PH100:
Prerequisites
Meeting Times, Location, & Course Delivery Details
The lecture portion of this course will be delivered in-person (or “face-to-face”). Some assignments will be held during the lecture class time, while others will be completed outside of class time.
If the College is forced to suspend in-person instruction due to the pandemic, the lecture portion of this course would be changed to online an asynchronous course. This would require that you watch recorded lecture videos via Blackboard/Office 365 (probably 2-3 per week). Office hours would meet in a virtual contact space through the Blackboard Learning Management System. Assignments (types, numbers, approximate dates) would be kept as closely as possible to the original plan in this syllabus, with assignments being distributed/submitted via Blackboard.
The laboratory portion of the course will be an in-person model, including in-person experiments. If the College must suspend in-person operations, alternative online or out-of-laboratory activities/assignments may be substituted for the planned in-person experiments.
Contact Information
The textbook for the course is optional : College Physics 2e (ISBN-13: 978-1-951693-60-2). It is available for free on the internet on OpenStax: (https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics-2e). All content will be presented/discussed in lecture. However, students may wish to use this textbook as a supplement/reference for the lecture. Chapters which match the lecture topics for both books are listed below in the syllabus.
The required lab text is Physics is Phun! by Russell Kincaid (This is an in-house lab manual and thus has no ISBN #; you must obtain it from the campus bookstore. Please make sure that the manual is for this course, PH100, and not the higher-level PH230, which has a similarly titled manual.). The laboratory book is required, since some lab experiments (procedures, assignment sheets) are contained therein. Lab experiments will be announced (a tentative schedule of experiments is provided later in this syllabus), although typically one experiment per week is performed.
Overview: Basics of Physical Science is a two-part course: lecture and lab. This course is designed to teach the basic theories of physics with applications, laboratory skills and practices, and problem-solving logic as it is applied to problems related to physics. It serves to satisfy requirements for General Education in the natural sciences.
Course and General Education Goals and Objectives: This course addresses the following goals/objectives in the General Education program
1. The student will be able to compute mathematical equations to solve problems in a great variety of fields of study, problems involving ratios, percentages, approximation and estimation, measures of central
tendency, standard deviation, statistical inference, reading and interpreting graphs, charts and tables.
2. The student will be able to manipulate calculators as tools for solving problems encountered in everyday life.
3. The student will be able to perform algebraic formulas to solve mathematical exercises.
4. The student will be able to explain science as a way of knowing about the physical world.
5. The student will be able to analyze and perform experimentation as a way of asking and answering
questions about science.
6. The student will be able to recognize the types of questions that science, by its nature, can and cannot answer.
7. The student will be able to generalize concepts of natural science to convey its complexity and to comprehend that asking a science question requires prior knowledge.
8. The student will be able to discuss some of the practical and ethical human implications of scientifically derived knowledge.
9. The student will be able to compose a theory and demonstrate that theory in practice.
Lecture Outline (Tentative):
| Week of Semester† | Chapters in College Physics 2e | Topics |
| Week 1 | Chapter 1. | Scientific method, metric units, unit conversions, math skills (trigonometry, vectors). |
| Week 2 | Chapters 2, 4 | Mass, Inertia, Force, Equilibrium, Friction, Speed, Velocity, Acceleration |
| Week 3 | Chapters 2, 4, 5. | Newton’s Laws, Free Fall, Gravity, Action and Reaction, Vectors |
| Week 4-5 | Chapters 7-9 | Momentum, Impulse, Conservation of Momentum, Collisions, Energy, Work, Potential Energy, Kinetic Energy, Conservation of Energy, Power |
| Week 6 | Chapter 6 | Law of Gravity, Gravitational Constant, Weight, Projectile Motion, Orbits |
| Week 7 | Chapters 11-12 | Density, Pressure, Buoyancy, Gas Laws, Pascal’s Principle, Bernoulli’s Principle |
| Week 8 | Chapters 13-14 | Temperature, Temp. Scales, Heat Energy, Entropy, Specific Heat Capacity, Thermal Expansion. |
| Week 9 | Chapter 14 | Evaporation, Condensation, Boiling, Melting, Radiant Energy |
| Week 10 | Chapters 18-21 | Charge, Coulomb’s Law, Electric Field, Potential, Current, Resistance, Circuits |
| Week 11 | Chapters 22-23 | Magnetic Poles, Fields, Electromagnets, Induction, Generators |
| Week 12 | Chapters 16-17 | Wave Motion, Types of Waves, Sound, Reflection/Refraction, Interference, Doppler Effect |
| Week 13 | Chapter 24-26 | Electromagnetic Spectrum, Color, Reflection, Transmission, Diffraction, Optics |
| Week 14 | Chapter 30 | Atomic Structure, Protons, Neutrons, Electrons, |
| Week 15 | Chapter 31 | Nuclear Radioactivity, Alpha particles, Beta particles, Gamma rays, Half-life, Fission, Fusion. |
† The listed week of the semester for each topic is tentative and subject to change as the semester progresses.
