PHYS 1P22/92: Introductory Physics II
Brock University, Winter 2022
Course Logo

Table of contents

Course overview ^

PHYS 1P22/92 provides a first university-level introduction to many important and exciting concepts in physics, including fluids, heat, thermodynamics, sound, electricity, magnetism, light, relativity, and quantum mechanics. By successfully finishing this course, you will gain fundamental insight into how our universe works, and will be prepared for more advanced studies in physics and all other areas of science.

As this course is a continuation of PHYS 1P21/91, students must take PHYS 1P21/91 before they can register in PHYS 1P22/92, unless they obtain special permission from the instructor. Please note that PHYS 1P22/92 contains considerably more material than PHYS 1P21/91, and will require you to understand about twice as many concepts in the same amount of time.

The official textbook for this course is College Physics, available freely online at OpenStax. This textbook contains all of the material in the course, aside from occasional bonus material that will be introduced in lectures. Please see the course outline below for information regarding which parts of the textbook will be covered in the course.

Both PHYS 1P22 and PHYS 1P92 share the same theoretical lectures, at the same time and place. The only difference is that PHYS 1P92 includes laboratory sessions as well. For this reason, both PHYS 1P22 and PHYS 1P92 also share the same Teams and Crowdmark sites. The Sakai site will only be used for the PHYS 1P92 labs, so if you are in PHYS 1P22 you will not be using Sakai.

Important: Announcements from the professor, containing crucial information and ongoing updates about the course, will be posted throughout the term on Microsoft Teams, in the Announcements channel. It is your responsibility to follow the announcements and read all of them thoroughly. No accommodations will be made for students who lose points in the exams due to not reading the professor's announcements!

To make sure you get notified of these announcements, please go to the course Team, click on the three dots to the right of Announcements, then go to "Channel notifications", and choose the option "All activity", as shown in this screenshot:

How to enable announcement notifications

Course syllabus ^

The course website also doubles as the course syllabus. If you need the syllabus in PDF format, simply click here to print it and choose "Save to PDF".

About the professor ^

The professor for this course is Dr. Barak Shoshany (ħe/ħim). I did my BSc in mathematics and physics at Tel Aviv University in Israel and my MSc and PhD at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. I then taught at the University of Toronto for a short time. I joined Brock University as Assistant Professor in September 2020, and I also regularly teach scientific computing at McMaster University.

I am a theoretical, mathematical, and computational physicist. My research focuses on the nature of time and causality in general relativity and quantum mechanics, as well as symbolic and high-performance scientific computing. I'm always happy to talk about my research, and theoretical physics in general, so please feel free to ask me about it, both in and out of class.

I also love teaching. I developed 9 full-term undergraduate and graduate courses from scratch since 2020, including 4 physics courses, 3 astronomy courses, 1 scientific computing course, and 1 mathematics course. My devotion to teaching won me the Brock University Faculty of Mathematics & Science Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2023.

When I'm not teaching or doing research, I love composing music, playing video games, board games, and tabletop role-playing games, and reading or watching science fiction and fantasy. Please see my personal website for details on my research, teaching, talks, media interviews, music compositions, and more.

My office is located in room E219 in the Mackenzie Chown Complex (MC). I do not have fixed office hours. You are welcome to drop by my office unannounced whenever you want, but I'm not there too often. If you would like to meet, please email me at bshoshany@brocku.ca, and I would be happy to schedule a meeting, either online or in my office.

Schedule and lectures ^

The course will take place during the Winter 2022 term, from January 10 to April 8, 2022. There will be two 1.5-hour lectures each week:

  • Tuesdays 11:00-12:30,
  • Thursdays 12:00-13:30.

There will be no lectures on Reading Week, February 21-27. Thus we will have 12 weeks of 2 lectures each, for a total of 24 lectures and 36 hours.

The lectures will be given exclusively online in the beginning of the term, in order to allow students enough time to get their booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The online lectures will be given via video meetings on Microsoft Teams. There will be a recurring event in the course's page on Teams, and students will join the lectures by clicking on the event and choosing "Join". The lectures will not be recorded, so regular attendance is crucial for success in the course.

