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First-year courses

Edward Sternin, Chair of Physics

First-year scheduling changes

Since 2009-2010 academic year, the two sections of PHYS 1P21/1P91 are offered in two different terms, one in D2 (the Fall term) and one in D3 (the Winter term). At the same time, PHYS 1P23/1P93 has moved to D2 (Fall). Note that PHYS 1P23/1P93 does not have a prerequisite beyond the normal complement of high-school math, and therefore can be taken before PHYS 1P21/1P91. The expected sequence of the first-year Physics courses is:

	Fall Term (D2)	Winter Term (D3)
Natural Sciences' majors	PHYS 1P91	PHYS 1P92
Life Sciences' majors	PHYS 1P93	PHYS 1P91
Non-Sciences' majors	PHYS 1P93 or 1P23	PHYS 1P91 or 1P21
	or
	PHYS 1P91 or 1P21	PHYS 1P92 or 1P22

First-year course format changes

In the past, all students had one common tutorial session, one hour per week, as well as access to the Physics Help desk, run for five hours daily. Starting this year, each Physics course will have many small tutorial sessions (no more than 12 students each) during which students will work through the exercises in the Student Workbook, as well as receive homework and submit it for grading. Our hope is that this small-group format will be more productive and will allow developing a long-term relationship between students and their teaching assistants (TAs). The schedule and location of the Help Desk, if available, will be announced during the lectures.

When registering for 1P21/2/3 be sure to register for two components: the primary (lecture) and one of the secondaries (a tutorial section); for PHYS 1P91/2/3, there are three components to register for: one lecture section, one tutorial, and one lab (run on alternate weeks on individually-assigned schedules, with the lab write-up due no later than one week after the lab).

All lab write-ups are to be submitted in a particular format at a particular location within the Physics Department. They are also submitted electronically to turnitin.com and the receipt included with the paper submission. The late-submission penalty on the labs is 100%, in other words no late submissions are accepted, so be sure to have it in on time and in the right format. There is no penalty for early submissions!

The individual lab schedules will be available through the "Marks" links on each course page, early in September.

To prepare for your first-year Physics courses

The best preparation is to make sure you are confident in your math skills. Elementary algebra such as linear and quadratic equations, trigonometry including trigonometric identities, plotting of algebraic and trigonometric functions, etc. If you are a little rusty, please review your high school textbooks. To assist you, a small book, Mathematics for College Physics, by Biman Das, is included in the texbook package that you will be buying at the bookstore (it also includes the textbook itself and a two-volume Student Workbook). It is an excellent book for self-study and review. Once you have mastered the high-school math skills covered by this book, you can be confident in your preparedness for the first-year physics courses. Grade 12 Physics is not a prerequisite.

Making sure that you are confident in your math skills is not just for Physics. You will find that other disciplines require this as well. In 2009-10 the Department of Mathematics introduced the online Math Skills Tests. Students enrolled in MATH 1P01 or MATH 1P05 are required to complete with a minimum of 70% a series of seven Mathematics Skills Tests by late September as one of the requirements for receiving a credit in those two courses. The good news is - you can start early, as soon as you are registered. All students in Physics are encouraged to do just that: start now, to ease your transition into the University life. You can attempt the tests multiple times, and each has a series of practice problems you can use to strengthen your skills, if you discover that a particular area needs work. The best news is that it's free!