LIST OF LAB EXPERIMENTS (Tentative):
All in-person experiments come from the required lab text. The list and order of experiments below is tentative and subject to change. If so, any change will be announced with the appropriate advanced notice.
| Lab Weeks | Lab Experiment/Activity | Text Resource Needed | Report or Worksheet/other ? |
| 1 | Force Balance | Lab Manual | Worksheet |
| 2 | Constant Velocity Motion in One Dimension | Lab Manual | Report |
| 3 | Constant Acceleration in Free Fall | Lab Manual | Report |
| 4 | Conservation of Momentum: Elastic Collisions | Lab Manual | Worksheet |
| 5 | Potential to Kinetic Energy | Lab Manual | Report |
| 6 | Buoyancy of a Floating Object | Lab Manual | Worksheet |
| 7 | Boyle’ Law | Lab Manual | Report |
| 8 | Electrical Circuits: Simple Resistive Circuits | Lab Manual | Worksheet |
| 9 | Sound Waves: Speed of Sound in Air | Lab Manual | Worksheet |
| 10 | Diffraction: Young’s Double Slit Experiment | Lab Manual | Worksheet |
| 11 | Snell’s Law: Water | Lab Manual | Worksheet |
For the lab assignments, you are expected to read the experiment in the lab manual before coming to lab. You may have the lab manual in the laboratory for use when doing the experiments. You should also bring a notebook for recording experimental data and observations (It does not need to be a dedicated notebook; it will not be collected or graded).
Course Assessments
All out-of-class assignments (for example, lab reports) are planned to be submitted online using the Blackboard system (or email as an emergency backup in case of Blackboard technical difficulties). For documents prepared in MS Word (or similar) such as laboratory reports, these files can be submitted as MS Word (.docx or .doc) files or as pdf files (please do not upload files formatted for Apple Pages, as Blackboard cannot read these).
Quizzes: A total of seven (7) quizzes will be given. The totality of the quizzes will account for approximately 42 % of the overall course grade. Quizzes will be of equal value to each other, 60 points. The planned dates for quizzes are: 9/3, 9/17, 10/1, 10/15, 10/29, 11/12, and 12/3 (Mostly Wednesdays). Quizzes will be completed during lecture, on-paper. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped (top six quiz grades count). If a student misses a quiz, that will be used as their dropped quiz. For missed quizzes beyond the first, a makeup/exemption may be granted for excusable absences.
Practice Worksheet Participation: On the seven (7) dates listed below, there will be in-class practice problem worksheets (in preparation for the corresponding quizzes). Attendance at and participation in these sessions is mandatory and graded (except for excused absences). “Attendance & Participation” will be judged as 0%, 50%, 75%, or 100% based on approximately what portion of the class time was missed (if any) and the level of participation. “Participation” means actively working the worksheet provided (alone or in a small group) for the entire class period, or until the worksheet is satisfactorily completed. Each session has a point value of 25 points. They account for approximately 20 % of the course grade. If a student misses one of these sessions for an excused absence, and exemption will be granted. Unexcused absences will receive a grade of zero. Dates: 8/27, 9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, 11/5, and 11/19.
