Regents Physics ,
Dear Parents,
I am looking forward to working with your child this year in Regents Physics. The best way to follow what we are doing this year and check on your son or daughters’ progress is to go to my website mfrancesco.net, where links to grades, homework, due dates and handouts will be available for you and the students.
This is a course for students interested in getting a strong science background for college. Physics involves the study of Mechanics (motion, forces and energy), Waves (sound & light), Electricity & Magnetism and Modern Physics. Students who think they may want a career in engineering, computers, mathematics, technology or medicine will find this course to be an excellent college-prep course for the Physics they will be required to do in college if they enter thee fields. In June, they will be ready to sit for the NYS Regents Physics exam, which is the mandatory final examination for the course.
The course meets every day; a single period, followed the next day by a double lab period. The textbook for the course is Merrill’s Physics: Principles & Problems. There are also supplemental sheets given out during the year and online activities.
Grading for the course will be as follows:
Tests (about three per quarter)……………… .……..………..…50%
Homework (biweekly problems sets and/or lab reports)………..30%
Lab Reports (weekly)……………………………………………10%
Participation …………………………….…………………..…. 10 %
Homework should take approximately 20 minutes per night to complete and is the real key to students doing well in Physics. We will start some homework in class often so I can see who needs help, and will do a lot of problem solving in pairs and groups. Students will see when trying problems what it is they do and don’t understand, and should ask me for help as soon as possible in class or after school. I collect and grade all homework. Homework will be accepted 1 day late at 80%, and will not be accepted after that (because graded solutions will be out at that point). In the case of legitimate, excused absences, student homework deadlines will be extended by the number of class days the student missed. Doing homework is absolutely essential to learning Physics: written work makes up almost half of a student’s grade in Physics.
Tests for the most part will include many real or simulated Regents questions (multiple choice and free-response) as well as more open questions from notes and homework. Homework will consist mainly of readings and problems from the textbook. Some tests and homework will be done online through the University of Texas Homework Service. The “Utexas” service gives each student different number values in their physics problems, so the all students will have the same types of problems but with different answers in each assignment.
The math we use for this course is mainly basic algebra with a little geometry and trigonometry. Most students will understand algebra better after taking this course. Learning Physics an excellent way to see how math is used in the real world.
I am looking forward to meeting with you personally on Meet the Teacher night on Thursday, September 23th. I am available to help students or meet with you by appointment as well before and after school.
Sincerely,
Michael Francesco
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Parents please sign this sheet and return it via student on the next school day.