| Office | SSC 208, desk next to computer |
| rsethi@usc.edu (primary) OR rickys@earthlink.net (bkp) | |
| HomePage | This page! (http://www.sethi.org/lab135b/) |
| Location of Lab | Kaprielian (KAP) Basement (welcome to the dungeon!) |
| Office Hours | T 12-2 p.m. in SGM 412 |
Grading and Policies
The grade you get in the laboratory portion of the class will constitute 20% of your overall grade in the class. Your total lab grade will be derived from several components:
| Quizzes | 30% |
| Laboratory Reports | Pass/Fail |
| Examinations | 50% |
| Laboratory Performance | 20% |
Important: You must complete all the scheduled experiments in the semester in order to pass the course. If you don't complete any of the labs, you will not pass the course (sorry guys, that's outta my hands).
Attendance is mandatory for all labs. Students are allowed to makeup one lab without question. If a student misses more than one lab, they must petition with the Lab Director (Kristin Sabo) to be allowed to make up the extra labs. Granting the petition is far from automatic. A student must have extremely good reasons and documentation to prove them before additional make-up labs will be allowed.
The quizzes will be short and given at the start of each lab. The quiz will test you on that day's lab so make sure you come prepared to the lab (i.e., make sure you've read the lab and understand what's involved and what you have to do that day). There will be 2 lab exams this semester: a written midterm (15% of your total lab grade), and a written (15% of your total lab grade) and practical (20% of your total lab grade) final.
No makeup exams will be given. A student missing an exam receives a zero (ouch!) for that exam.
My general policy in terms of grading is to aim for a average of about a B+. However, all lab grades are SCALED at the end of the semester by the Undergraduate Lab Director. Therefore, all I can assign are the raw scores. Even so, I still tend to stick to my general policy.
As such, performance scores for everyone start at about 16. If you do better, they go higher; if you do worse, they go lower. But the average should be about a 16. You don't have to worry about failing the lab... as long as you show up for all the labs, everyone should at least pass the lab.
Also, I do allow for some extra-credit throughout the semester. If anything strikes your fancy along the way, feel free to talk to me about doing some extra-credit on it. It'd be nice if you could somehow relate it to physics but it can be about anything that interests you. All the extra-credit will go towards improving your quiz score (usually up to a maximum of about 10pts). More on my specific expectations about the lab and your reports later...
Important: Please read the Laboratory Policies section of your lab manual for the official policies established by the university and lab administrators.
Required Materials: