Syllabus

New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York

Physics Department

PHYS 1434 – General Physics II: Algebra-Based

Synchronous Online Course, Spring 2021

GENERAL INFORMATION
Lectures: OL52-LEC
Professor: Vasiliy Znamenskiy
Email: vznamenskiy@citytech.cuny.edu
Day & time: Mo We 10:00am – 11:40am
           
Laboratories: OL73-LAB
Professor: Vasiliy Znamenskiy
Email: vznamenskiy@citytech.cuny.edu
Day & time: We 8:00am – 9:40am
Academic calendar:  http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/registrar/docs/spring_2021.pdf

COURSE DESCRIPTION 
PHYS-1434 is the second semester of a one-year college level algebra-based physics course, which includes study of the basic concepts and principles of electricity, magnetism, light, and atomic physics. The topics include: electrostatics, electricity, magnetism, electromagnetic waves, geometric and physical optics, and the atomic theory of matter. Physical principles and the application of these principles in solving problems are emphasized in lecture. The laboratory serves to demonstrate the principles learned in lecture and to train the student in collecting and recording data, analyzing and presenting results, and writing scientific reports. 
This is a synchronous course. Students need to be in an online class during the class time. 

NUMBER OF HOURS AND CREDITS
6 hours per week (two 2-hour lectures and one 2-hour laboratory) 4 credits

TEXTBOOK 
Lecture textbook: College Physics, Dirks, Hinrichs, Sharma, Urone, et. al., OpenStax
https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics

TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENT
The online classes (both lectures and labs) will be organized on Blackboard Collaborate. 
To communicate during the class, you need: 

• a working microphone (built-in or external) connected to your computer/tab.
  
• a working camera (built-in or external).
  

A smartphone is not recommended as a primary tool in the online class. It is technically possible to use a smartphone to take the class, however a typical smartphone's screen was found too small to show online materials, especially formulas and their annotations, in reasonable quality.

COURSE COMMUNICATION
The main tool for the course communication is Collaborate Ultra on the Blackboard. To access the virtual class room, login to Blackboard https://bbhosted.cuny.edu. You find the virtual class room in Collaborate Ultra in the menu on the course page.  

GROUPS. In the course, we will have a number of group assignments and group work sessions. Work in groups will be done via Blackboard. The groups work space can be reached via Group menu item on Blackboard.

INTERACTIVITY. The course is interactively oriented. To get the full grade for the course you need to participate in the in-class activities, including discussions, in-class group work and polls. Specifically, you might be asked to unmute your microphone and answer a question a few times per class session. The interactive activities and in-class participation are an important part of your total grade. It will be graded according to the course grading policy described in GRADING POLICY section below in this syllabus.

MEET AND GREET. During the first class, you will be encouraged to turn on your camera and microphone to introduce yourself. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS will be posted on Blackboard on a regular basis. They will appear on your Blackboard dashboard when you log in and the enter the course. They will also be sent to your email registered on Blackboard. Please make certain to check the announcements regularly, as they will contain any important information about upcoming projects or class concerns.

EMAIL. Send emails to your instructors only regarding personal matter. General questions and questions regarding the course organization should be posted at the Discussion Forum on Blackboard. To post a question, login to Blackboard, enter the course and do to Discussions section of the menu.

QUESTIONS. When you have a question about things that relate to the course, such as clarification about assignments, course materials, or assessments, please post these in the Discussion Forum on Blackboard. To post a question, login to Blackboard, enter the course and go to Discussions section of the menu.

DISCUSSION FORUM is a way for you to engage with each other about the course content. You can access the Forum by clicking on the Discussions item of the course menu.
VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS. Your lecture instructor holds virtual office hours Mondays 12:00 noon-1:00pm. The office hours will be held at the lecture virtual class room on Blackboard.

NETIQUETTE. When posting on the discussion boards and chat rooms it is important to understand how to interact with one another online, netiquette. You can read more about the rules of netiquette at http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html .

COURSE PARTICIPATION POLICY
Participation is essential to your success in this class. In distance education courses you are required to participate just as if you were in a face-to-face course. This means that in order to get full credit for participation, you will have to complete your discussion assignments, lesson assignments, and quizzes on a timely basis. Consistent failure to participate in the class will result in being dropped from the course.

WORK SUBMISSION

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND LAB REPORTS. Your writing assignments and laboratory reports should be submitted via Safe Assign on Blackboard. Your submission will be automatically checked on plagiarism. When you prepare your submission, you need to adhere to ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY as described below.

TESTS. The midterm test and final examination will be taken on Blackboard. To take the tests, login to Blackboard, enter the course area, and click on the Content menu items. The link to the test and examination will be on the main dashboard area of the Content. The test and examination should be taken during class time. The time duration of the midterm test and final examination is 1 hour 40 minutes. During the examination, you can use a calculator, scrap paper for calculations, and a formula sheet. The formula sheet will be provided by the lecture instructor. See also ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY below.

FINAL LAB PRESENTATION. At the end of the lab course, the students are making group presentation of the group project assigned by the instructor.

