Our lectures are not spent pushing information in one direction, but rather are problem solving sessions. It is therefore very important that you prepare by familiarizing yourself with the kind of information that would typically be delivered in a traditional lecture. The main way to do this is to watch the pre-lecture videos and read the associated text. Every lecture has these resources organized and you can find links to them on the course calendar under Lecture Topic and Study Resources. After doing your pre-lecture study, you need to perform the pre-lecture homework. This is a relatively short set of questions delivered through Canvas quizzing. You can find the link to the pre-lecture homework on the course calendar.

Come to lecture ready to work in a team to solve problems! There will be very little time spent listening to the instructor tell you information (that you could find on boxsand or in the OpenStax textbook anyway!). You will work together to solve problems which have been chosen to artfully tell the story of physics in a digestible flow. The instructor will pose questions which you will want to have pulled up on a laptop or smartphone during lecture (there are other good options for those of you without easy access to such devices, just contact your instructor). You can follow along with the lecture by downloading the class templates ahead of time via the course calendar. Because lecture is a formative event (you are forming knowledge during this time), giving any answer to a question will net you full credit for that question. The value of lecture is in attempting the problems and giving your best effort to figure them out with your classmates. Do not worry if you are not able to solve each question. Research shows that you often learn more from an occasional failure! At the end of each question, the instructor will model how an experienced physicist would approach the problem and share tips and tricks learned from many years helping students (like you!) to learn this subject.

There are many live lecture sessions for you to choose from. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday you can choose from an 8 am, 9 am, or 3 pm (PST) session. To find times and links to live sessions, check out the course calendar.

Lecture will constitute 5% of your overall grade. To get credit, open the associated Canvas Lecture Assignment, found on Canvas or the BoxSand Calendar. Answer the questions we cover in class as we go along and receive 1 point for every correctly answered question (your going to get the correct answer during lecture!). You only need 150 total points for full credit on the lecture assignment portion of your grade. That is a little less than the number of questions we will cover in class, so coming to class will ensure full credit for the lecture portion of your grade.

What if I can't make the live lectures?

If you are unable to attend a live lecture you can work asynchronously on the Canvas Lecture Assignments, but will miss out on realtime engagement and the ability to talk with others or ask questions. One way to improve this experience is to try and find others who would like to do the same and meet them on Teams. Work through the questions together, answering them individually in Canvas. You can also make direct messaging groups and invite friends to join.

 

As soon as possible after lecture it is important to follow up with the post-lecture homework assignment. This is your chance to take foundational knowledge and solidify it through practice. The post-lecture homework can be found through Canvas quizzing and there are links to each assignment on the course calendar. After you've completed the post-lecture assignment you are ready for the final stage of a learning cycle which is the challenge homework. Links to the challenge homework can be found on the course calendar.