1. The University of British Columbia
Physics 101 – 2014-2015, Winter, Term 2 – All sections version
Contact with course instructors: Through Piazza
discussion forum (we will not respond to direct emails)
Office Hours: To be determined by student vote
Materials (available from the bookstore):
1. Text: “Physics for Scientists & Engineers: An
Interactive Approach” by Hawkes, Iqbal, Mansour,
Milner-Bolotin and Williams; online access to
Enhanced WebAssign (EWA)
2. i>clicker
3. “Physics 101 Laboratory Manual Package” which
includes the Laboratory Manual with Experiment
Report Book. You do not need to purchase the yellow
Physics Laboratory Notebook.
Course Information: Marks, lecture notes, reading
assignments and quizzes, and all other relevant material
related to Phys 101 will be posted on the Connect site:
www.connect.ubc.ca
To pass Phys 101, you must meet all three of the
following requirements:
1. Obtain a course grade above 50%
2. Attend all labs and obtain an overall lab mark above
50%
3. Obtain a grade above 50% for the weighted sum of
the individual components of the two midterms and
the final exam. .
Important! Students that do not meet requirements 2 or
3 above will be assigned a maximum course grade of
45%.
Important Notes:
1. Midterm dates: Feb 11, 6:00-7:30PM and March 19, 6:00-
7:30PM
2. Missed labs: Arrange with Dr. Koster
(evko@phas.ubc.ca) a make-up lab during the same
week. All labs must be completed to obtain credit for
the course.
3. Lab exempt students are still expected to attend
tutorials.
4. i>clicker marks: You may miss up to 20% of the
questions without penalty, to account for dead
batteries, illness, etc. Extra considerations will be given
only in case of prolonged illness (doctor’s note
required).
5. You will earn a bonus 0.5% toward your final grade if
you complete the course diagnostic at the beginning
and the end of the course
6. You will earn a bonus 0.5% toward your final grade if
you complete a survey about learning attitudes toward
Physicss at the beginning and the end of the course
What you need to do in the next week or so
Register for Enhanced WebAssign (EWA):
http://www.webassign.net/
 Your access code comes with the textbook.
 Full registration instructions can be found on Connect
 Your Course ID / Class Key is
o Section 201: “ubc.ca 6565 3022”
o Section 202: “ubc.ca 5060 6020”
o Section 203: “ubc.ca 5709 1789”
 Please register using the exact same name that appears
on your student ID card to minimize confusion when
we are trying to import your end-of-term EWA grades
into Connect.
 Instead of your student number, please use your
“Activity ID” which can be found in your PHYS101
gradebook on Connect
 Your EWA access code also gives you access to an
eBook version of the textbook
(continued on next page)
Grade Breakdown:
2% Participation marks (includes iClicker, in-
class worksheets and tutorials)
10% Online homework and reading
assignments (EWA)
3% Learning object creation (will be described
in class and in tutorial)
20% Labs
10% Midterms (each worth 5%: 4.25% for
individual component & 0.75% for group
component)
50% Final exam (42.5% for individual
component & 7.5% for group component)
5% Flexible exam points (points based on
your highest test score from the
individual component of a midterm or
final exam)

2. (continued from previous page)
Buy your textbook:
 Physical textbook (ISBN 0176706917): Custom edition
of Physics for Scientists & Engineers: An Interactive
Approach” by Hawkes, Iqbal, Mansour, Milner-
Bolotin and Williams; access to the EWA online
homework system; and a custom student solutions
manual.
 Digital (ebook) textbook available from
(http://www.nelsonbrain.com/shop/micro/ubc/phys101).
If you buy a used textbook, you can buy your EWA
access code through this site.
Complete your first reading assignment on EWA:
Reading assignments are due each week at 11:59PM on
Sunday (Section 202) or Monday (Sections 201 & 203).
Your first reading assignment is due Jan. 11th or 12th,
respectively. Each reading assignment points you to
specific sections of the textbook and asks you to answer a
series of multiple choice questions based on those
sections. You can submit a late assignment up to 2 days
after the due date by requesting an automatically granted
extension through EWA. These late submissions will
receive a maximum grade of 50%, and after two days they
will be given 0%. You will have 2 hours to complete the
assignment after requesting the extension. Your lowest
two reading assignment scores (including scores of zero)
will be dropped when calculating your overall reading
assignment average.
Complete your first online homework assignment on
EWA: Online homework assignments are due each week
at 11:59PM on Friday. Your first homework is due Jan. 16.
You can submit a late assignment at any time up to the
day of the final exam by requesting an automatically
granted extension through EWA. These late submissions
will receive a maximum grade of 50% up to the day of the
final exam, after which they will be given 0%. Your lowest
two homework scores (including scores of zero) will be
dropped when calculating your overall online homework
average.
Register your i>clicker: You will need to register the
serial number of your i>clicker on Connect
Attend your first lab: Labs start the week of January 12-
16. Consult page 1-1 of your lab manual to determine if
you should go to Hebb 10, 13 or 32.
Physics 101 research study information
As part of the ongoing efforts of the Department of
Physics and Astronomy to improve the quality of
instruction in our courses, your Physics 101 instructors will
be studying the learning which takes place in the group
portion of the two-stage collaborative group exams used in
the midterm assessments for the course. To do this, slightly
different versions of the group exams will be created and
distributed randomly during the group exams. They will be
designed to have as close as possible to the same level of
difficulty. Many of the concepts from the two-stage exam
will be tested again later in the course and we will compare
your performance from the two stages of the collaborative
exam to your later performance to look for evidence of
learning during the group portion of the two-stage exam.
After the two-stage exams, you will be provided with
solutions to the questions from all versions of the group
exam for future study use.
One component of this analysis will involve examining
how various factors contribute to the learning which takes
place during the two-stage exam. The factors we plan to
look at consist of group size, performance of group
members in different aspects of the course (homework,
laboratory work, exams, conceptual diagnostics), survey
results and demographic information available to your
instructors when you register in the course.
If for any reason, you wish for your anonymized data to
not be included in our analyses, you can opt out by
contacting Jared Stang (jared@phas.ubc.ca), a research
associate in the department of Physics and Astronomy, any
time before the final exam date. Please note that opting out
does not exempt you from taking part in the exams or
course activities, but instead removes your data from being
included in the analysis. Please provide him with your full
name, UBC student number, the name of your Physics 101
instructor and a subject line of “I wish to opt out of the
Physics 101 study.” After all final course grades have been
submitted, the relevant portions of the course gradebooks
and results from diagnostics or surveys will be sent to Dr.
Stang to be anonymized. Due to this process, you can rest
assured that choosing to opt out will have no effect on your
grade in the course. In particular, your instructor will not
know who has opted out. As part of the course, some bonus
marks will be offered in the course for completing surveys
or diagnostics. These marks will be made available to you
whether you have opted out of the analysis or chosen to
have your anonymous data included. We do hope that you
will choose to participate so that other students and
educators can benefit from our findings as we engage in a
process of ongoing instructional improvement. If you have
any questions regarding the study or are interested in
learning about our findings, please contact Dr. Stang or one
of your Physics 101 instructors.