Physics 3020
Great Scientists
Spring 2012
Instructor: Richard Quay
Teacher’s Assistant: Brett Bostrom
Office hours: By Blackboard: Online chat room T,Th 7:00 – 9:00 PM.

Email Addresses: Instructor- rrquay@yahoo.com 
                               Teacher’s Assistant- Brett.Bostrom@aggiemail.Usu.edu
Website: Blackboard Physics 3020 page.
The class syllabus and class grade sheet will be   available here. Please check this site on a daily basis for class announcements and schedule changes. 
To Login into Blackboard: Your ID is your A number used in the Banner/Access system.  It  is case sensitive. Your password is the six number Pin also used with Banner/Access.

Texts: The Double Helix, Five Equations That Changed The World(ISBN 0-7868-8187-9), Selections from Nobel Women in  Science(ISBN 1-55972-146-4), What do you care?(ISBN 0-393-32092-8) and QED by Peter Parnell(No ISBN).

Assignments:
1.	Text Reading: as indicated on Assignment Schedule. Please notice that some are considerable longer than others. Please plan accordingly.
2.	Web or library: On these assignments you use your own resources to do some reading on the scientist. Please reference your sources in all papers. Points will be deducted for failing to document your sources. Wikipedia is not an acceptable source.
3.	Short paper: For each topic you must prepare a short paper reacting to your reading. It should not be longer than one page: a full paragraph will do if it is well done. Your response should include information about the scientist’s main contribution as well as some insight on the scientist’s colleagues, relationships, families, personal characteristics etc. Your response should always include one adjective giving your oversimplified sense of the person you are reading about. Box this adjective in the upper right hand corner of your paper. If you would not like your material shared with the class please so state; but I hope you will not use this option often because an important part of the class is based on students thoughts. This is a class where we learn together.
4.	Submission of Assignments: Assignments are generally due before the person or theme is discussed. Please refer to the assignment list below for the specific due dates. Assignments more than one week late will not be accepted. Points will be deducted for late assignments (less than one week) by a rate of one point per day. Each paper is worth a maximum of ten points. Assignments must be posted to Blackboard prior to 8 PM on the due date and they must be sent in Microsoft Word. Assignments sent in other file types will not be recognized. This is your responsibility!
5.	Term Paper: A term paper is required as the major project for this course. This can be about a scientist, several scientists, a scientific principle, a theme, or – well whatever! It should be professionally done and its evaluation will constitute a considerable portion of your grade. A abstract for the term paper must be emailed to me by 8 PM on the due date noted on the assignment list. It is essential that your topic be a focused one. A broad theme will be rejected. Also please avoid echoing back to me what we have already covered in class. Please make sure that you obtain my OK before you proceed. Paper should be a minimum of eight double spaced pages excluding title page, sources and abstract. Format should be APA. A minimum of six sources should be used of which at least three should be library based. A grading rubric is provided on Blackboard. This rubric must be attached to your term paper or a ten point penalty will be applied.
6.	Five minute presentations: It is recommended that you give a short presentation to the class as part of your project. A maximum of ten bonus points will be awarded for this. Please send me an email letting me know your intentions if you plan on doing a presentation. Please explore the use of media other than the most used ones (PowerPoint etc.) for maximum credit.
7.	Attendance is extremely important for this class. I will draw heavily on the discussions for test questions. Please come to class ready to discuss the scientists indicated. If you miss a class please get your notes from a classmate.
8.	Do not email me by Blackboard! I will not respond! Use only the Yahoo email account. Any questions regarding homework should be sent to the class TA.
Exams: There will be two exams scheduled as indicated on the assignment list. These are closed-note tests. Make ups exams are allowed only under special circumstances.

Lecture Schedule:
Date	Number	Lecture	
9-Jan	1	Manhattan Project	
16-Jan	No School	Martin Luther Day	
23-Jan	2	Manhattan Project	
30-Jan	3	Richard Feynman, Werner Heisenberg	
6-Feb	4	Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller	
13-Feb	5	Neils Bohr, Lise Meitner	
21-Feb(Tuesday)	6	Andrei Sakharov, Johanne Kepler	
27-Feb	7	Galileo Galilei	
5-March	8	Isaac Newton	
12-March	No School 	Spring Break	
19-March	9	Daniel Bernoulli, Michael Faraday, Rudolf Clausius	
26-March	10	Charles Darwin	
2-April	11	Darwin, Marie Curie	
9-April	12	Emmy Noether, Rosalind Franklin (Watson & Crick)	
16-April	13	Albert Einstein	
23-April	14	Albert Einstein, Class Presentations, Term Papers Due	
30-April		Comprehensive  Final Exam	

Assignment List:
Assignment	Reading  	Assignment Due Date (by 8PM)	
1- Manhattan Project             	Web or library research             Optional- The Making of the Bomb by Richard Rhodes	Friday, January 20, 2012	
2- Richard Feynman	What do you Care? 1-112 and 240-248 including preface, QED.	Friday, January 20, 2012	
3- Werner Heisenberg	Web or library research, Bohr's letter to Heisenberg (Blackboard)                            Optional- Copenhagen DVD by PBS	Friday, January 27, 2012	
4- Robert Oppenheimer	Web or library research (see Blackboard for Oppenheimer resource site), Oppenheimer quote on Blackboard
Optional-American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Martin Sherwin	Friday, February 03, 2012	
5- Edward Teller	Web or library research	Friday, February 03, 2012	
6- Neils Bohr	Web or library research	Friday, February 10, 2012	
7-Lise Meitner	Nobel Prize Women, 37-64
Optional- Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics by Ruth Sime	Friday, February 10, 2012	
8- Andrei Sakharov	Web or library research	Friday, February 17, 2012	
9- Johanne Kepler	Web or Library research            Optional- Kepler’s Witch by James A. Connor	Friday, February 17, 2012	
10- Galileo Galilei	Web or library research            Optional- Galileo's Daughter book or DVD	Friday, February 24, 2012	
11- Isaac Newton	Five Equations, 9-63	Friday, March 02, 2012	
12- Daniel Bernoulli	Five Equations, 65-119	Friday, March 9, 2012	
13- Michael Faraday	Five Equations, 119-165	Friday, March 9, 2012	
14- Rudolf Clausius	Five Equations, 165-214	Friday, March 9, 2012	
Abstracts Due by 8 PM	 	Monday, March 19, 2012	
15- Charles Darwin	Web or library research	Friday, March 23, 2012	
16- Marie Curie	Nobel Women, 11-36 	Friday, March 30, 2012	
17- Emmy Noether	Nobel Women, 64-89 	Friday, April 06, 2012	
18- Rosalind Franklin	Nobel Women, 304-332             Optional- Rosalind Franklin-The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox	Friday, April 06, 2012	
19- James Watson and Francis Crick	The Double Helix	Friday, April 06, 2012	
20- Albert Einstein	Five Equations, 215-266, minimum of 2 Web or library research sources.	Friday, April 13, 2012	
Term Papers Due	Hard Copy Only	Monday, April 23, 2012	

Grading:		Midterm Exam                     100
			Final Exam                          100                          
			Short Papers                       150
			Abstract		  	 35
			Term Paper                         150
			Total                                    535 points

Grade Scale: Grades will be based upon the following.
A	94 %				C	74 %
A-	90 %				C-	70 %
B+	87 %				D+	67 %
B	84 %				D	64 %
B-	80 % 				D-	60 %
C+	77 %				F	Less than 60%
If there is any student in this class who has a disability that will require some accommodation by the instructor, that student should contact the instructor and the Disability Resource Center (797-2444) as soon as possible.