Homework will be assigned online through MasteringPhysics for Young & Freedman's University Physics. Weekly problem sets will be due each Tuesday by 9:00 pm for MWF lectures (Section 1, Professor Ernst) or Wednesdays by 9:00 pm for TTh lectures (Section 2, Professor Sheldon). You are responsible for logging in each week to check the homework assignment. Credit for problems submitted late will decrease to 50% over the course of 24 hours after the deadline. NOTE: Always check the Mastering Physics website for up-to-date information on due dates and times. The last two assignments of the semester will be due on Thursday (Ernst) or Friday (Sheldon) at 9pm central time.
When you bought the text for the course, you should have also received a MasteringPhysics Student Access Kit. Follow its directions to register with MasteringPhysics. If you bought a used textbook, you can purchase online access using a credit card.
There are two pieces of information you will need to enroll in the course at MasteringPhysics: your Student ID# (i.e. your Vanderbilt Student Number just as it will appear on our grade sheets, xxx-xx-xxxx); and a Course ID # (listed below for each section). Be sure to use the correct course ID!
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MPERNST2007 |
Section 1, Professor Ernst, MWF 10:10-11:00 |
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MPSHELDON2007 |
Section 2, Professor Sheldon, TTh 11:00-12:15 |
Be very careful when entering your Course ID and Student ID! After entering them, you will not be able to edit either! An initial assignment ("Introduction to MasteringPhysics") has been designed to familiarize you with MasteringPhysics. Note that it is due the first Monday (Ernst) or Tuesday (Sheldon) of the semester. A weekly problem set is then due that Tuesday (Ernst) or Wednesday (Sheldon).
POLICY ON COOPERATION The purpose of the homework is for a student to learn how to solve the problems - solving the problems is the measure of understanding the material. The homework counts 15%, the tests and the final count 80%. For many the best way to learn the materialis is to do it yourself. If you do not get something the first try, and then you figure it out with hints, you will gain a lot in your understanding, particularly if you consciously think about what you did wrong on the early tries and why it was not correct.
That said, the right group dynamics can also be helpful. The dynamics has to be such that every participant contributes and everyone is very stubborn about not moving on until they have a complete understanding. Notice that following the teacher or a friend is not sufficient understanding - you must be able to do the problems on your own. A clear and wrong group dynamic is having a friend solve a problem and you just copy it. This might add a little to your homework grade, but it will add nothing to your understanding, and hence nothing toward the 80% of your grade designed to measure this.
Bottom line, you are responsible for understanding the material at a level where you can solve problems on a test in a reasonable amount of time. It is your responsibility to make sure whatever you do on the homework, you gain that level of understanding.
HOMEWORK GRADING POLICY For homework sets submitted by the deadline, MasteringPhysics uses the following grading algorithm:
- You will receive 1 point for every correct "main part" of the problem.
- If the question has subparts, you receive partial credit for each subpart you answer, even if you are unable to obtain the answer to the main part. If you request the solution to a subpart, you will lose a percentage of credit, even if you are able to obtain the answer to the main part.
- You will get 8 attempts to correctly answer a non-multiple choice question. Each incorrect try will reduce your grade by 3%.
- However, if the question is multiple choice, you lose 1/(n-1) points, where n is the number of options to choose from, for each unique wrong answer you submit.
- You gain 0.03 points of extra credit for every hint/subpart that you do not open in the course of solving the problem.
- After the entire problem has been completed, your total points are divided by the maximum number of points for the problem (i.e. equal to the number of "main parts"). This ratio is your score for the problem, and can be greater than 1 if you got mostly correct answers without using any hints.
LATE HOMEWORK POLICY For homework sets submitted after the deadline, your score (calculated as above) will be multiplied by a late penalty factor. At the deadline this factor is equal to 1 (no penalty). Over the course of the next 24 hours, it decreases linearly to 0.5. After 24 hours past the deadline, it remains at 0.5. Thus homework that is more than a day late will be receive a maximum of 50% partial credit.
