· Course Description

Physics 271 is the laboratory part of Physics 270. This course carries one credit and the grade is folded in with the Physics 270 course grade. You must pass Physics 271 in order to pass the entire course. If you do not pass this part of the course you will be required to repeat the entire course (both 270and 271). The scores for both courses will be combined and the grade for Physics 271 will be identical to that of Physics 270, as required by the Engineering College. Students under the CORE program requirements must take both the lecture and lab part of the course in the same semester in order to receive CORE credit.

You are required to purchase the current version of the laboratory manual: PHYSICS 271 Laboratory Manual (Fall 2006 edition). The labs meet for three hours every two weeks. You must complete ALL of the labs, including ONE culminating lab in order to pass the course. You are expected to attend each class and will be allowed to make uplabs only under exceptional circumstances.

The Physics 271 laboratory uses the Excel spreadsheet to analyze data while in the lab. If you have not had spreadsheet experience or would like an opportunity to review the spreadsheet the first week of lab will be a tutorial (required). Your TA will also review some course policy and requirements in the first week of lab.

During the three hour laboratory period, you will have a brief introduction about the lab, perform the experiment, do your analysis and write-up and turn in your report. The experiment should take less than two hours to perform (including the introduction), but in order for you to complete your work in the allotted time you must read the lab write-up and answer the prelab questions before coming to class.

Our aim in this lab is to enhance the understanding of the laboratory experiments you perform while at the same time minimizing the amount of time spent on analysis and write-ups. In order for this to work we have placed more emphasis on preparation for actual laboratory work and prelab assignments. This means it is not necessary to do extensive write-ups. Overly long or padded lab reports will be penalized. Each week's lab includes a prelab assignment. The culminating lab in the end of semester is a special lab where you will be given questions about a number of the experiments you performed during the semester. The list of possible questions is included in the manual and you should review the ones for each lab after you have completed that experiment. This will make the culminating lab much easier! More questions may be handed out during the semester.

· Faculty and Teaching Assistants

Name	Sections	Office	E-mail (@umd.edu)	Phone	Office hours
Prof. Min Ouyang	All	2334	mouyang	5-5985	Fri 9-11
Matthew Harrington	102, 103, 107, 116	0220	mjharrin	5-5969	??
Negin Shahshahan	105, 106, 117, 118	??	negin	5-??	??

· Time and Place

Place: All sections meet in Room 3220 in the Physics Building.

The following table shows the schedule and teaching assistants for each section:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
8:00
9:00
10:00		0105 N.S.
11:00				0117 N.S.
12:00
13:00		0106 N.S.	0116 M.H.
14:00				0118 N.S.
15:00	0102 M.H.
16:00		0107 M.H.
17:00
18:00	0103 M.H.
19:00
20:00
21:00

*Attendance: You should make every effort to attend your regularly scheduled lab section, but if you must miss your section please contact the appropriate TA and request to attend another section, in advance if possible. We will try to accommodate such requests if space and equipment are available. Otherwise, you must sign up to perform the experiment during the designated make-up week. It is your responsibility to deliver your write-up to the TA for your registered section and to ensure that you receive credit for all lab reports.

*Late Arrival: Classes begin promptly on the hour and it is important to arrive on time to receive lab instructions and to have sufficient time to finish. If you arrive more than 10 minutes late you might not be allowed into the lab and would then have to make it up in another section or during the make-up week.

· Experiment Schedule (Preliminary)

* All sections meet every two weeks

* All students MUST performExp.0, the introduction to Data and Error Analysis with Spreadsheets.

*Be alert to announcements: Acts of God or Man may require adjustment of the lab schedule (unfortunately… J)

Week	Dates	Activity	Notes
1	Aug.30-Sept.2	Exp.0: Required Review	Required
2	Sept.6-Sept.9	No Lab
3	Sept.13-Sept.16	Exp.1: The Oscilloscope and Multimeter
4	Sept.20-Sept.23	No Lab
5	Sept.27-Sept.30	Exp.3: Faraday’s Law of Induction
6	Oct.4-Oct.7	No Lab
7	Oct.11-Oct.14	Exp.5: Diffraction
8	Oct.18-Oct.21	No Lab
9	Oct.25-Oct.28	Exp.6: Polarized Light
10	Nov.1-Nov.4	No Lab
11	Nov.8-Nov.11	Make-up and Discussion	Optional
12	Nov.15-Nov.18	Culminating Lab	Covering Exps.0,1,3,5,6
13	Nov.22-Nov.25	No Lab	Thanksgiving Week
14	Nov.29-Dec.2	No Lab
15	Dec.6-Dec.9	No Lab	End of course

· Grading Policies

The course grade of Physics 271 will be determined as follows:

65% for the FOUR regular labs;

35% for the ONE culminating labs;

* Scoring on the each regular lab:

Prelab Questions: 20% (0, 10%, 20%)

Data: 40%

Analysis: 25%

Postlab Questions: 15%

* Tips for getting good score:

Prelab Questions: the prelab questions MUST be answered and submitted through online Blackboard Academic Suite system (https://elms.umd.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp) before coming to lab and will be checked at the beginning of each lab. The prelab questions will be graded in units of 10% as follows: no attempt, 0%; feeble attempt, 10%; sincere attempt, full 20% even if partially incorrect. If you need/prefer to paper submission it is your responsibility to get permission from your TA and make sure you are credited for all prelabs.

Data and Analysis: you will work with lab partners and will share data with them. However, you will be responsible for doing your own analysis and write-up. Each person in the group will also be required to demonstrate proficiency with the spreadsheet. You will be tested on this basic skill during the lab sessions. If by the end of the second lab, you cannot demonstrate to your TA the ability to do simple tasks on the spreadsheet, your grade will be progressively reduced each week until you can. The point is: you must learn to use the spreadsheet.

Culminating Lab: culminating lab in the end of semester is a special labs where you will be given questions about some of the labs you performed during the semester. The list of possible questions is included in the lab manual and you should review the ones for each lab after you have completed that experiment. This will make the culminating lab much easier! More questions may be handed out during the semester. The culminating lab comprises a total of 45% of your course grade.

Missed Lab: missing a lab and not making it up will result in failure of the course. You must do and write up all labs. If you have missed a lab for an excused reason (illness, religious holiday, etc) try if possible to attend another lab that same week. Most TAs will be accommodating. If this fails, you may, with permission of the Professor, perform the lab during the make-up week for that lab. Make sure that your write-up gets to the TA of your regularly scheduled section (put your name, section number and time it meets on all sheets). Let your regular TA know when and with whom you carried out a make-up lab. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are credited for all lab reports.

Lab reports: You MUST turn your complete lab report (including data, analysis and answers to postlab questions) by uploading a single Excel spreadsheet file to online Blackboard Academic Suite system (https://elms.umd.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp) before leaving lab. You can save file for many times but you can submit only for one time. Once you submit your lab report you can not make any change. No credit will be given for late lab report. There is NO make-up culminating lab.

· Course Announcements

Aug.28, 2010: Welcome everyone! The first thing I would like to remind you here is that every session meets every TWO weeks for this semester. Your first lab (Exp.0) is the Introduction to Data and Error Analysis with Spreadsheet. Your TA will also review some course policy as well as requirement in the first week of lab. You MUST do Exp.0, if you want to proceed with the rest of the course.