Structure of Course

Goals of Course

• Improve your problem-solving skills, away from pattern-recognition towards diagnostics and building solutions
• Develop your conceptual knowledge of physics
• Strengthen your math. capabilities, trig., algebra etc.

Educational Methodology

There are no lectures in this course. Instead we will concentrate on working with you in small groups where we can discuss the concepts of physics and provide guidance on how to solve problems. These intense sessions are complemented by on-line physics content available via PIVoT. Each week we will provide links to key parts of the PIVoT site. We will also use the on-line problem-solving tool cybertutor. The traditional once-a-week large problem set is split into two smaller problem sets, one via cybertutor, one written and handed in.

Weekly Structure

• Sunday evening: cybertutor reading assignment
• Monday Recitation: Conceptual introduction to material
• Tuesday Recitation: Guidance to problem-solving
• Tuesday evening: cybertutor assignment due
• Wednesday Recitation: Collaborative solution of complex problem
• Thursday Tutorial (TA with 5-6 students): discussion of concepts, problem sets
• Friday: written problem-set due

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