12/2006

Congratulations to Robert Beichner, who  has won the prestigious George B. Pegram Excellence  in Teaching Award from the Southeastern Section of the American  Physical Society (SESAPS), for 2006. This is the society's highest  award, given to a member who has shown superior ability, commitment,  and leadership in teaching and science education. The winner is  chosen from members in 10 southeastern states.

 SPS Outreach

Thanks to the Physics Students who participated in the Family Science Night at Washington Elementary School on November 16, entertaining kids from 6 to 60 with physics. Ryan Field, Leslie Watkins, Guilhen Ribeil.

Astronomy Outreach 

Thanks to Lisa Lowe, Brian Williams, and David Brown for holding an open house at the astronomy site.  The open house was well attended, and another is tentatively planned for spring.

Dates to remember

December 25^th to January 1^st
  University closed

January 10^th
            First day of Class, Spring 2007

January 15^th
             No Class

     Last day to add a class without instructor’s permission

January 24^th

            Last day to add a course

February 21^st

            Last day to drop a course

March 5^th through March 9^th  
            Spring Break

End of The Semester Reminders:

Adapted from the provost's web site:            

No tests in the last week of class:

Semester project reports and presentations are permissible during the final week of classes. Papers and homework may have a due date during the final week of classes only if scheduled in the syllabus. However, in order for students to prepare for final examinations, faculty may not assign tests, quizzes or additional papers during the final week of classes.  Assignments should not have a due date during the final exam period unless the assignment constitutes a part of the final exam. Exceptions to this policy must be approved in advance by the department head and the dean of the college involved. Students should contact the appropriate instructor or department head if they believe an assignment is not in compliance with this regulation.

Incomplete (IN) and Pass/Fail (S/U) grades:

IN (Incomplete) Grades: At the discretion of the instructor, students may be given an IN grade for work not completed because of a serious interruption in their work not caused by their own negligence.  An IN must not be used, however, as a substitute for an F when the student's performance in the course is deserving of failing.

Work undertaken to make up the IN grade should be limited to the completion of the missed work. An IN grade must be made up by the end of the next regular semester (not including summer sessions) in which the student is enrolled.

S/U grading (Pass/Fail): A passing grade (S) is to be awarded only when the quality of the student's work is judged to be C- or higher level.

• Jim Chilton (11/9)
• Charlie Johnson (11/19)
• Marco Buongiorno-Nardelli (11/21)
• Tom Pearl (11/24)
• Prabha Ramakrishnan (11/27)
• David Haase (12/6)
• Bruce Sherwood (12/12)
• John Kelley (12/12)
• Lubos Mitas (12/14)
• Tim Fedkiw (12/30) 

The Winter Solstice will occur on December 22^nd, at 00:22 UTC (12:20 am Greenwich Mean Time). 

BUT!  Due to the time difference between Raleigh and Greenwich, for us here in Raleigh the solstice occurs December 21^st, at 7:22 pm, EST.

Additional astronomy trivia:

The Earth will reach the point in its orbit closest to the sun on January 3^rd, 2007, at 3:00 pm EST (But don’t look for a warming trend that day!)

Tips on e-mail etiquette

(From iwillfollow.com)

Don't Be A Novelist.  Messages should be concise and to the point.

vCards are simply a nightmare for a user of Outlook. They make every e-mail appear as if it has an attachment. It does in one respect, but it's not what you would normally consider an attachment i.e. a document, a spreadsheet, etc.

Flames. What is a "flame" or specifically what does it mean "to be flamed?" To be flamed means that you've sent an e-mail to a person(s) that has caused that person(s) to respond in many, not-so-nice words. It's basically a verbal attack in electronic form.

Never send an e-mail in all UPPER-CASE. Use of upper-case words is the equivalent of shouting in some one's ear. ONLY use upper-case words when trying to make a point (such as I just did). Even at that, you should be careful with who you are exchanging messages.

Don’t assume that someone reads their e-mail the moment they receive it. Too many users assume that the minute someone receives an e-mail it, the person will read it. Bad assumption.

If you schedule a meeting for an hour from now and send an e-mail to each attendee, the chance that all the attendee's will read that message within the hour will be pretty small.