PHYS 211 is traditionally a very hands-on course, and therefore running it remotely poses a unique set of challenges. But, we've worked hard here to create experiences that provide practice with all the fundamental skills we find essential to the course, and we will do our best throughout the year to make changes and modify the projects based on feedback from you about what is or is not working. 

We will be working through open-ended, group projects which are intended to be more like guided research projects than the “cookbook” labs you experiences in first and second year labs. You will be given less direction up front, but ample help along the way to help you carry out your own investigation into an assigned topic. We aim to hone your experimental skills, and to help you practice functioning as a collaborative group working on a single project. You will determine what tasks need to be done and how to organize your efforts in order to progress on your project. The projects will be within your abilities, but we (the instructors) will push you to dig deep into the subject matter.

Here are some links to administration and logistical information.

The pages below are considered essential reading for students in PHYS 211. You should look over and understand everything in these pages on Day 1 of the course. Refer to them whenever you have any questions about how the course operates or what is expected for your work.

We have developed many pages of supplemental material that can serve as references as you work in the lab or write your reports.

• List of supplemental material pages

Experiment manuals (Spring 2021):

Project group assignments:

This quarter, in addition to the two group projects, each student will also turn a past project report into a full journal article and participate in a class-wide peer review. Details are below.

Some pages that may be useful as you work on the article are as follows: