Afternoon section, your scores are now UP.

The scantron scores are now UP for afternoon section 0002.

Also, everyone's Exam 1 line now adds up "..Exam 1 scantron" and "..Exam 1 SMA" scores. When I do the odds and ends of "dna" on SMA data and PID errors on scantrons, I will be updating the SMA or scantron line, and that will automatically update the Exam 1 line. Here is what the sample student My Grades page looks like.



Exam average was 29/40, including all students who completed scantron and SMA. Good work.

Section 0001 morning class, scores are UP

I have just uploaded scantron scores to the "..Exam 1 scantron" line of your My Grades page in Webcourses. A few morning students do not have grades because they

1. were absent,
2. made an error writing their PID, or
3. did not bubble in the test form.

The latter two will take some time to set right. I have to grade them by hand.

We will start handing back exam printouts in lecture today.

Section 0002 afternoon class, I have your papers, too, and I will upload them about lunch time.

The total Exam 1 score will be tallied up in My Grades later this afternoon. It is simply the sum of the Exam 1 SMA and the Exam 1 scantron.

iTunes U

Your visual podcast of Monday's lecture is now available in iTunes U.

Homework 8 is ready

Homework 8 is now ready for you. It is due Wednesday at the usual time.

Before tackling the homework, make sure to read the biographical blurbs on Halley and Newton.

1. Edmond Halley
2. Isaac Newton

Friday's lecture visual podcast is up on iTunes U

The lecture podcast from this morning's lecture is now available. Use the iTunes U link in Webcourses and GET the podcast to view all the notes, equations and diagrams.

No scantron data yet. AGAIN

We still wait for the scantron scores. Nothing from test scoring, and it is now after 6 PM, so they are likely finished for the day.

I uploaded today's CPS session L14 into Webcourses.

No news on Exam 1 scantrons yet

End of the first full day of waiting: no news on our exam scores yet. :(

Maybe tomorrow.

iTunes U now linked to Webcourses

I just created a "powerlink" from our Webcourses home page to our iTunes U. I cannot see how it works for a student, however, so please give it a try and report back in the "Getting onto iTunes U" discussion area.

Exam attendance

I uploaded exam attendance "scores" twice today, once for each section, based on CPS. -1 means absent, 100 means present. It does not affect your semester grade and you can ignore it.

SMA scores are UP.

I just formatted up all the SMA data from today. Here is the scoop:

38. Exam 1.38 answer: "+" means you answered it correctly and earned 1 point. If incorrect, it lists the letter you selected.
39. Exam 1.39 answer: "+" means you answered it correctly and earned all three points. If incorrect, it lists the number you submitted.

For both rows, "dna" stands for did not answer.

Then the "Exam 1 SMA" line just shows how many of the 4 points you earned. There were 3 regular, 1 bonus point possible. Average was 2.02 out of 4, which means that a lot of people got some points on the bonus brain burner #39! Good.

Take a look. It will be in the lowest part of your My Grades page. The Exam 1 line above the blue divider will be the total of SMA and scantron. So we are still waiting for the scantron data.

See you for lecture on Friday!

WHEEWWWWW!! What a test!

OK, that was a tough test, and I know you guys busted your you-know-whats to study and get ready. Good.

I will be submitting the exam scantrons first thing in the morning for grading. It could take a few hours or a few days -- you never can tell. It might even be MONDAY!!!

But, as soon as I get the scantron grades back, I will post them up in Webcourses. As soon as I post them up in Webcourses, I will make an announcement here.

So make sure not to bug me about when the exams will be graded. Do not course mail me, do not post a discussion, do not ask me in the hallway or in AIM, Twitter or mental telepathy. Failure to comply will result in a five yard penalty, illegal procedure.

I will post CPS points tonight, after supper.

The S.I. review page

Gloria Scott's S.I. review sheet in PDF is now UP in Webcourses. Look for the fly ball icon on the Webcourses home page. Good work, Gloria.

Radio silence.

I am deep into the exam for tomorrow, getting it perfect and sprinkling in a few brain burners. So I will be in "radio silence" til sometime tomorrow morning, and I will not be looking at course mail or discussions in Webcourses.

Educating your mind

For those of you who are using advanced study techniques to prepare your coconut for Wednesday's midterm exam, I just posted some extra blurbs in the Doc Cam folder.

1. Optional reading on the orbits of the gravitational field, many cool looking diagrams, and
2. for Friday's lecture, a pair of biographical blurbs on Edmond Halley and Isaac Newton.

If you have some extra time, you can look over the orbits pages.

Today's visual podcast is UP.

Go to iTunes U to GET today's visual podcast. It will help you get the chapter 5 concepts for Wednesday's exam.

Doc cam from today is UP.

The doc cam work is now UP in Webcourses from today's lectures.

CPS data and study guide are UP.

Your SMA session from today's lecture is now UP on Webcourses:

1. CPS scores
2. study guide

Remember to use all the study guides as reviews for the midterm exam on Wednesday!

ALSO: bring your CPS clicker to class on Wednesday, because we will have a handful of the exam's question in SMA.

View Friday's lecture podcast

Your visual podcast of Friday's lecture is now ready in iTunes U.

