Course Description:  The class provides a fun, interesting and challenging learning experience to understand the integral relationships of physics and the relevance of physics in our world.  Hands-on experiences using scientific equipment and procedures will be used to help students understand the basic principles and laws of our natural world.  Concepts will be explored through reading, demonstrations, lectures and assignments, then students will apply the concepts through labs and mathematical problems.

Textbook:  Conceptual Physics 3rd Edition.  The book will be used in-class only, but you may check a textbook out from me and take it home any time you need to.

Materials Needed:  3-ringed binder, notebook paper, graph paper, scientific calculator, pencils, and pens

Grading Policy:  Total Points will be used to calculate percentage and assign a grade based on the scale below.

Grading Scale:

Grade Reporting:  About every two weeks, grades will be e-mailed home to inform parents and students of their progress in the class, and what assignments they may be missing.  Grading will be based on homework, labs, quizzes, tests, and notebook checks.  Corrections will be offered for most quizzes and tests.

3-Ringed Binder:  The 3-ringed binder will be necessary for storing your warm-up question responses, notes, returned assignments, and experiment write-ups.  You will need easy access to these items when studying for quizzes and tests.  The teacher will conduct one or two notebook checks during each semester.

Honors Credit:  Honors credit may be earned in Physics by meeting each of the four following requirements:

Extra Credit:  Those students who do not have the grades to receive honors but would like to earn extra credit may create an original science fair project according to the requirements above and submit it at the local science fair.  Other extra credit opportunities will be available at certain times during each quarter.  I would recommend that all students take advantage of these opportunities.

Tardiness:  Tardiness disrupts the student learning process.  A warning will be given for the first tardy, but any additional tardies will result in time cleaning in the teacher's classroom.  Any student who is tardy more than four (4) times will be referred to the dean.

Late Work:  Late work will be accepted, but heavily penalized.  If an assignment is turned in late, it will receive a 20% deduction up to one week late, and a 40% deduction between one and two weeks late.  After two weeks, late work will not be accepted.  All assignments from a unit must be turned in before the unit test to receive any credit.  Students will be given one day of extension for each full day of an excused absence. However, students who are present in school for any portion of the day are required to turn in the assignments on the due date.  To aid you in keeping up to date, all assignments have been posted on the Physics Website Calendar.  If a student feels s/he has special circumstances that would warrant full credit for late work, have your parent / guardian write an explanation, sign it, and submit to the teacher for a possible extension.

Make-Up Tests:  Make-up tests may be given for excused absences only. Make-up tests must be taken before or after school.  The student must make the arrangements for the make-up with the teacher as soon as they return; see sign up sheet in the classroom.

Poor Test and Quiz Grades:  All students receiving a score below 70% on a test or quiz will be required to come in and do test corrections with the teacher either before or after school. Half credit will then be awarded for the corrected questions.  Students who score above 70% will also have the option to come in and make test corrections for extra credit.

Non-academic items in class:  Music / video players, cell phones, calculator games, food, and beverages are all items that can cause distractions in class.  All cell phones, music players, and ear phones must be kept completely out of sight during class time.  For the first offense, the teacher will confiscate the offending item for the rest of the day.  The student may retrieve the item from teacher at the end of the day.  Future offenses will require that the student's parent / guardian come in to retrieve the item from the teacher.  No food and beverages are allowed in the classroom, except water.

Hall Passes:  In case of an emergency, the teacher must know where each student is at all times.  To ensure this, no student may leave the classroom without signing out and carrying the Hall Pass.  Only one student may be out of the classroom at any given time.  The Hall Pass is to be used for the restroom or to get a drink of water - not to visit the vending machines, go to the library, etc.  You should be gone from the classroom for only 3 to 5 minutes.  Be sure to sign back in as soon as you get back into the classroom, and replace the Hall Pass.  Failure to adhere to the above rules will result in a loss of Hall Pass priveleges.