We will switch to exclusively in-person lectures on the week of January 31 - although it is possible that this date will be postponed, depending on how the current COVID-19 situation develops. The in-person lectures will be given in room TH325 in the Thistle Complex, and will no longer be accessible online. Important: Students must adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines listed below.

Please note that according to Brock's Student Code of Conduct, "Without expressed consent from course instructors, students are not permitted to tape record, video record, or otherwise record course lectures, seminars or laboratories." If a student is caught making an audio and/or video recording of any lectures or tutorials, whether online or in person, without the explicit consent of the professor or TA, this will be considered non-academic misconduct and disciplinary action will be taken.

Contacting the professor ^

Students are invited to contact the professor via the following methods:

  • All non-personal questions related to the course, whether about the material, lectures, textbook, logistics, exams, or anything else, should be posted publicly on Microsoft Teams, in the General channel.
  • All personal questions involving private information that cannot be posted publicly on Teams, such as grades or medical issues, should be sent to me directly via email to bshoshany@brocku.ca or via direct message on Teams.

Personal vs. non-personal questions

I kindly ask that you refrain from asking non-personal questions via email or direct message. There are several reasons for this:

  • Posting questions publicly on Teams allows other students to see the questions and benefit from my answers.
  • Creating new posts on Teams encourages other students to add their own followup questions and triggers valuable discussions about the subject matter that would not have happened otherwise.
  • There is a very large number of students in this course, and posting your non-personal questions publicly on Teams means I won't have to answer the same question multiple times.

I promise to answer all questions posted on Teams as soon as I can - emailing me or messaging me directly won't get you an answer any faster. Any non-personal questions sent to me directly will receive an automated reply instructing the student to post the question on Teams instead.

If you have a non-personal question that you don't want to ask in public on Teams because you're shy - that's okay, you can email me your question, just let me know that you're asking it in private because of this reason. However, if I believe my answer could be of use to other students, I may post your question and my answer on Teams (without mentioning your name), unless you explicitly ask me not to.

Other important rules

If you email me, please make sure to do so from your Brock email account, not from your personal account, since otherwise I have no way to verify your identity. I will not be able to share or discuss any personal details with you if you contact me from your non-Brock email.

Please only message me once; do not send me the same message both by email and on Teams. This will not get me to respond any faster. I get notifications for both emails and Teams messages on my phone as soon as they are received, so if you do this I'll simply get two separate notifications for the same message, which will just annoy me and might actually make me less likely to respond to your message quickly.

In my experience, many of the questions asked by students throughout the term already have answers either on the course website or in Teams discussions and announcements. Therefore, before you ask a question, please check if perhaps it already has an answer - that way, you won't have to wait for my response.

Lastly, please do not email me with any lab-related matters. Any inquiries regarding the PHYS 1P92 labs should be sent directly to the Senior Lab Coordinator at Phys1P92@brocku.ca.

Teaching assistants and tutorials ^

Your teaching assistants are:

Each week, the TAs will teach tutorials to prepare you for that week's quiz. In other words, the tutorials from Monday until Thursday will prepare you for the subsequent quiz on Friday. The tutorial schedule is as follows:

  • Mondays 14:00-15:00: Hooman, PLZ410
  • Tuesdays 13:00-14:00: Saima, TH257
  • Wednesdays 12:30-13:30: Mahdieh, TH257
  • Thursdays 10:00-11:00: Saima, PLZ410
  • Thursdays 17:00-18:00: Mahdieh PLZ410

Students can attend as many tutorials as they want. Different TAs may solve different problems, or solve the same problems with different approaches, so it is strongly recommended to attend at least two tutorials per week. In addition, the students may ask the TAs questions about the material, or to solve specific problems.

As with the lectures, the tutorials will be given online on Teams at first, and will switch to in-person delivery on the week of January 31 (unless this changes).

