PHYS 1000 Fall 2024 Syllabus

Upon completion of this course students will be able to:

1. Careers in Physics & Astronomy

1. identify careers they could pursue with a degree in physics
2. formulate Informational Interview questions to ask professional physicists about their careers
3. identify practical experience opportunities to develop skills that are relevant to jobs in physics
4. formulate an “elevator speech” to highlight relevant skills, education, and experiences

2. Research in Physics & Astronomy

1. summarize research being conducted in physics and astronomy at UNG
2. give examples of interesting research projects at UNG that students may wish to pursue
3. formulate questions to ask physics and astronomy professors about their research

3. Metacognitive Learning Strategies

1. apply research-based metacognitive learning strategies in all courses

The grading system used in this course is probably vastly different from that of any other course you have taken. The grading system is actually not grading at all; it is even called ungrading or going gradeless by educators who implement it.

Research has informed us that descriptive feedback, rather than letter grades or scores, leads to higher learning gains and that using grades in an attempt to improve performance is not effective. There is evidence that grades encourage competition over cooperation, suppress creativity, foster a fear of failure, and reduce interest in learning. If you are curious, this review article discusses research related to grades: Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently).

Much of this is confirmed by other researchers like Carol Dweck, whose book Mindset introduced the world to the concept of growth mindset, and Daniel Pink, whose book Drive argued that extrinsic rewards and punishments actually stifle creativity, higher-order thinking, and intrinsic motivation.

It is my hope to engender the dispositions of growth mindset and intrinsic motivation in my students,

so I want to eliminate any practices that work against students developing them.

In this class, after you turn in work for an assignment, you will receive written and/or verbal feedback about what you did well and what you can do to improve. You will also reflect on your work and your learning goals each week. Throughout the semester, you will have opportunities to assess your own work, to make improvements in response to feedback, and to elicit and receive new feedback — all of which has been shown to aid students in becoming more engaged and effective learners.

I understand that you will not automatically know how to evaluate yourself and your work, so I will help you learn methods of self-evaluation along the way. I hope to help you learn to move from talking about your performance (i.e. what an A looks like) to talking about your learning: what did you figure out? What obstacles did you overcome? What remains challenging that you want to keep working on? What can you now do that you couldn’t do before?

These questions are only some of what you can ask yourself when reflecting on and evaluating your learning. I hope that by the end of the course, you will have your own language for describing and judging your own learning. This makes self-evaluation much more effective and even enjoyable, as you learn to articulate your thoughts about your own learning.

We will meet at least once every month in individual conferences on Zoom to discuss your progress and learning. You are welcome to meet with me more often than once per month. You will be given the opportunity to sign up for an individual conference with me whenever you want to meet with me.

You will be required to meet with me at least once per month.

During these conferences, you will decide what we discuss. Sometimes, these conversations might be general and broad — like how you are doing overall in the course. Other times, we might talk about very specific aspects of what you are learning.

To help you keep track of your progress and learning in this course, you will use an evidence portfolio. Here, you will provide evidence of your learning. You can discuss what you did and how it connects to your learning goals.

At the end of the course, you will have an organized body of work that you will use to determine your final grade for the course.

Your final grade in this course will be determined based on the skills you learn, the learning goals you achieve, and the competencies that you demonstrate. Throughout the course, you will develop a body of work that will help you to self-assess your learning and make an honest appraisal of your effort and progress in the course.

You will be afforded the agency to evaluate and examine your own learning and suggest your grade in the course.

At the end of the course, in place of a final exam, you will make a presentation to me where you will suggest your final grade, providing evidence from your body of work throughout the course for why you believe your suggested grade is fair. You have the choice of how to prepare and present this final grade presentation.

We can meet via Zoom for a final exit interview during which you will present an organized presentation with evidence to support your proposed final grade. I will provide feedback on your assessment and discuss your grade suggestion with you. Together, we will work toward an agreed upon grade, though I reserve the right to veto a suggested grade. This presentation must be no longer than 20 minutes.

You can prepare and record a 20-minute video presentation with evidence to support your proposed final grade and submit this video presentation to D2L. I reserve the right to veto a suggested grade.

You can propose your final grade in a paper that provides evidence from your body of work throughout the semester for why you believe your suggested grade is fair. This paper has a page limit of 3 pages, single spaced, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. This paper will be submitted to D2L. I reserve the right to veto a suggested grade.

This (un)grading system provides you some freedom to learn at your own pace. However, we are required to complete this course in 5 weeks. To help you stay on track and keep up with the material, I have set up some requirements:.

Meet with me on Zoom in an individual conference at least once per month.

Show up on time to any individual conference you have scheduled.

Have evidence in your evidence portfolio for at least 75% of the content covered at the time of your quarterly conference.

If, at any time you do not meet these requirements, this will be recorded as counter-evidence. At the end of the course, if you have counter-evidence remaining on your record, you will not be able to propose a final grade of A.

Counter-evidence will be erased from your record if you meet the requirements in a later individual conference.