Course Description (from the CSUFresno 2003-2004 General Catalog): (3 credits). Analysis of energy crisis; introduction to various forms of energy, energy conversion processes and environmental effects; present energy supply and energy projections; future energy demands and ways of evaluating alternatives.

Class objectives:
(1) To serve as a conceptual physics course, with emphasis on energy generation and use, and their effects on the environment.
(2) To promote student understanding of scientific method, and to practice critical thinking and reasoning skills, useful both in and outside of science.
(3) To examine the interaction between science, technology, and society, in the context of "the energy crisis."
(4) To provide experience with quantitative reasoning and graphics, again useful both in and outside of science.

Mathematics: This course will require the use of some algebra and basic geometry, but mainly a lot of arithmetic. We will also use scientific notation, units conversions, and proportions.

Course meeting times and location: Schedule 32539 (section 01): MW 3-4:15 p.m., in McLane 280.

Holidays: February 16 (Presidents' Day), March 31 (Cesar Chavez Day), April 5 and 7 (Spring Break)

Required Course Text: Energy: Its Use and the Environment, 3rd edition (2002), by Roger A. Hinrichs and Merlin Kleinbach.
It should be available at the campus Bookstore, in the University Student Union building.

Required Course Equipment: (1) Clear plastic ruler; (2) Scientific calculator (that has scientific notation, and can calculate logarithmic and exponential functions)

Course web page: http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/psci168.html

Course grades will be awarded for the following final percentages:
85-100% = A; 70-84% = B; 55-69% = C; 40-54% = D; 0-39% = F.
These percentages will be computed with the following weights:

20%		Two Mid-Term Exams (10% each)
20%		Homework and projects (please note: no late assignments can be accepted)
1%		Paper titles and summaries, due Wednesday, April 21
24%		A 4000-word paper, due on the last day of instruction, on Wednesday, May 12
35%		Final Exam, which will be comprehensive (covering all material in the entire course), which will be Monday, May 17, 3:30-5:30 p.m. in the regular classroom:

Please note:

• Attendance:
  All students are expected to attend all class sessions. All students are also expected to arrive for class on time, and to attend to the end of all class sessions. If you must miss a lecture for a compelling reason (e.g. job interview or illness documented by a doctor's note), then get the notes from another student.

• Keep up with the reading assignments, throughout the semester. To make sure that all students do, we will have weekly reading quizzes. Class time is valuable: it is much better spent in informed, active discussion among all of us than in just me talking. It always amazes me: the students who get "A"s are almost always the ones who keep up with the reading. The ones who don't, almost always are the ones who don't.

• Don't be shy about asking questions in class, or during office hours. Remember that the only "dumb" question is the one you didn't ask, that fouled you up later because you didn't ask it. This is especially so in this class, which I want to run as a seminar.

• All students are required to turn off all beepers, pagers, and portable phones while class lectures are in session, because they are so disruptive.

• I often use e-mail to communicate with students, and please feel free to send e-mail to me. However, all assignments must be handed in as paper copies, including homework, projects, paper titles and summaries, and papers.

• NO late assignments can be accepted, including homework, lab assignments, paper summaries, papers, or any other assignments. Sorry, but every time I grant extensions, I live to regret it.

• All students are required to hang on to all class materials for the duration of the class. Hang onto all copies of all work you have done in all your classes, ever. Hang on to your textbooks, too: even the real stinkers can serve as bad examples.

• The Department of Physics cooperates with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) to make reasonable accomodations for qualified students with physical, perceptual, or learning disabilities (cf. Americans with Disabilities Act and Section of 504, Rehabilitation Act). Present your written accomodation request to Dr. Ringwald within the first two weeks of class.

• I plan to use the World Wide Web in this course. I will require you to know how to use an Internet browser and how to use e-mail. Most students will already know this, but if you don't, don't be embarrassed. Please let me know: I'd be glad to give you private lessons during my office hours. Although it would be a big advantage for your schoolwork, you need not own a computer, since you may use the computers in many labs around campus.

  If Web access is still a problem for you, please come to office hours or make an appointment, and I'll let you use my machine. I won't therefore accept excuses such as "I couldn't use the Internet" or "My browser wasn't Java enabled."

• Exams: There will be two midterm exams and a comprehensive final exam. The material for these exams will come from the lectures and assigned reading. All exams will be closed book and as such you may not use any notes or books during the exam. Calculators may be used for the exams.

  Sorry, but I cannot give make-ups for mid-term exams, nor can I give mid-term or final exams in advance. These classes are far too large for it to be humanly possible for me (because I cannot be in two places at once). Even with smaller classes, I can never be sure that a makeup or advance exam was really fair, since it must be different from the regular exam. If you must miss a mid-term exam for a compelling reason (e.g., job interview or illness documented by a physician's note), the part of the course grade that mid-term exam would have counted will be voided, and the rest of the grade will be counted as 100%. If you must miss the final exam for a very compelling reason (e.g., illness documented by a physician's note), you will receive a grade of I (incomplete) for PSci 21 for the semester. It will then be your responsibility to contact the university administration in a timely fashion, and make the necessary arrangements to remove the I grade. See the California State University, Fresno General Catalog for regulations concerning the I grade. Only students who can document very compelling reasons to miss final exams (e.g. with a physician's note) will be eligible for incompletes: other students missing the final exam will get a 0% on the final exam.

  Once a student leaves the classroom after taking an exam, the student may not re-enter the classroom as long as that exam is still taking place. The student's leaving the exam will be taken to signify that the student has finished that exam.

  All students are required to remove hats and sunglasses during all exams, because they have in the past been used to aid cheating. Students may not use calculators, pagers, or cell phone that can communicate outside the classroom during exams. Any students found attempting to do so will get an F in the entire course, because that constitutes cheating.

• I will allow students to collaborate with each other on homework and projects, provided everyone lists their "co-investigators" on their papers. Scientists often do this, and the ability to collaborate well and work as part of a team is a good skill to have, in science and in other professions.

  However, if you do collaborate, it must be genuine collaboration: not one person doing all the work, and the others blindly copying, which constitutes cheating. Therefore, while you may work together, write up the results separately, in your own words. A dead giveaway is when I get two papers that are exactly the same. Do people think I don't notice it?

• Plagiarism: I like even less when students take papers from the Internet, and turn them in as their own work. This is now easy for professors to detect, with www.plagiarism.org. If I find a paper or web page anywhere that closely resembles yours, that web page had better have your name on it. If it doesn't, your turning it in with your name on it will be interpreted as an attempt to misrepresent someone else's work as your own, which constitutes plagiarism. Remember, always: you are responsible for anything with your name on it.

  Modifying someone else's paper slightly, or changing the words around, or stringing someone else's paragraphs together, even if they're cited, is no better: none of these dubious practices make it your paper. For information on the University's policy regarding cheating and plagiarism, refer to the Schedule of Courses (Legal Notices on Cheating and Plagiarism) or the University Catalog (Policies and Regulations).

  To prevent plagiarism, two copies of both the paper titles and summaries and the papers themselves are due, on the appropriate dates (April 21 for the titles and summaries, and May 12 for the papers). I must have two copies, or the paper (or summary) gets an F. I will keep one of the copies of these papers and summaries on file, for life. If I find a plagiarized paper, I will send it to the Dean and recommend the student be expelled - or the degree be revoked, if I don't find it until 25 years from now.

• This syllabus is subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to check on announcements made while you were absent.