Syllabus

Table of contents

  1. Complete Syllabus
  2. Instructor: Theresa Honein
  3. Teaching Assistant: Charbel Ziade
  4. Piazza
  5. Grading
  6. In class quizzes
  7. Homework
  8. Problem Sets
  9. Study Group
  10. Text, Reader, and Supplemental Material
  11. Copyrights
  12. Honor Code
  13. Active Learning

Complete Syllabus

You can find the complete syllabus here. The main points are summarized below.

Instructor: Theresa Honein

  • Email: th72 at aub.edu.lb
  • Lecture: TR 9:30 am - 11:00 am in FS1 305
  • Office Hours: T 3:30-6 pm, W 1-3pm and Th 3:30-5 pm in Bechtel 532 (subject to change within the first two weeks of the semester)

Teaching Assistant: Charbel Ziade

  • Email: caz09 at mail.aub.edu
  • Exercise Section: T 3:30 pm - 4:45 pm in Bechtel 209
  • Office Hours: TBD

Piazza

For homework advice or conceptual questions, please use Piazza. If you have non-conceptional or non-homework/exam related questions, please use email. Class group chats besides Piazza are not allowed. Please let me know if you do not have access to our Piazza page.

Piazza Discussion etiquette:

  1. Ask HW questions only in HW posts.
    We’ve created individual posts for each problem from homework. Please ask questions, discuss problems, or help out in those posts only. Before asking a question, read through (or search) the whole post to see if your question has been answered. The same applies for Problem Sets and Exams.
  2. Don’t post answers on Piazza.
    Please don’t give away the answer on Piazza. You can explain things in a way that still lets other students figure out the essence of the problem on their own, but don’t spoil the problem.
  3. Try to make posts public.
    While not violating Rule 2, try to make your questions public, because others might have the same question and we don’t need to answer them multiple times.
  4. Piazza is not OH. 5 minute-test.
    If you think your questions may take more than 5 minutes to answer, please come to office hours.
  5. Piazza is not for pre-grading.
    Please do not use Piazza as a medium to ask instructors to check your homework in advance. We simply cannot check every student’s homework through Piazza.
  6. Post a screen shot of any resource referenced.
    Your question should be self-contained. The responders should not have to scan through PDFs to even figure out what the question is. Ask yourself: am I referring to some lecture note/HW solution/discussion solution/past exam? If the answer is yes, post a screen shot of the relevant part.

Grading

ItemPercentage
Project Competition5%
Homework8%
Quizzes+Attendance12%
Midterm I20%
Midterm II20%
Final35%

We will drop the 4 lowest quiz grades. This policy is intended to accommodate any potential absences during the semester. Please use this policy only as a last resort.

In accordance with departmental guidelines, the mean GPA for the course will be approximately a B. In-class quiz solutions and exam solutions will be posted on the class website.

In class quizzes

In this class, my goal is for you to get plenty of practice during lectures. To encourage this, most lectures will include either a group or an individual assessment.

Homework

Each 1-2 weeks, you will have one homework assignment that involves some coding. The homework is to be done in groups of two or three. These assignments are designed to help you deeply understand and apply the concepts we cover in class. You’ll submit them on Gradescope by 8pm on the due date.

Gradescope entry code: NGJG68

Problem Sets

For each concept we cover, I will post a corresponding problem set. We will solve some of these problems in class, some during discussion sessions, and others will have video solutions. The remaining problems you are expected to work through on your own. You are always welcome to ask about any of these problems during office hours or on Piazza.

Study Group

You are encouraged to form small study groups of 2-3 students. However, each student should write their homework on their own. Do not share homework solutions!

Text, Reader, and Supplemental Material

All of the lectures will be taken from Professor O’Reilly’s book

O. M. O’Reilly, Engineering Dynamics: A Primer, Third Edition Springer-Verlag, New York, 2019.

The electronic version of this text is available for free through the AUB library website.

Problem set problems will be assigned from

J. L. Meriam, L. G. Kraige, and J. N. Bolton Engineering Mechanics: Dynamics, Ninth Edition, Wiley, New York, 2018.

You can use any version of this textbook as an extra reference. I will post the prompt of the questions you need to solve.

Copyrights

All the course material, including but not limited to homework sets, homework solutions, quizzes, exams, lecture notes, lecture videos, discussion notes, discussion videos, etc. are under copyright. No part can be copied transmitted (e.g. Chegg, course hero, etc.), reproduced or translated into another language without the written permission of Theresa Honein.

Honor Code

Cheating will not be tolerated. If you cheat, attempt to cheat, or fail to follow any of the teaching team’s instructions during a quiz or exam, you will receive a zero on the assessment. If you cheat during an exam, you will fail the course and be reported to the MSFEA’s disciplinary committee. There are no exceptions to this policy.

Active Learning

Check out these two excellent videos of Professor Noel Perkins from the Univesity of Michigan at Ann Arbor explaining the active learning techniques he uses to teach dynamics! Part 1, Part 2. We will using these techniques ourselves.