GRADING POLICY
Students will be evaluated through homework assignments, one midterm exam, a group project presentation, final exams, Wiki posts, quizzes and in-class participation (oral and in writing), laboratory reports, lab final oral presentation. The final grade will be based on a weighted average of the grades.
Total grade = Lecture class grade 75% + Laboratory Grade 25% 
Lecture class grade is composed of the following components:

• Midterm test  – 25% 
  
• In-class participation, quizzes, tests, mandatory home works – 25%
  
• Final examination (in writing) – 25%
  

Laboratory grade is composed of

• Average of on-line lab reports (submitted in writing) – 19 %
  
• Individual and group presentations – 6 %
  

Mandatory homework problems will be assigned by your instructor. The submission of the mandatory homework is via the Blackboard. Note that if you do not submit the mandatory homework in a timely fashion, this lowers your grade.
Optional practice homework problems are listed in the table below on page 6. 
GRADES. You can view your currents grades for the assignments as well as the final grades at the end of the course on Blackboard in the Grade Center. Please check your grades regularly to make certain that you have submitted all your assignments. If you have a question about a grade, email your instructor to the email address provided in the GENERAL INFORMATION section of the syllabus.

DUE DATES. 

• The due dates for the mandatory home works and other lecture assignments will be shown on Blackboard at the respective submission links. 
  
• The due dates for the lab reports are Tuesday 12:00PM of the week following the lab.
  

LATE WORK. 

• Mandatory home works will be accepted with a 50% reduction grade. 
  
• Mandatory home works will not be accepted after December 15, 12:00PM. 
  
• Late lab reports will be accepted with a 10% reduction per week. 
  
• Late lab reports will not be accepted after December 15, 12:00PM. 
  

If you have an extenuating circumstance, please contact your instructor via email message before the assignment is due to make alternate arrangements. The instructors’ email addresses are provided in the GENERAL INFORMATION section of the syllabus.

GRADING out of maximum 100 points:
A 93-100 
A- 90-92.9 
B+ 87-89.9  
B 83-86.9 
B- 80-82.9 
C+ 77-79. 
C 70-76.9  
D 60-69.9 
F 59.9 and below 
WU Unofficial Withdrawal (attended at least once)

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY 
As a student at City Tech online class, you are expected to follow the College’s Academic Integrity policy
http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/academics/docs/academic_integrity_policy.pdf 
This means that you should not: 

• Cheat. 
  
• Copy from another student during an examination or allow another to copy your work.
  
• Plagiarize, that is, use another person’s words or ideas as your own without proper documentation. 
  
• Collaborate with others to solve test problems unless specifically requested in an assignment or discussion. 
  
• Let another student login to your Blackboard account. 
  
• Change a graded or submitted exam and return it for more credit.
  

See a more comprehensive list of examples considered as academic dishonesty in the link above in this section.
Failure to follow this policy will result in disciplinary action which can affect your academic standing in the College. Disciplinary action includes (but is not limited to)

• Reduction of the grade for the assignment
  
• Zero the grade of the assignment
  
• Lowering of the final grade for the course
  
• Assigning Fail (F) grade for the course.
  

SCHEDULE
Lecture and lab class time are stated in the GENERAL INFORMATION section above. An approximate schedule of topics and suggested homework problems is provided below. Please, note that while the basic list of topics is fixed, the precise schedule may change somewhat due to the dynamics of a particular class.  The homework assignment in the table are from the official textbook of the course, please see the link in the TEXTBOOK section above. Instructor can assign other homework problems.

ADDITIONAL ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Google Sheets  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/
Wolfram Alpha https://www.wolframalpha.com/ 
MATLAB https://matlab.mathworks.com/ 
General Physics II Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/GeneralPhysics2 
Blog: Algebra-Based General Physics II https://algebrabasedphysicsii.blogspot.com/

SCHEDULE TABLES
Lecture

	Topics	Chapter	Optional practice homework problems*
1	Electric charge and Coulomb’s law	18	1,4,5,7,12,13,14,16,21,24,25
2	Electric field	18	28, 32, 33, 39, 44, 48, 50
3	Electric potential. Capacitance	19	2,14,23,27,37,41,42, 49, 53,57,63
4	Electric currents and resistance	20	2,5,9,18,21,24,26,28,29,33
5	Electric power and energy Review and Midterm exam	20	40,43,44,51,54
6	DC circuits. Electromotive force	21	1,2,6,11,14,16,18,31,36,37,38,40
7	Magnetic field	22	1,2,3,5,6,9,10,12,13,17
8	Magnetic forces	22	31,32,33,35,37,39,42,43,48,51,53
9	Electromagnetic induction	23	1,4,5,8,17,19,20,47,55,66,69,74
10	Alternating currents Group project presentation	23	80,82,92,93,105
11	Electromagnetic waves. Reflection and refraction	24,25	Ch.24: 1,3,11,19,31,33 Ch.25: 2,7,10,16,22,26,29,35
12	Geometric optics	25	36,38,40,45,49,52,53,55,57,59
13	Interference and diffraction	27	8, 11, 19, 21, 43, 49, 84
14	Special theory of relativity. Photons, electrons, and atoms.	28,29,30	Ch.28: 6, 13, 20, 36, 54 Ch.29: 6, 23, 31 Ch.30: 7
15	Review and final exam

* Selected readings and problems will be assigned by the instructor.

Laboratory

	Experiments
1	Introduction
2	Coulomb’s law
3	Electric field
4	Capacitance
5	Capacitors
6	Resistivity
7	Resistors
8	Kirchhoff’s rules
9	Force on a current-carrying wire in an external magnetic field
10	Mass spectrometer
11	Reflection and refraction of light
12	Spherical mirrors and lenses
13	Interference and wavelength of laser light
14	Photoelectric effect
15	Final presentation