About the course:
This course intends to impart to the student, knowledge and capabilities associated with basic reserch methods and tools needed to carry out reasearch in Physics. The course will involve 2 hours/week of classroom instruction in which the student will be exposed to such subjects as literature and citation search through indices, planning and carrying out research procedures, research ethics, use of scientific computer tools for statistical analysis, report construction and presentation. Class hours coincide with the Colloquium times, and there will be no class on Colloquium days.

The course will proceed in relation with a project on a specific topic in physics or a closely related area. The course will expose students to research through projects that require no prior knowledge beyond the high school level.

Teaching goals include practicing critical thinking, analyzing cause and effect relationships, planning controlled experiments, as well as gaining familiarity with useful skills such as literature search and scientific document preparation.

Homework:
The project activity and classroom topics will generate regular assignments aiming to provide sufficient practice of the tools thought during class.

Attendance requirement
If a student misses more than 6 hours of class, (s)he will need to compensate this by completing assignments which will take much longer time to do, or the grade will be an F.

Grading:
The grading will be based on the progress of the student's research project, which will be assessed regularly during the semester through the reports and presentation material that will have to be prepared. Students will also be graded on the presentation of their project at the end of the semester.

Homework performance and attendance will also affect the final grade.

	Literature search homework	10%	Due
	Project proposal	10%	Due
	LaTex homework	10%	Due
	Project progress report	10%	Due
	Numerical modeling homework 1	10%	Due
	Numerical modeling homework 2	10%	Due
	Project report	10%	Due
	Project presentation material	10%	Due
	Project presentation	20%
	Colloquium attendance (extra credit)	10%
	Class attendance (extra credit)	10%

You can view your grades through the Stars system.

Course Schedule:
	First meeting: Wednesday, Jan. 31, 15:40 - 17:30 in SA-Z03
Lectures:	Wednesdays	15:40 - 17:30	Room SA-Z03
Practice sessions:	Fridays	8:40 - 10:30	Room B-302
Office Hours:
	Mondays	12:40 - 13:30	Room SA-228
	All other times (if available - call 1316 to check)		Room SA-228