This unit has hurdle requirements, specifying a minimum standard that must be attained in several aspects of the unit. To pass this unit you must obtain a mark of at least:

50% in the unit overall, as well as 

• at least 40% in the final examination, and 
• at least 40% in each of the laboratory activities, and
• at least 40% in at least 7 of 11 quizzes

Second-chance hurdle examinations will be offered in the week of July 24 - 28.  Results will be released on July 13.  You will be notified shortly after that date of your eligibility for a hurdle retry and you must also make yourself available during that week to take advantage of this opportunity.

Classes 

Lectures (attend all):

Lecture 1: Thursday 9am-10am, C5C Collaborative Forum 

Lecture 2: Friday 12pm-1pm, E6A 102 Theatrette

Lecture 3: Friday 4pm-5pm, E7B 100 Theatrette

Tutorials (register for one):

Friday 11am-12pm, X5B 136 Tutorial Room

Friday 1pm-2pm, C5C 238 Tutorial Room

Friday 1pm-2pm, E3A 166 Tutorial Room 

Practical Laboratories (register for one):

Monday 9am-12pm, E7B 114

Monday 1pm-4pm, E7B 114

Monday 5pm-8pm, E7B 114

Tuesday 9am-12pm, E7B 114

Tuesday 2pm-5pm, E7B 114

Wednesday 9am-12pm, E7B 114

Video Laboratories 

Thursday 2pm-5pm in Weeks 8, 9, 10 : E7B 114

NB: Required laboratory introduction sessions and tutorials with a practice quiz will occur in Week 1. Full laboratories and tutorials with marked quizzes will commence in the week 2 of the semester. You must complete the Week 1 laboratory introduction before you will be allowed to attend any further labs.

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

Required Text

Matter and Interactions by Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood.

Either Volume 1 (Paperback) or the combined Volume (hardbound). Note that Volume 2 will be the required text for PHYS 106 in semester 2.

Required Resources

The PHYS107 Laboratory Notes will be available online using iLearn before the laboratory sessions begin in the first week of the semester. 

Web Resources

More information on the required text as well as additional resource material can be found at http://www.matterandinteractions.org/

There are also other high quality learning resources on the web which we would recommend to you to use in your studies. The HyperPhysics site hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University is widely acclaimed and used. The site also has mathematics learning resources on the maths used in physics.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html (Mechanics, and, Electricity & Magnetism).

Increasingly there are excellent web-based interactive simulations available – some are in the on-line resources that support the textbook. We encourage you to conduct your own web searches for others, and to develop your own critical judgment of which sites provide high quality resources that assist your learning. Two that we recommend to you are:

• http://www.explorelearning.com/ The Explorelearning Gizmos: follow links to Grade 9-12, Physics, Motion and Force; and Electricity & Magnetism. You will have to register to use this site.

• http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/index.php?cat=Featured_Sims The University of Colorado, Boulder, Physics Education Technology (PhET) Simulations: follow the links to Motion; Energy, Work & Power; and Electricity, Magnets and Circuits. This site also contains maths resources, for example vector addition.

Technology Used and Required 

Unit Web Page

The web page for this unit can be accessed via the PHYS107 iLearn page.

Please check this web page regularly for material available for downloading.

Teaching and Learning Strategy

This unit is taught through lectures and tutorials and through undertaking laboratory experiments and a special exposition activity. We strongly encourage students to attend lectures because they provide a much more interactive and effective learning experience than simply reading a text book. The lecturer is able to interpret the physics that you will be learning, showing you the relationships between different components/concepts and emphasising the key physics principles involved. Questions during and outside lectures are strongly encouraged in this unit - please do not be afraid to ask, as it is likely that your classmates will also want to know the answer. You should aim to read the relevant sections of the textbook before and after lectures and discuss the content with classmates and lecturers.

This unit includes a compulsory experimental component. The experiments are stand-alone investigations and may include topics not covered by the lecture content of this course. They are an important part of the learning for this unit and the skills learned are essential for a well-rounded physics graduate.