Course outline ^

The course material will consist of the following sections of the textbook:

  • Chapter 11 (Fluid Statics): Sections 11.1-11.7.
  • Chapter 12 (Fluid Dynamics): Sections 12.1-12.3.
  • Chapter 13 (Temperature & Gas Laws): Sections 13.1-13.5.
  • Chapter 14 (Heat): Sections 14.1-14.4.
  • Chapter 15 (Thermodynamics): Sections 15.1-15.4, 15.6-15.7.
  • Chapter 16 (Oscillatory Motion & Waves): Sections 16.1-16.11.
  • Chapter 17 (Physics of Hearing): Sections 17.1-17.5.
  • Chapter 18 (Electric Charge & Electric Field): Sections 18.1-18.5, 18.7.
  • Chapter 19 (Electric Potential & Electric Energy): Sections 19.1-19.7.
  • Chapter 20 (Electric Current & Resistance): Sections 20.1-20.5.
  • Chapter 21 (Circuits & DC Instruments): Section 21.1.
  • Chapter 22 (Magnetism): Sections 22.1-22.5, 22.9.
  • Chapter 23 (Electromagnetic Induction & AC Circuits): Skipping.
  • Chapter 24 (Electromagnetic Waves): Sections 24.1-24.4.
  • Chapter 25 (Geometric Optics): Sections 25.1-25.7.
  • Chapter 26 (Vision & Optical Instruments): Skipping.
  • Chapter 27 (Wave Optics): Sections 27.1-27.5, 27.8.
  • Chapter 28 (Special Relativity): Sections 28.1-28.6.
  • Chapter 29 (Quantum Physics): Sections 29.1-29.8.

Chapters 1-10 were covered in PHYS 1P21/91, and are required as mandatory background material for PHYS 1P22/92. Please make sure to review them if needed!

Chapters 30-34 will not be covered in this course, but students are strongly encouraged to read them for general knowledge, and discuss them with other students and with the professor on Teams.

Weekly progress ^

The following list will be populated as the course progresses, to indicate what we learned each week:

  • Week 1 (Jan 10 - Jan 16): Sections 11.1-11.7.
  • Week 2 (Jan 17 - Jan 23): Sections 12.1-12.3, 13.1-13.4.
  • Week 3 (Jan 24 - Jan 30): Sections 13.5, 14.1-14.4, 15.1.
  • Week 4 (Jan 31 - Feb 06): Sections 15.2-15.4, 15.6.
  • Week 5 (Feb 07 - Feb 13): Sections 15.7, 16.1-16.9.
  • Week 6 (Feb 14 - Feb 20): Sections 16.10-16.11, 17.1-17.5, 18.1-18.3.
  • Reading week (Feb 21 - Feb 27): No lectures.
  • Week 7 (Feb 28 - Mar 06): Sections 18.4-18.5, 18.7, 19.1-19.4.
  • Week 8 (Mar 07 - Mar 13): Sections 19.5-19.7, 20.1-20.5, 21.1, 22.1-22.3.
  • Week 9 (Mar 14 - Mar 20): Sections 22.4-22.5, 22.9, 24.1-24.3.
  • Week 10 (Mar 21 - Mar 27): Sections 24.4, 25.1-25.7.
  • Week 11 (Mar 28 - Apr 03): Sections 27.1-27.5, 27.8, 28.1-28.2.
  • Week 12 (Apr 04 - Apr 10): Sections 28.3-28.6, 29.1-29.2. (29.3-29.5 were also covered, but will not be in the exam.)

If a section is listed here, then the entire section will be covered in that week's quiz and in the final exam. This includes any parts of that section that may have been omitted or skimmed during the lectures due to lack of time. Students are expected to study any omitted parts on their own, and encouraged to ask questions on Teams or during the next lecture if anything is unclear. Conversely, any chapter or section not listed here will not be covered in the quizzes or final exam.

Homework assignments ^

The weekly assignments contain a small number of questions that should provide the minimum necessary practice for each week's quiz. However, please note that solving the homework assignments is only necessary, not sufficient, for success in the quiz. Solving additional questions from the textbook is very important as well.

