Section 0004, no lecture today (Wednesday)

MWF SECTION 0004:

I am canceling lecture for today, Wednesday.

Regular lecture resumes on Friday.

Toads in the news

If this toads/earthquakes study in the Journal of Zoology becomes available to us soon enough, I think we will use it in class.

Here are some excerpts from a BBC news article:

Common toads appear to be able to sense an impending earthquake and will flee their colony days before the seismic activity strikes.

The evidence comes from a population of toads which left their breeding colony three days before an earthquake that struck L'Aquila in Italy in 2009.

How toads sensed the quake is unclear, but most breeding pairs and males fled.

They reacted despite the colony being 74km from the quake's epicentre, say biologists in the Journal of Zoology...

The shift in the toads' behaviour coincided with disruptions in the ionosphere, the uppermost electromagnetic layer of the earth's atmosphere, which researchers detected around the time of the L'Aquila quake using a technique known as very low frequency (VLF) radio sounding.

Such changes to the atmosphere have in turn been linked by some scientists to the release of radon gas, or gravity waves, prior to an earthquake.

For us, the latter two paragraphs give us a reason for considering this paper: electromagnetism and thermodynamics of Earth. Nice.

Bad news

Severely bad news: NO homework tonight!!

P.S.

As usual, there are a few students without a grade due to a PID screw up or something. If it was you, your "..Exam 3 scantron" row will be empty or have a zero.... until I pull out your scantron from the gigantic pile of scantrons, which could take me a while.

Section 0003, I just got your scores up.

Now everybody has their scantron score up. Go take a look at your My Grades page in Webcourses.

What is it with Webcourses?

Students, here is the latest alert from Network operations on why Webcourses is off the air.

Monday, March 29 – myUCF Webcourses@UCF Pagelet Unavailable
The Webcourses@UCF pagelet in myUCF is still experiencing issues. CS&T is working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. Students and faculty can log in to Webcourses@UCF by visiting http://webcourses.ucf.edu and logging in with their NID and NID password.

Section 0004 scantron scores are UP.

I just got your guys' scantron scores a few minutes ago. They are now UP in your My Grades page as "..Exam 3 scantron" in Webcourses. In a few days, I will fill in the "Exam 3" row but for now you can add up the scantron + SMA numbers yourself. It is actually possible to score 45/40 if you ace everything, regular 40 scantron and bonus 5 SMA, but I do not think anybody did so. Avg. was about 29/40, 72%, not too shabby.

Still waiting for section 0003 scantrons.

There were 10 students without a scantron score -- absent or messed up the PID. I will have to grade them by hand on Monday morning.

Genius section 0004, today's CPS is up.

Youse guys in MWF Section 0004, I just dropped your "L28" CPS data into Webcourses. Good.

No word yet on scantrons. :(

Thermodynamics lecture today, maybe exam scores.

Today's thermodynamics lecture, 9:30 AM, hopefully will also include scantron scores, as well.

See you at 9:30 AM.

Green jello and SMA for section 0003

It took me some time to convert this morning's SMA data from section 0003's midterm exam. The conversion factor was complicated due to the ideal green jello model, which does not use e pluribus unum but is, in fact, based upon unknown atomic mass of green jello.

But now, after all that intense number crunching, the SMA points, all five of them being bonus points, are now UP in Webcourses.

When the scantron scores come in, I will post them in Webcourses, too, ASAP.

SMA points are up for MWF section 0004

Your SMA pointage from Exam 3 is now up on your My Grades page in Webcourses. Good work, you guys.

Exam 3

Exam 3 went off without a hitch for MWF section 0004, but tomorrow's exam 3 -- All I can say is: be ready!!!!

SSG open for all

Anyone may now go in and sign up for the remaining SSG spots. Click the blue SSG icon on the Webcourses home page.

SSG will open for everybody at noon.

I will open the SSG signups process for everybody at noon today. Hopefully there will still be spots in these special study groups:

1. Chris Pagello's group, meeting at 1 PM.
2. Sally Macdonald's group, meeting at 6 PM
3. Amanda Heglund's group, meeting at 3 PM
5. Joanna Keough, meeting at 5:30 PM.

Look for the blue SSG icon at noon.

