Email: pschwart@calpoly.edu, 756-1220, My office is at 180-608, the new science building, room 608
Office hours: M(12-1), M(1-2), T(3-4), R(3-4), F(9-10)
My Resume, Teaching Statement, and the rest of my 2016 public application for promotion.The syllabus explains the class policies including how your final grade is determined.Teaching “flipped”, “parallel”, with an open-online text. Please see video explaining our unique way of learning physics here (for credit if you are a student), or here if you are not a student. In May of 2017, I published about our learning method in The Physics Teacher. Additionally, a different publication also lends support to several aspects of our learning method:
- Active learning better engages the brain;
- asking questions (like in our videos) is an effective way to learn;
- learning concepts in parallel allows us to revisit concepts over a longer period of time, improving understanding and memory.
I wrote a short Textbook for the class. It has about a tenth the amount of text as a standard textbooks. It’s short, so I expect everyone to read each section before we address the topic in class.
Group project: see the first project description, the Second Project Description, and the Second Project Website where you can post your project,
Problem Sets: PS#1, PS#1 solutions, PS#2, PS#2 Solutions, PS_3, PS#3 solutions, PS#3.5, PS#3.5 Solutions, PS_#4, PS#4 Solutions, PS5, PS#5 Solutions, PS#6, PS#6 Solutions, PS#7, PS_7_Solutions, PS#8, PS8_Solutions, PS#9, PS#9 Solutions
Exams: Big Exam! #1, MT#1_comments, MT#1_Solutions, Big Exam #4, BE#4 directions, MT#2, MT#2 guidance, MT#2 solutions, MT#2-2 with comments, Math Competence, answers for Math Competence, Big Exam #6 Solutions
Study Guides: MT#1, MT#2, Final
Student Communication: 121 Welcome Letter Spring 2018, Week 3, Week 9, 121Spring2018_Stud_Eval, 121Spring2018_final_surveymonkey_Results, 121Spring2018_Final_Surveymonkey_Comments, My Final Email to Class
To see the week’s assignments, please click on the number of the week at left on the table below.
| Week | Topics |
| Wk 1 | Our Learning Model and Introductions 4 lenses and One-dimensional motion |
| Wk 2 | Project on Thursday! |
| Wk 3 | Vectors, Springs, Energy Diagrams |
| Wk 4 | Reference Frames Midterm #1 |
| Wk 5 | switch working groups Begin Rotational Motion Moment of Inertia, |
| Wk 6 | Central Forces, Centripetal Acceleration, Systems |
| Wk 7 | MT #2 |
| Wk 8 | Components |
| Wk 9 | Angular Momentum |
| Wk 10 | Precession |
| Exam week | New updated Spring Final Exam Schedule Wednesday, June 13, 7-10 PM |
Cal Poly’s Calendar
As I try to improve the class, I am keeping Notes to Self