The quiz may contain some of these questions or variations on them. However, the quiz may also contain questions that are unrelated to the homework questions, and conversely, not all homework questions are necessarily related to questions that will be in the quiz. It's up to you to make sure you understand all the material we learned during the week, not just the material related to the homework questions.

When solving quantitative (not conceptual) questions, whether from the homework or elsewhere, it is important to always provide complete analytical derivations of any quantities you need to calculate. "Analytical" means all variables must remain undetermined, i.e. just letters, without putting any numbers into any of the variables. In the quizzes you will be required to provide analytical derivations without any specific numerical values given to you. All necessary steps of the derivation must be provided for a full mark.

The homework assignments are not graded, and you do not need to submit them. Solutions to the homework questions will not be posted. The goal is for you to solve them on your own and discuss them with other students. You are strongly encouraged to post your solutions on Teams and compare them with solutions posted by other students. You are also very much welcome to ask questions about the homework assignments on Teams, and either the professor or other students will be happy to answer your questions.

  • Week 1 (Jan 10 - Jan 16):
    • From Chapter 11 Conceptual Questions: 1, 4-5, 7-9, 14, 16-17, 23-24, 28-29.
    • From Chapter 11 Problems & Exercises: 5-6, 11-13, 17, 19, 22, 25, 34-36, 39, 41-43.
  • Week 2 (Jan 17 - Jan 23):
    • From Chapter 12 Conceptual Questions: 1-6, 11-15, 17-21.
    • From Chapter 12 Problems & Exercises: 11, 14-16, 20-23, 25-28.
    • From Chapter 13 Conceptual Questions: 1-2, 5-8, 11-13.
    • From Chapter 13 Problems & Exercises: 9-22, 24-25, 29, 31-34, 38-48.
  • Week 3 (Jan 24 - Jan 30):
    • From Chapter 13 Conceptual Questions: 14-19.
    • From Chapter 13 Problems & Exercises: None.
    • From Chapter 14 Conceptual Questions: 1-15, 17-19.
    • From Chapter 14 Problems & Exercises: 1, 3-29 (many of these are very similar, so you can skip some).
    • From Chapter 15 Conceptual Questions: 1-5.
    • From Chapter 15 Problems & Exercises: 1-9.
  • Week 4 (Jan 31 - Feb 06):
    • From Chapter 15 Conceptual Questions: 8-22, 28-36.
    • From Chapter 15 Problems & Exercises: 10-17, 20-36 (many of these are very similar, so you can skip some), 47-56.
  • Week 5 (Feb 07 - Feb 13):
    • From Chapter 15 Conceptual Questions: 37.
    • From Chapter 15 Problems & Exercises: 57-63.
    • From Chapter 16 Conceptual Questions: 1-15.
    • From Chapter 16 Problems & Exercises: Choose any 5 problems from each of the sections 16.1-16.4 and 16.9 (25 problems in total), and solve all the problems from the sections 16.5-16.8 (i.e. problems 35-46).
  • Week 6 (Feb 14 - Feb 20):
    • From Chapter 16 Conceptual Questions: 16-18.
    • From Chapter 16 Problems & Exercises: Choose any 4 problems from each of the sections 16.10-16.11 (8 problems in total).
    • From Chapter 17 Conceptual Questions: 1-10.
    • From Chapter 17 Problems & Exercises: Choose any 5 problems from each of the sections 17.2-17.5 (20 problems in total).
    • From Chapter 18 Conceptual Questions: 1-11.
    • From Chapter 18 Problems & Exercises: 1-9, choose any 5 problems from section 18.3.
  • Week 7 (Feb 28 - Mar 06):
    • From Chapter 18 Conceptual Questions: 12-15, 17-32.
    • From Chapter 18 Problems & Exercises: 27-50.
    • From Chapter 19 Conceptual Questions: 1-13.
    • From Chapter 19 Problems & Exercises: Choose any 6 problems from each of the sections 19.1-19.3 (18 problems in total), solve all problems from section 19.4.
  • Week 8 (Mar 07 - Mar 13):
    • From Chapter 19 Conceptual Questions: 14-23.
    • From Chapter 19 Problems & Exercises: 46-54, 57-62, 63-68, 70.
    • From Chapter 20 Conceptual Questions: 1-17.
    • From Chapter 20 Problems & Exercises: Choose any 6 problems from each of the sections 20.1-20.5 (30 problems in total). Skip all "integrated concepts" problems.
    • From Chapter 21 Conceptual Questions: 1-12.
    • From Chapter 21 Problems & Exercises: 1-13.
    • From Chapter 22 Conceptual Questions: 1-5.
    • From Chapter 22 Problems & Exercises: N/A.
  • Week 9 (Mar 14 - Mar 20):
    • From Chapter 22 Conceptual Questions: 6-13, 20.
    • From Chapter 22 Problems & Exercises: 1-21.
    • From Chapter 24 Conceptual Questions: 1-22.
    • From Chapter 24 Problems & Exercises: 1-5, choose any 10 problems from 6-28.
  • Week 10 (Mar 21 - Mar 27):
    • From Chapter 24 Conceptual Questions: N/A.
    • From Chapter 24 Problems & Exercises: 30-38.
    • From Chapter 25 Conceptual Questions: 1-30.
    • From Chapter 25 Problems & Exercises: 1-4, choose any 6 problems from each of sections 25.3, 25.4, 25.5, 25.6, 25.7 (36 problems in total).
  • Week 11 (Mar 28 - Apr 03):
    • From Chapter 27 Conceptual Questions: 1-19, 30-36.
    • From Chapter 27 Problems & Exercises: 1-5, choose any 7 problems from each of sections 27.3, 27.4, 27.5. 27.8 (28 problems in total).
    • From Chapter 28 Conceptual Questions: 1-6.
    • From Chapter 28 Problems & Exercises: 1-11.
  • Week 12 (Apr 04 - Apr 10):
    • From Chapter 28 Conceptual Questions: 7-22.
    • From Chapter 28 Problems & Exercises: Solve all problems for sections 28.3, 28.4, and 28.5; choose any 10 problems from section 28.6.
    • From Chapter 29 Conceptual Questions: 1-10.
    • From Chapter 29 Problems & Exercises: 1-10, choose any 10 problems from section 29.2.