Today's SMA data is UP

Students in MWF section 0004, your SMA scores from today's lecture are up in your My Grades page now.

Also, the review guide for today's SMA is up in the CPS study guides folder.

You guys in section 0003, your data will go in tomorrow afternoon!

The SSG signups are open for first group

Sorry for the delay. SSG signups sheets are now activated for Group 1. If you can see the blue SSG icon on the home page, you are okay to sign up.

Light in the universe.

The universe is filled with light.

SSG signups tonight?

I have several SSG's set up and ready for students to join. I am keeping them hidden for now, until I get all the SSG leaders' information.

Hopefully by tonight or by lunchtime on Saturday, I will open up the signup sheets for the first group of students.

So.... keep your eye on Announcements, so that you will be ready when I activate the sign-up sheets.

No lecture on Friday; see you on Monday, regular time.

MWF SECTION 0004:

As we discussed in lecture Wednesday, we will cut lecture this Friday only. Here is your plan of action:

1. Skip Friday lecture.
2. Listen to the March 18 lecture in iTunes U: download to your laptop in order to view Keynote slides with audio.
3. The only topic new to you in March 18 lecture is the Bernoulli Effect, last part of the podcast.
4. Do your homework 15.
5. Discuss and think, study and read.
6. Report for lecture on Monday:
   1. mini-lecture on Ch. 13 thermodynamics.
   2. SMA review on CPS, preparation for Exam 3.
7. Get ready for Exam 3, as usual.
8. Take Exam 3 on Wednesday, per schedule on syllabus.

Use the enhanced audio podcasts in iTunes U to your advantage.

Homework 15 is a big nice assignment.

Your homework for the weekend is now ready, Homework 15, big and nice.

This assignment is due on Tuesday evening, 11 PM, for all sections, plenty of time to work on it.

SSG invitations are "in the mail" now.

OK, I just sent out invitations to a few handfuls of students to be special study group leaders.

So the SSG machinery begins.

Students who want to sign up, it will be this weekend, by lunchtime Saturday latest.

Gloria's S.I. review session

Here are the specs for Gloria's special S.I. review session:

Monday, March 22

4:30 - 6:00 PM

Location: HPA112

Exam blurb sheets

The exam 1 blurb sheets for section 0004 and the exam 2 blurb sheets for section 0003 are now available in separate areas of the WIlliam Hung folder in Webcourses. These blurb sheets will help you get ready for the final exam if you also have your exam printouts.

Homework 14 is ready

Section 0004, your homework #14 is now ready for action. It includes a Transformers calculation, so break out your calculator and read carefully!

T/Th students of section 0003, you must wait until noon tomorrow to tackle this assignment.

CPS update

I am updating the L24 data from today's CPS session. If you made an error on question 2, I am including your actual answer -- as "Your L24.2 answer" -- in case you want to double check your mistake.

You guys in section 0003 will be updated tomorrow, after Tuesday lecture, C17.

One more week of spring break?

Raise your hand if you need one more week of spring break.

But.... seeing as how we are back on campus for a regular week, there will be homework tonight (section 0004) and tomorrow night (section 0003). So lovely.

Thursday podcast is UP.

I just uploaded the lecture podcast for Thursday's lecture. Man, the sound is scratchy. I will try to get a new USB microphone for after break.

Homework 13 requires some reading in chapter 11.

You will find Homework 13 ready in Webcourses, due Thursday morning for section 0003 and on Friday morning for section 0004. It will be helpful to have chapter 11 of the textbook open as you work through this assignment.

BONUS: In the bonus podcast area of iTunes U, there is a special mini-podcast about Exercise 11.5, about ham sandwiches. This podcast will help you with some of the homework. Good.

Also, there is an extra readings page in the homework, which links you to short biographies of Thales, Aristotle and Lavoisier, about whom we talked in lecture.

Tsunami link in Webcourses

We mentioned a tsunami website in lecture today. I just set up a WebLink to it in Webcourses on the home page. It is not USGS, though -- it is from NOAA / PMEL / Center for Tsunami Research. Sweeeet.

Today's lecture and doc cam are UP.

MWF section 0004 students, your visual podcast is up for today's lecture in iTunes U. Also, the accompanying PDF of the doc cam work is in Webcourses. GO GO GO!