Homework 7 is ready and it is a big one.

Your Homework 7 assignment is now UP in Webcourses. It is

1. a smorgasbord of topics to help you review for Exam 1,
2. loaded up for 5 attempts, so use it judiciously,
3. but it has a bit more time than usual, 53 minutes, and
4. it starts with a formula matching question that will be similar to the formula matching section at the start of Exam 1.

Use this assignment to get your brain refreshed on previous weeks' work, and let's put it all together for Exam 1 on Wednesday!

CPS data are UP.

Your L11 CPS data are now UP. Also, L11 study guide and doc cam PDFs are UP.

Friday lecture; bonus points announcement

We will have regular lecture tomorrow, Sept. 18, with CPS and some formulas workouts, including these similar triangles.

Also we will have a special bonus points announcement that affects EVERYBODY.

Wednesday's podcast is up.

The visual podcast of Wednesday afternoon's lecture is now UP in iTunes U.

Homework 6 -- practice for getting Δv!!!

Your homework assignment is now ready. HW 6 has only four questions, but the questions reset randomly each attempt you make. So: there are 360 different ways to max out on the points. It is set up for PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

You can take it as many times as you like, so if you max out on points, keep trying it out and tackle all the random variations.

Matter of fact: it might be a good study strategy to take notes on questions 2, 3 and 4, on each of their variations.

CPS data are up.

Your CPS data from today's L10 lecture are now UP.

Remember:

1. question 4 had one correct answer, polygon, but since it was a "judgement call" type of question, I graded all options as correct;
2. however, the Gloria Scott study guide has only one correct answer marked down on this question.

Apology

I must now apologize for taking the heads off morning section 0001. I will be home soon and be able to rest and get this migraine calmed down. I should be ready to go early and bright on Monday, and no growling. Sorry for this morning!

P.S. The morning CPS session is 4 questions, because the first one got all discombobulated and we had to repeat it. So if you were counting 5, decrease that to 4. The Section 0002 after lunch bunch had 4 questions, straight through, no discombobulation. So both sections had 4 good CPS questions today. Good.

Homework on the horizon; S.I. tomorrow and Friday

We will resume regular homework operations now, with Homework 6 available at noon Thursday if not sooner.

For those of you who want to get in on S.I., here is the schedule for the rest of the week:

Thursday	2:00 - 2:50pm	BA2 207
Friday	12:00 noon - 12:50pm	HEC 119

Gloria told me she has some study plans for good old Δv.

Remember: if you can make it to one S.I. per week, it will really help you prosper.

Did you see the crescent moon and Sirius this morning?

Did you see the crescent moon this morning just before sunrise?

1. crescent moon, on its back at nearly zero degrees tilt
2. Orion, higher up and to the right, similar to the photo below
3. Sirius the Dog Star, brightest star in the sky, between the crescent moon and Orion and slightly below the line between them.

And Orion is a good constellation to know, because it is

1. beautiful and
2. easy to spot with the belt of three bright stars, almost as easy as the Big Dipper

Here is a lovely photo from AstoBob in Minnesota, showing late August sunrise, with Orion just before dawn. If only we had clear skies like that here in Florida!!!



We call the hottest days of summer the "dog days" because the Dog Star Sirius is right behind the sun, rising with the sun but invisible to us, from mid-July and continuing for a few weeks. Those are some hot weeks, though not coinciding with the peak of hurricane season. DANG!

It is interesting to work out the three-dimensional motion of this Earth-Moon-Sun-constellation system to see why the moon lies on its back. Baseline reason: we are right up close to the autumnal equinox.

Sunup time today

Monday lecture is now UP in iTunes U.

You can now look at the podcast of Monday's lecture in iTunes U.

The more people we get on iTunes U, viewing the visual podcast, the closer we will be to the secret Friday plans that I mentioned in lecture yesterday. Sweeeeet.

No S.I. today!

I just got a message from Gloria Scott: no S.I. session today. She broke her foot and will be OUT until tomorrow (Wednesday).

When she gets back, we will be pleasantly surprised, because she will be working the style factor with some sleek new safety footwear.

CPS data and study guide from Monday are UP.

You can view the study guide for Friday's and Monday's CPS sessions now. Also, your CPS scores from yesterday, session L9, are UP.

No homework

No homework tonight. See you on Wednesday for chapter 4, circular motion concepts.

Some extra exercises to get ready for lecture

We will start Monday's lecture with Chapter 3 exercises 20 and 24 from pp. 54-55. So if you want solid footing, work them out on your own ahead of time, and then what I add will really strengthen your understanding. Then we will do some CPS together, followed by chapter 4 concepts: how does the geometric relationship of the net force relative to the velocity affect the overall motion.

Q: What did the acorn say when it grew up?
A: Geometry. Gee, I'm a tree!

Friday Sept. 11 visual podcast is UP.

You can now go into our iTunes U area and download the Sept. 11 lecture podcast. If you have subscribed to the visual podcast, it will download automatically as soon as you open up your iTunes application.

Sept. 9 podcast is UP.