Labs (PHYS 1P92 only) ^

Your lab demonstrators are:

  • Alicia Martin
  • Collin Tower
  • Jeremy Dion

Instructions for the labs can be found on Sakai and on the Labs Teams channel. Please make sure to read them, as well as any subsequent announcements posted via Sakai and/or Teams. If you have any questions about the labs, please contact the Senior Lab Coordinator at phys1p92@brocku.ca. Please do not contact the professor regarding any lab-related matters!

Exams ^

Weekly quizzes

There will be online quizzes every week at the following time:

  • Fridays 08:00-08:50. (Please note: this is 8 AM, not 8 PM!)

As with the lectures, the quizzes will be given exclusively online in the beginning of the term, in order to allow students enough time to get their booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The online quizzes will be given via Crowdmark. Instructions for how to use Crowdmark will be given in the first lecture, so please make sure to attend that lecture.

We will switch to exclusively in-person quizzes on the week of January 31 - although it is possible that this date will be postponed, depending on how the current COVID-19 situation develops. The in-person quizzes will be given in room TH325 in the Thistle Complex (same room as the lectures), and will no longer be accessible online. Important: Students must adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines listed below.

Each week's quiz will review the material of the previous week, meaning that quiz 1 will review the material learned in week 1, and so on. There will be no quiz on Reading Week. During the first week, there will be a practice quiz to prepare you for the real quizzes; the practice quiz will not be graded, it's just to get you acquainted with the online system. Furthermore, there will be no quiz covering week 12, that material will only be covered in the final exam.