You should aim to spend an average of 3 hours per week understanding the material and working on the tutorial problems and the assignments. You may wish to discuss your tutorial and assignment problems with other students, the tutors and the lecturers, but you are required to be able to show your own work (see the note on plagiarism). Tutorials and assignments are provided as one of the key learning activities for this unit, they are not there just for assessment. It is by applying knowledge learned from lectures and textbooks to solve problems that you are best able to test and develop your skills and understanding of the material.

Schedule of Topics

The unit is divided into two halves. The first half is taught by Associate Professor Daniel Zucker and the second by Professor Deb Kane.

The textbook sections covered are listed as follows. As a rough guide we will be progressing through the listed chapters at a rate of one every week. You should use this as a guide to plan your textbook reading.

The content of the unit is based on the following chapters of the text by Chabay and Sherwood:

Laboratory activities, tutorial quizzes and the final exam have been established as hurdle requirements for the unit, meaning that a minimum standard must be achieved in each assessment task in order to receive a passing grade for the unit as a whole.

Student Liaison Committee

The Physics and Astronomy Department values feedback from its students. Once a semester a meeting of the Student Liaison Committee is called and representatives from each of the PHYS/PHTN/ASTR units have an opportunity to voice their opinions about the structure of the unit and how it is taught.  Further information and a call for representatives will be made in lectures closer to the meeting date.

Email Communication

The unit web page and your student email account are the primary ways that the unit lecturers can communicate with you outside of lectures.  Please check your student email accounts at least once a day for messages concerning the unit.

Laboratory Requirements

The laboratory component is considered an essential component of your studies and so counts for an appreciable fraction of your final assessment (20%). 

The laboratory work is designed to introduce you to some of the basic skills and techniques that are used in experimental physical science.  Some of the activities in the laboratory may not relate directly to the material in the lecture course.  This is because the laboratory activities are intended not only to illustrate physical concepts but also to to provide training in the experimental skills that are required of practicing physicists, scientists and engineers.

You will be provided with instructional material in the form of Laboratory Notes which can be found in the Laboratory Resources section of iLearn, and assisted in the laboratory by a team of demonstrators, many of whom are postgraduate research students. This work is designed to be carried out independently of the lectures, although some of these topics will be discussed in lectures.  Indeed there is some advantage in becoming familiar with a topic in an experimental situation before you meet it in lectures.  That is often the case in real life!  

You will be issued with a Laboratory Notebook in Week 1. For each laboratory session, except in Week 1, you are required to complete some preparatory work (Pre-Lab) before attending your nominated Lab session. Typically the Pre-Lab will require you to bring some material to the lab to be pasted into your lab book. A portion of your mark for each lab session is allocated to the Pre-lab work. 

Location of the 100-level Physics Laboratory, E7B 114

The laboratory is located on the ground floor of building E7B, at the NE corner (room 114).  Entry is from the courtyard at the opposite end to the main staircase. 

Laboratory Attendance Requirements

You are required to attend and to satisfactory complete all rostered laboratory sessions. Each time you attend the laboratory you must sign in and out (legibly) in the attendance book.

If you miss a laboratory session and wish to lodge a "disruption to studies" request you can start this process at https://ask.mq.edu.au.  You will require a medical certificate or other form of evidence to complete this process - contact the unit convenor if you are unsure.

Laboratory classes are compulsory and students who do not attend all classes will be deemed to have failed to meet the learning outcomes of the unit. Moreover, it is a hurdle requirement that you must achieve at least 40% for each laboratory activity.

If you miss a laboratory class, or if you fail to meet the hurdle requirement (at least 40%) for any activity, then you must complete a “Request to schedule a make-up laboratory session” form. You will find it on iLearn, or you can click the link below. Make-up lessons will be run in the second week of the mid-semester break and in week 13.

Request to schedule a make-up laboratory session

Laboratory Assessment

Details of the laboratory assessment have been outlined in the first section above.

Laboratory Safety

You are required to follow all safety guidelines given in the lab manual, and as outlined by your lab supervisor. Food and drink cannot be taken into the laboratory and students without suitable covered footwear will be refused admission.

Laboratory Schedule

The first laboratory session will be in the first week of semester. The schedule of labs is posted in the lab and on the iLearn page. Please attend your nominated laboratory session. If you have difficulty enrolling into a lab session that suits your timetable, then keep trying over a few days as students often move between sessions.