When you get into the iYunes U area for PSC1121, remember to click the "Get" button for the September 9 lecture. This lets you view everything efficiently with iTunes. The podcast for September 9 is now UP on our iTunes U area.

Also, doc cam PDFs are in iTunes U.

I now have only the Sept. 11 lecture to podcast. Stay tuned.

Best method for full visual podcast

The best way to view the visual podcast is in iTunes, which lets you view all the diagrams, notes and equations in my Powerpoint slides plus closeup views of the doc cam PDFs.

To do this you have to

1. use the get button , which downloads the selected object and all its artwork into your iTunes library;
2. or use the subscribe button  , which subscribes to the podcast and downloads the most recent episode into your iTunes Podcasts library. As new episodes become available, if you are connected to the Internet, the iTunes application automatically downloads the new episodes. Recently added episodes that have not been downloaded to iTunes appear dimmed. For more information on podcasts, see the iTunes online help.
3. pop out the "Now Playing" window using the playback buttons, then maximize to full screen.

If you only get onto iTunes U and don't use "Get" or "Subscribe" , you will only hear the audio. So download the podcasts onto your computer to get the full visual content.

CPS data updated

I have now updated the CPS data from last week, restoring the true scores that got discombobulated on Wednesday.

Also, our CPS from Wednesday is UP. That was lecture L7.

I will upload today's CPS sometime this weekend.

Homework 5 ready after Friday afternoon lecture

The homework assignment for the weekend will go active at 4:30 PM today, right after the afternoon lecture. It will be dure on Monday at the usual time for your section.

There are three parts to it:

1. a mini-review of chapter 3 concepts
2. a few exercises to help you study ahead into chapter 4
3. a workout problem, using Pythagorean Theorem for two perpendicular forces... you get 4 more shots to practice your right triangle thinking.

Two new podcasts are UP.

If you have tried iTunes U, then you'll be able to view the two new lecture podcasts,

1. September 2 lecture, concerning free fall and the law of inertia, and
2. September 4, concerning the equations and methods for handling forces.

I still have Wednesday's lecture to podcast, but for now, I must get some ZZZZ.

Arrows everywhere in HW 4

Your homework assignment #4 will go active today at lunchtime, 12:05 PM. There are LOTS of lovely arrows to think with. Due Friday at the usual time.

My Thursday chores

I have a 1000 kilograms of PSC1121 chores to do this day:

1. Set up HW 4.
2. Create podcasts for Sept. 2, Sept. 4 and Sept. 9.
3. Recalculate L5 and L6 CPS data.
4. Collate L7 CPS data.
5. Upload L5, L6 and L7.

WHEWWWW!! What a day.

Double clutch

I have to upload the CPS scores in two batches, one for the morning section, one for the afternoon section. In doing so, I think Webcourses overwrites one section's scores with zeroes, and this might be why so many of you have been asking about mysterious 0 when you know you were present and clicking.

Not to worry. I have all the raw scores, so nothing has been lost, and I have never been defeated by Webcourses or CPS. I shall prevail!

Some new data in your My Grades page

There is a new set of data in your My Grades page, related to homework and CPS activity. Individual HW scores you might have already noticed. But now there are two rows to each CPS session: answered and correct. I.e., how many CPS questions you answered, how many you answered correctly.

Your semester grade converts your performance on HW and CPS answered into 16 and 24 points, respectively. I have set up running subtotals for those performance numbers, as well, each with its own row in the My Grade spage, right below the blue part. This will help you figure out what your HW and CPS percentages are at any point.



P.S. The first official CPS session was L5, last Wednesday.

Homework 3 is UP.

Homework assignment 3 is now ready, due Wednesday at the normal times, as discussed in lecture.

HW 1 and HW 2 are viewable again.

For study purposes, your homeworks from the past week, HW 1 and HW 2, are now viewable by everybody. They are each a nice mini-guide for test prep.

Still waiting on iTunes U!

I just got this message from the myUCF portal, concerning iTunes U.

Notice: Due to infrastructure changes, access to some iTunes U courses is not available at this time. We are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. We apologize for the inconvenience.

DANG! This is burning my grits, ready to podcast but nowhere to do so.

So, we wait.

Information

Early morning thoughts: molecular machines like rhodopsin. Can we assemble them into arrays that process information reliably and quickly for us?

Homework 2 is ready

Your second homework assignment is now UP and will appear at noon.

There are some brain-burners along with some basic study questions.

Due at the beginning of YOUR next lecture, 10:30 AM for section 0001 and 3:30 PM for section 0002.

Another try with iTunes U through the portal

OK, students. Let's give it another try. Log in to the myUCF portal, and try adding the "UCF on iTunes U" pagelet to your Online Course Tools page in myUCF.

Monday's podcast is UP.

I am not sure how it works for students or how it looks, so I cannot even give you an icon to look for. It might already be on your Online Course Tools page or even Webcourses. So post your conclusions and tips in the "Getting onto iTunes U" discussion area.

Early CPS bonus points are UP.

I just uploaded your guys' bonus points for getting the CPS clicker registered up. There were three points available, one for each lecture: Wed. , Friday lat week and this Monday.

Today is the start of regular CPS pointage. Bring your clicker to class.