Thus we will have 1 practice quiz and 11 graded quizzes in total, according to the following schedule:

  • Practice quiz (online): Friday, January 14, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 1 (online): Friday, January 21, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 2 (online): Friday, January 28, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 3 (in person): Friday, February 04, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 4 (in person): Friday, February 11, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 5 (in person): Friday, February 18, at 08:00.
  • Reading week: No quiz.
  • Quiz 6 (in person): Friday, March 04, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 7 (in person): Friday, March 11, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 8 (in person): Friday, March 18, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 9 (in person): Friday, March 25, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 10 (in person): Friday, April 01, at 08:00.
  • Quiz 11 (in person): Friday, April 08, at 08:00.

IMPORTANT: You must take each quiz at the exact day and time it is scheduled. This includes online quizzes. The online quizzes will NOT be open for the entire week (as was the case for PHYS 1P21/91 in the fall). If you do not take the quiz on Friday at 8:00, and you do not have a legitimate reason (including proof) for missing it, you will NOT be able to take it another time, and your grade for that quiz will be ZERO. There will be absolutely no exceptions to this rule.

The quizzes will last 50 minutes and consist of freeform and multiple-choice questions. In freeform questions you must show your work to get full marks on your answer. You may get partial marks if your final answer is incorrect but your derivation is mostly correct.

Regarding significant figures, the general rule that always applies in physics applies in the exams as well: your final answer should have the same number of significant figures as the least precise numerical quantity in the question. See section 1.3 of the textbook for example.

During the online quizzes, the TAs will be available on Teams to help the students with any technical issues and provide extensions if appropriate. There will be 3 open Teams meetings, one for each TA, and students should join whichever TA's meeting has the least number of students to ensure that they are helped as quickly as possible.

Please note: Each online quiz starts at 8:00 and ends at 8:50. You will then have 10 extra minutes for scanning and uploading your answers. The quiz must be submitted by 9:00.

Final exam

In addition, there will be one final exam given in person only. The final exam will be in the exact same format as the quizzes, but it will last 1 hour and 50 minutes, and will cover the material of the entire course.

The final exam will take place on Wednesday, April 13 from 19:00 to 20:50 at the Ian D. Beddis Gymnasium on the main level of the Walker Complex. Please make sure to arrive at least 15 minutes early, as the exam will begin at exactly 19:00 and the booklets will be distributed beforehand.

Missed exams and extra time accommodations ^

Missed exams

If you miss a quiz or exam, please email me within 7 days. Your email should explain why you missed the exam and include any necessary proof, such as a doctor's note.

  • If you missed a quiz and I accept your reason for missing it, that quiz will then not count towards your final course grade, meaning that the weight of all other quizzes will be increased appropriately. There will not be an option to take the quiz at a later date, since there are 12 quizzes and it is logistically impossible to have two different dates for each quiz.
  • If you missed the final exam and I accept your reason for missing it, you will have to take it at a later date. There will be one date, to be determined, where everyone who missed the final exam will be able to take it.

If you are late to a quiz or exam, you will not get any extra time, so please make sure to be at the exam room (or on the Crowdmark website, for online exams) at least 10 minutes before the beginning of the exam!

Extra time accommodations

Extra time accommodations in the online exams are not applied automatically; they need to be applied manually by the professor for each student. If you have extra time accommodations, please email your Approved Accommodations Summary letter (as a PDF file) to the professor as soon as possible.

Please make sure you appear on the OASIS portal, and that you have a valid Approved Accommodations Summary letter, before emailing the professor. If you don't know what these things mean, please ask your case manager at Student Accessibility Services.

For the in-person exams, extra time accommodations will work as they usually do. Please consult your case manager for more information.

Allowed material and academic integrity ^

During the quizzes and exams, both online and in person, you may use any material of your choice, printed or handwritten, up to 20 single-sided or 10 double-sided papers. You may also use a physical calculator, but not an app or a graphing calculator.

