Re: How much is too much?

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 13:46 -0500 8/19/02, Tina Fanetti wrote:

> I am currently trying to plan this semester's schedule for a first
> semester calc based physics course.  My dilemma is this:  How much
> work is too much?
>
> The students will have each week or so
> 1 lab report (includes prelab)
> 1-2 homework assignments of about 10 problems.
> They will have a term paper of about 10 pages.
>
> Now, I would like them to do some shorter papers of about 1-2 pages
> in length.  The topics would come from the further invesitgations
> questions in their text books (Reese).  I was thinking one paper per
> test. So that would mean the students would need to write 4 little
> papers.
>
> Does this seem like too much work?

It depends on what the rest of their profs are doing, what their
course load is, whether they are working or not, and lots of other
factors. I recall my intro physics class, back in the early 50's, had
one assignment per week of 10 problems, and a lab report. It seemed
like plenty at the time. For the most part we weren't working, and
most everybody was taking a total of four courses.

The issue is how much time they will be expected to spend on these
assignments, rather than what the assignments are.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

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