Student Participation
Student participation in this course is very important. Jeff Gunter, a high
energy physics graduate student who often sits in during office hours to
participate in physics discussions, put it succinctly: "students have
to come to this class with their brains turned on."
Students are strongly encouraged to collaborate on projects and problem
solutions. They are expected to make presentations involving problem solutions,
demonstrations and summaries of projects. The goal is to achieve an atmosphere
similar to a research team. The most important goal of the course is to
learn the physics, but in a manner in which laboratory, collaborative and
presentation skills are also developed.
Problem Assignments: Three to five assigned problems per day
- everyday. Office hours are often used for group discussion of problem
solutions.
Fermi Problems: Most of the problems are from the textbook. However
students are also given so-called Fermi problems,
which are different from textbook problems - not all the information is
handed to you. You need to make estimates.
Exams: There are three exams and about five quizzes per semester.
Some of the exams are take-home exams.
Presentations: Students are asked to present problem solutions
in class and to present demonstrations and talks on various topics. During
the 1994-1995 academic year the students
presented talks on applications of physics. During
the Fall, 1995 semester students presented results of long-term experiments
to an audience of physics faculty, staff and graduate students.