You will not be given any formulas in the exam, so it is highly recommended to use some or all of these 10 pages for any formulas that might be relevant. However, you do not need to include the numerical values of any constants in your material; if any numerical values are required to solve the question, they will be given in the exam.

There will be no ready-made formula sheets, since preparing a formula sheet on your own is a great way to summarize the material for yourself and organize it in your head! However, you are free to use formula sheets prepared by others if you want; as I said, the choice of material to bring to the exam is completely up to you, as long as it's limited to 10 pages.

Since you can bring your own material, you do not need to memorize anything. The exam is not meant to test your memory. It will test your level of understanding of the physics concepts you learn in the course, and your ability to apply them correctly and efficiently to concrete problems.

Students are expected to fully comply with Brock University's academic integrity policy. A variety of measures will be taken to detect cases of cheating in both online and in-person exams. If a student is found to have committed academic misconduct, disciplinary measures will be taken. Please see this page for more information about academic integrity.

Grading scheme and requirements ^

The total grade for the theoretical portion of the course will be calculated as follows:

  • Each quiz will be worth 5% of the total grade. This means that all 12 quizzes together will be worth 60% of the total grade. If you miss N quizzes for legitimate reasons, then each of the remaining 12-N quizzes will be worth 60/(12-N)%.
  • The final exam will be worth 40% of the total grade.
  • The weighted average will be rounded up to the nearest integer.

For 1P22 students, this will be 100% of their final course grade. However, for 1P92 students, this will only be 80% of their final course grade, with the other 20% based on the average of their laboratory grades.

As for all courses at Brock, the final grade (after taking into account all of the above) must be 50% or more in order to pass the course. In addition, students taking PHYS 1P92 must get at least a 60% average on the laboratory portion of the course. Completing all labs and submitting all written lab reports is required. Those who fail these requirements will only receive credit for PHYS 1P22.

Exam preparation ^

The best way to prepare for the quizzes and the final exam is to:

  • Attend all of the lectures and actively participate in them. I give ample time for students to ask questions in my lectures, so if anything at all is unclear, you should feel free to ask me about it.
  • Thoroughly read and understand the relevant sections of the textbook. If there is anything you do not understand in the textbook, please feel free to ask about it during the lectures and tutorials, post about it on Teams, and/or discuss it with your classmates.
  • Solve the homework assignments given each week, post your solutions on Teams for other students to see, and discuss the questions with other students and with the professor on Teams.
  • Solve as many as possible of the textbook problems corresponding to the sections we learned each week, even if they are not in the homework assignments.

COVID-19 guidelines ^

Your health and safety is very important to me! Since this course is delivered in person, all students must adhere to the following COVID-19 guidelines:

Vaccines

Vaccines are mandatory for all students. You will not be able to enter the campus without proof of vaccination. Students who cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons can request accommodations from the university. You can book a vaccine here and even get a vaccine on campus through Student Health Services.

Even if you are fully vaccinated, it is highly recommended that you get your booster shot as soon as possible in order to keep yourself and everyone else in the class safe. Note that the university may decide to make booster shots mandatory later.

Masks

Masks are mandatory at all times in all lectures and exams, unless you have an approved exemption from the university. If you do, you must send me the official letter from the university indicating that you have a mask exemption ASAP. According to university regulations, you are not permitted to lower your mask for any reason other than drinking water.

N95 masks are much more effective than cloth or even surgical masks. I highly recommended that all students wear N95 masks as long as they are in the classroom, to ensure that everyone is as safe as possible. Remember that you wear a mask not to protect yourself, but to protect other students in the class, who may be more vulnerable than you!

Please note that if any student who does not have an approved exemption is seen not wearing a mask in the classroom, or wearing it incorrectly (for example under the nose), the lecture or exam will be canceled unless the student either puts on a mask or leaves the class.

Other guidelines

If you have COVID-19, or suspect that you are experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, do not come to class. If you miss a lecture, you can make up the missing material by reading the textbook, which will contain all the material needed for the exam. If you miss a quiz or exam, the usual rules still apply as long as you have proof such as a doctor's note or a positive COVID-19 test. The same accommodations will also be in place if you are required to self-isolate for any reason.

