how well you are doing as the quarter progresses. At the end of the quarter I will list all of your points on the web page so you can see how you did on the third midterm and on the semicomprehensive final, and so that you can confirm that I have all of your other points listed correctly. I will identify you by the last four digits of your Cal Poly Employee ID, which you can find on the “My Cal Poly” page. Total points accumulated during the quarter will be used to determine your course grade (± grading will be used).