Final Exam: There will be a comprehensive final exam on or by the date for final exams for this course as indicated by the College’s final exam schedules (Exam period is Friday Dec 5, 8:00AM-10:00AM). This final exam will be 100 points, or approximately 12 % of the overall course grade. The format will be multiple choice, and it make be administered in Blackboard.
Lab Assignments*: There will be eleven (11) lab assignments. For four (4) of these, a written report will be prepared following the lab report template provided in the Blackboard system. For the other seven (7) experiments, worksheets or other forms of reporting results will be submitted (usually at the end of the lab period). The general due date for each report will be posted in Blackboard, and it will be about one week after the experiment is performed. Unexcused, late lab reports will be penalized 15%. No reports will be accepted after two weeks past due (or the last day of regular classes) without an approved excuse. The totality of the lab assignments will account for approximately 26 % of the overall course grade. Lab assignments will be of equal value to each other, 20 points. Attendance and participation in the laboratory period is required to receive a grade for a lab report/worksheet/etc. You cannot earn point credit for experiments that you did not do/attend.
(* In the event that the College must suspend in-person operations or some other unforeseeable emergency, the numbers of quizzes, tests, and laboratory assignments may vary from those listed here. A reasonable effort will be made to maintain numbers/types of assessments as closely as possible to the plan in the syllabus. In the event that the College must suspend in-person operations, laboratory assignments will likely become “out-of-lab” assignments, and substitute activities will be provided for the “in-person” experiments listed further below in the syllabus)
Grade Computation
- Quizzes: (6 x 60 pts each) = 360 pts; ~ 42 % of course grade
- Practice Worksheet Days: (7 x 25 pts each) = 175 pts; ~20% of course grade
- Lab Assignments (11 x 20 pts each) = 220 pts; ~26 % of course grade
- Final Exam (1 x 100 pts) = 100 pts; ~ 12 % of course grade
Total Point = 855
Grades will be assigned using the following scale. At the end of the semester, the instructor may apply a curve to grading scale for the class. If that were to occur, it would only be a curve to increase the assigned letter grades, not decrease, and the curve would be applied to the entire class.
A = 90% or higher
B = 80% to 89%
C = 65% to 79%
D = 55% to 64%
F = less than 55%
Decimals in the overall course percentage will be rounded to the nearest integer. Any decimal that is less than 0.5 will round down to the nearest integer; any that is 0.5 or greater will round up. For example, a grade of 79.46% would round to a 79% and be awarded a letter grade of “C”. A grade of 89.50% would round up to 90% and be awarded an “A”.
Instructor Course Policies
Lecture: Attendance is strongly encouraged for all lecture sessions, but regular attendance in lecture is not, in itself, a part of your course grade. Some course assignments (e.g., tests) are taken during lectures. Failure to complete these due to absence will result in a score of zero for these assignments, unless a valid excuse can be provided. The College’s documents (e.g. Catalog, Student Handbook) list official excuses for absences. In addition, reasonable accommodations will be made to excuse absences for important or unavoidable causes. Students who are absent due to suspicion of illness will be excused. In the event of an excused absence, a student will be allowed to make-up or otherwise submit after the due deadline work within a reasonable amount of time as determined by the instructor (see rule for missed quizzes in the "Quizzes" section. Students who fail to turn in quiz/test/exam assignments by the deadline, without acceptable excuses, will receive scores of zeros for those assignments.
Laboratory: Students who miss an “in-person” laboratory period for an excused absence will typically be given an opportunity to make-up that experiment. The last full week of regular classes will have opportunities to make-up labs. Please contact your laboratory instructor if you have a lab absence so that the best arrangements can be made. If no possible arrangements can be made for an excused lab absence, an “exemption” may be made by the course instructor such that the lab assignment does not affect the student’s grade (This is rare, since there are mechanisms to make up missed labs). If a student is absent for an “in-person” laboratory period without an acceptable excuse, resulting in the student not performing the experiment, then that student cannot submit a laboratory report for that period and will receive a zero for that assignment.