Please maintain physical distancing in the classroom as much as possible by keeping at least one empty seat between every two students. This should be possible in the lectures, depending on attendance, but unfortunately may not be possible in the quizzes.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please do not hesitate to post them on Teams (preferred), send me a direct message on Teams, or email me.

How to avoid technical issues in the online exams ^

To avoid technical issues during the online exams in this course, please make sure to closely follow these steps before you start each exam:

  1. Make sure your operating system is up to date. If you need to install any updates, do so several hours before the exam (or the previous day), since it might take some time.
  2. If your computer has an Ethernet port, connect your computer directly to the modem/router using an Ethernet cable, instead of using WiFi, which is less reliable.
  3. Make sure that no other people (family, roommates, etc.) and/or devices (phones, tablets, etc.) are using the same Internet connection for the entire duration of the exam.
  4. Restart your modem and/or router a few hours before the exam (or the previous day).
  5. Restart your computer 30-60 minutes before the exam.
  6. When your computer starts, do not open any programs other than your web browser.
  7. Use only Mozilla Firefox (preferred), Google Chrome, or the new Microsoft Edge (not the legacy Edge). Do not use Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer, or any other browsers.
  8. Open the exam in a Private/Incognito window. Instructions for opening a Private/Incognito window may be found here for Firefox, here for Chrome, or here for Edge. If you enabled any extensions in Private/Incognito mode, disable them first.
  9. Make sure the web browser is the only open program on your computer for the entire duration of the exam.
  10. If your computer is slow, it may be better to take the exam on another device, such as a phone or tablet. In fact, it's a good idea to have a second device (including a second computer, if available) ready regardless, in case the first one crashes. Make sure to apply the previous steps to each device you intend to use.

Please note that if your exam fails to submit due to not following these instructions, you will not be able to retake the exam. No exceptions will be made under any circumstances.

Accommodations ^

Brock University is committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for all students and will adhere to the Human Rights principles that ensure respect for dignity, individualized accommodation, inclusion, and full participation. The University provides a wide range of resources to assist students, as follows:

  • If you need any accommodations related to exams, such as extra time, because of a disability or an ongoing health or mental health condition, please contact Student Accessibility Services (SAS) at askSAS@brocku.ca or (905) 688-5550 ext. 3240 as soon as possible to arrange your accommodations.
  • If you require academic accommodation on religious grounds, you should make a formal, written request to the TA at astr@brocku.ca, who will pass it on to the professor. Such requests should be made during the first two weeks of any given academic term, or as soon as possible after a need for accommodation is known to exist.
  • If you are experiencing mental health concerns, contact the Student Wellness and Accessibility Centre. Good2Talk is a service specifically for post-secondary students, available 24/7, 365 days a year, and provides anonymous assistance: visit the website or call 1 866 925-5454. For information on wellness, coping, and resiliency, click here.
  • If you have been affected by sexual violence, the Human Rights & Equity Office offers support, information, reasonable accommodations, and resources through the Sexual Violence Support & Education Coordinator. For information on sexual violence, visit Brock's Sexual Assault and Harassment Policy or contact the Sexual Violence Support & Response Coordinator at humanrights@brocku.ca or (905) 688-5550 ext. 4387.
  • If you have experienced discrimination or harassment on any of the above grounds, including racial, gender or other forms of discrimination, contact the Human Rights and Equity Office at humanrights@brocku.ca.

Intellectual property notice ^

Any and all course materials created by the instructor in this course, including but not limited to notes, slides, homework assignments, homework solutions, exams, exam solutions, and/or videos, are the intellectual property of the instructor. Any student who, without the instructor's express consent, publicly posts or sells the instructor's work, or takes a photo, audio, and/or video recording of the instructor's lectures, will be charged with misconduct under Brock University's Academic Integrity Policy and/or Code of Conduct, and may also face adverse legal consequences for infringement of intellectual property rights.

© 2024 Barak Shoshany