Tuesday Dec. 9, 2014

Music for the last day of class from Haim "Forever", "If I Could Change Your Mind", "Strong Enough", and She and Him "Fade to White"

Course evaluation
Today was the last day of classes.  In the past I would have held the Quiz #4 papers and the grade summaries hostage until someone had volunteered to conduct the Course Evaluation.  But that is now down online.  Here is the link you need to use: https://tce.oirps.arizona.edu/TCEOnline.  The evaluation period ends tomorrow (Wed., Dec. 10) at 11:59:00 pm.  Assistance is available at: http://uits.arizona.edu/departments/the247

Grade summaries
An example grade summary is shown below.  The values listed are mostly class averages.

Doe_J
quiz1 -48 (155 pts possible) 69.0%
quiz2 -51 (170 pts possible) 70.0%
quiz3 -53 (185 pts possible) 73.3%
quiz4 -42 (175 pts possible) 76.0%
1.6 EC points (3.0 pts possible)
writing scores: 34.0 (expt/book report) + 45.0 (1S1P pts)
writing grade: 98.8%
average (no quiz scores dropped): 77.4% + 1.6 = 79.1%
average (lowest quiz score dropped): 79.5% + 1.6 = 81.2%
you DO need to take the final exam

Moving from top to bottom you'll find your percentage grade on each of the 4 quizzes (note the steady improvement in grades during the course of the semester)

The next line lists the number of extra credit points you have earned during the semester on Optional Assignments.

The score on your experiment report and the number of 1S1P points you have earned is listed next.  To figure out your writing percentage grade I add your experiment report score to the number of 1S1P points you have earned this semester then divide the result by 80 so it is possible for the writing grade to be over 100%.

Two averages are then computed.  The first is the average of your 4 quiz scores and your writing percentage grade.  Any extra credit is added to the average.  This is the number that has to be 90.0 or above to get out of the final exam.

Be sure to check that all of your scores have been correctly recorded.

Final Exam score and your overall grade
Your overall grade in the class will depend on this second average (with the lowest quiz score dropped) and your score on the Final Exam.

We did a couple of example calculations that determine what score you would need on the final to either raise your grade or to preserve the grade you currently have.

Let's look at the first situation.


In this case I try to maximize the benefit that the Final Exam can have on your overall grade.  40% of your overall grade is determined by the Final Exam score.

In this example we assume your current grade is 77.5%, a C+.  You want to raise your overall grade to a B (80%).  The calculation shows that you would need to score 83.8% on the exam to end up with a B.

The other option is that you're happy with your current grade.  What do you need on the exam to keep that grade?

In this case the exam score is only 20% of your overall grade.  This is to minimize the damage it can do.

We'll use the same 77.5% for the current grade and figure out how badly you can do on the exam and still end up with a C.


The calculation shows you only need to earn 40% to keep the C.

Final exam reviews and the final exam
The Final Exam for this section of the class is scheduled for next Wed., Dec. 17 from 10:30 am - 12:30 pm here in ILC 130.  You are welcome to take the exam with the other section of the class provided you let me know ahead of time.  Their exam is Tue., Dec. 16 from 8:00 am - 10:00 am also in ILC 130. 

Two, 2-hour long reviews are planned for Monday and Tuesday afternoon next week.  The exact times and locations aren't yet know.  Once I know I'll post them on the class webpage. 

Be sure to have a look at the Final Exam Study Outline particularly the small section at the bottom which has some information about the makeup of the exam.

Late work
You can still turn in late 1S1P reports.  If they are reasonably well written and aren't just copied or nearly copied from the reference material you'll earn half credit.

If you never revised your experiment report I accept that to, but probably won't look at it until after the Final Exam and then only if it looks like it could have an effect on your overall grade.

Late Optional Assignments are not being accepted.

Note your priority at this point in the semester should be studying for the Final Exam in this and you other classes.  If there is just a small amount of written work that you didn't submit for this class you might want to consider an "Incomplete" for this class.  That would give you some extra time after the end of the semester to complete the missing work.   I'll have more information about "Incompletes" on the day of the Final Exam.

Draining toilet experiment results
One last thing, the results of the "direction of spin of water draining from a toilet experiment." 



Results from the Fall 2013, Spring 2014, and this semester's (Fall 2014) class are shown above.  This semester's results were a little unusual.  You should get roughly equal numbers of reports of clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) spin because the Coriolis does not play a role in a situation like this.  Either direction should be equally likely in either hemisphere.  This semester there were twice as many CCW reports and CW reports.  But look at the total numbers of reports at the bottom from 3 semester's worth of data.  In that case the numbers are almost exactly equal.