Students with academic integrity violations may not be eligible for academic awards and honors (i.e., Academic Honors, Dean’s List/Merit List, Green Key Honor Society, Quaker Impact Award, and other Honorary Societies). See the current Student Handbook for the college’s Academic Integrity policies as they pertain to examinations, classroom behavior, and the process for handling academic misconduct charges. See the separate policy dealing with plagiarism below.
Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism is defined as the representation of another’s words, ideas, concepts, research or creative production without proper attribution, whether intentional or unintentional. It is the student’s responsibility to be informed about what constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism can occur in the submission of one’s own work or in work submitted by a group.
Examples of plagiarism include (but are not limited to) the following:
- The submission of a paper not one’s own, including turning in a paper that has been purchased from a commercial research firm or obtained from the internet
- Copying word for word information without quotation marks
- Paraphrasing information (that is, the use of one’s own words with only minor changes to the original)
- Use of information not considered general knowledge without proper citation
- Listing of misleading or false sources on a reference page
- The use of a paper or project for one course that was previously submitted for another course, either at Wilmington or at any other institution.
- Use/copying of another student’s laboratory work/data without prior permission of the instructor.
- The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to generate answers, work, analysis, or writing without permission of the instructor.
Plagiarism is a serious academic offense and carries serious academic consequences. Violations will be recorded by the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Main Campus and Vice President of External Programs at the Cincinnati Branch Campus.
When an instructor discovers plagiarism, the instructor will first consult with the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs if a main campus student, or the Vice President for External Programs if a branch campus student, in order to determine if the student is a first-time offender. For first offenses, the instructor has the ability to determine the penalty for the offense. Students with academic integrity violations may not be eligible for academic awards and honors (i.e., Academic Honors, Dean’s List/Merit List, Green Key Honor Society, Quaker Impact Award, and other Honorary Societies). For a second offense or more, the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Main Campus or the Vice President for External Programs for students at the branch campus, will report the offense to the academic standards and appeal committee and gather evidence for a hearing with the student. It is possible that the student will receive a substantial reduction in grade for the course or will fail the course. Multiple instances could even lead to suspension or expulsion from Wilmington College.
Institutional and Program-Level Policies
All exams will follow the Final Exam Schedule. Students scheduled to take three or more final examinations on one day may request to arrange their examination schedule, so no more than two exams occur on one day.
Requests for early or late exams are considered only under extreme circumstances. Prior to the exam period, the student must file a written request on the Early/Late Exam Form available in the Student One Stop Center, Academic Records, and on the WC portal. The form must be signed by the Instructor and the Academic Dean, approving the alternate exam time. This process must be completed prior to the scheduled exam period.
Undergraduate: SP25 Final Exam Schedule Graduate:
Out-of-class Work Expectation A minimum of 2 hours of out-of-class student work is expected for each hour of in-class time for traditional face-to-face courses. For online and hybrid courses, the combination of face-to-face time and out-of-class work should be equal to 3 hours per credit hour per week. |
Instructional Course Delivery |
Academic Integrity Policy The use of generative AI is prohibited except where expressly allowed in assignment instructions. |
Class Attendance Policy |
Accessibility and Disability Services
Accessibility and Disability Services
Wilmington College provides accommodations and services for student with a variety of disabilities, including chronic illnesses, psychological, physical, medical, learning, and sensory disability amongst others. If you anticipate or experience barriers based on disability and feel you may need a reasonable accommodation to fulfill the essential functions of this course, you are encouraged to contact:
Spencer Izor, Associate Vice President of Compliance - Title IX/ADA Coordinator at spencer.izor@wilmington.edu or 937-481-2365 or Nathan Flack, Academic Resource Manager at 937-481-2208 to learn more about the process and procedures for requesting accommodations, or by visiting College Hall Room 306a or the Robinson Communication Center, Room 103.
Religious Accommodations
Wilmington College strives for an inclusive climate and welcomes students from all backgrounds, faiths, and experiences. If religious observance impedes your ability to participate fully in classroom activities or a principal holiday from your religious tradition occurs during the semester and conflicts with class meetings or activities, please make the professor aware of this immediately to determine if a reasonable accommodation is possible.