Syllabus

Post Baccalaureate in Pre-Health

PHYS 1011: Physics II – Fall 2 2023

Credits - 4

Description

This algebra-based online course is a four credit-hour course that includes a hands-on physics laboratory. The overall goal of this online course is to provide the student, interested in the health professions, with a continuing introduction to physics that emphasizes additional concepts than those covered in PHYS 1010 that are the foundation of science and which the students may encounter in their professional studies. These topics include thermodynamics, waves and sound, electrostatics, circuits, magnetism, light and optics, and atomic and nuclear phenomena. Course pre-req: one semester of college algebra. PHYS 1010 or equivalent physics course is highly recommended.

Materials

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

Program Outcomes

In lecture courses, students should be able to:

1. Communicate scientific concepts and information clearly.
2. Illustrate fundamental laws, theories, and principles of scientific disciplines.
3. Apply knowledge and critical thinking skills to scientific problems.

In lab courses, students should be able to:

1. Ask a question or define a problem that can be tested.
2. Hypothesize possible result(s).
3. Plan and/or conduct an investigation individually and/or collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence.
4. Analyze data using tools, technologies, and/or models (i.e. computational, mathematical, graphical, etc.) in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution.
5. Communicate the results by constructing an explanation based on multiple pieces of valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
6. Apply scientific ideas, principles, and/or evidence gained from various experiments, as well as other observations and/or research, to provide an explanation of phenomena and solve design problems, taking into account possible unanticipated effects.

Course Outcomes

The objectives of this course are designed to facilitate your construction of conceptual models to describe physical ideas that are the foundation of sciences that you may encounter in your professional studies.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Apply thermodynamics principles to explain various scenarios.
• Predict auditory phenomena using wave properties of sound.
• Design a project, collect data, and interpret results related to thermodynamics and sound.
• Analyze electrostatic distributions and interactions.
• Interpret simple resistive and capacitive DC circuits.
• Explain behavior of charged particles in magnetic fields.
• Solve geometric optics problems using ray tracing methods and equations.
• Summarize physical principles behind observed atomic and nuclear phenomena.
• Discuss potential health concerns associated with digital technology.
• Produce an audio, video, or written report related to modern physics concepts of electromagnetic, atomic, or nuclear phenomena.

Assignments

Assigned Homework Problems and Lecture Quizzes

Successful comprehension of physics concepts requires practice, diligence, and motivation. You should spend several hours per section on homework and independent of laboratory time. Assignments can be found through Brightspace. They consist of homework with solutions to check your work once the homework has been reviewed by your instructor, and lecture quizzes.

Laboratory Assignments

A significant amount of time is dedicated to at-home hands-on laboratory experiments. We will make use of the IOLab Wireless Lab System along with accompanying laboratory instructions to collect data, analyze data on your home computer, and share results and interpretation with the instructor and other students. Other lab experiments will make use of the materials in the Hands-On Lab Kit. Labs will focus on discovering relationships between physical variables and identifying applications of the relevant physics principles. Laboratory instructions and experiment submission forms are provided for each lab and are organized by course week/topic.

Discussion Board Posts

Discussion questions cover interesting current events or materials that contribute to a deeper understanding of key concepts and allow you to interact with your classmates and the instructor. 

To earn full credit: you will need to post a response, respond to the original posts of at least two other students, and then contribute to an ongoing discussion. For special cases where one or two students are accelerating faster through the course, the instructor will participate in the discussion so that everyone has the opportunity to interact.

Discussion Question Guidelines

1. Read the assignment carefully so that you are familiar with the materials that you need to cover and how to craft your post.
2. Respect each other’s ideas, feelings, and experience. Some of the questions involve areas of disagreement. Expect your classmates to have different opinions.
3. Use proper writing style. Correct spelling and sentence structure are expected just as if you were writing a regular paper. Use spell check and grammar check before you submit.
4. Write your posting in a word document! That way you can save a copy and use spell check and grammar check.
5. Cite the sources that you use to write your response. Follow the AMA guidelines.
6. Avoid posting large blocks of text. Break your writing into paragraphs and use a space between paragraphs to make your posting easier to read online.
7. Subscribe to the discussion so that you get email updates when there is activity.
8. Use the “reply” button rather than the “compose” button when responding to someone else’s post.
9. When responding to a classmate, address them by name.
10. Do not use postings such as “I agree,” “I don’t know either,” or “ditto.” They do not add to the discussion, take up space on the Discussions, and will not be counted.
11. Everyone benefits from an active discussion. Check back in frequently to see what others are saying.
12. Plan your time carefully. You will need to give your classmates time to respond to your postings. This is an asynchronous class where students will be in different points of the class.

Practice Proctored Exam

There is a highly recommended Practice Proctored Exam available to all students. It prepares test takers for what the testing environment will be like, what forms of identification are needed, and provides a chance to test your external webcam with a live proctor. This is a great way to become familiar with and prepare for your exam!

Grading Policy

Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:

Grade Breakdown

Category	Points Available
Course Discussions	6%
Homework	13%
Lab Assignments	20%
Quizzes	13%
Unit 1 Project	14%
Unit 2 Project	14%
Unit 3 Project	20%
Total	100%

Grade Scale

Grade	Points Grade	Point Average (GPA)
A	94 – 100%	4.00
A-	90 – 93%	3.75
B+	87 – 89%	3.50
B	84 – 86%	3.00
B-	80 – 83%	2.75
C+	77 – 79%	2.50
C	74 – 76%	2.00
C-	70 – 73%	1.75
D	64 – 69%	1.00
F	00 – 63%	0.00