Outline for ENSC 330, 04-1}

This is a four-credit course. According to the formula 1 credit-hour = 3 hours of work, you should be spending about 12 hours a week on work related to this course. If you are consistently having to spend more time than this on it, please let me know.

The course consists of three lectures and an open lab every week. The lectures are 1030-1220 on Mondays, and 1330 to 1420 on Wednesdays, in AQ 3149. I don't plan to give any two-hour lectures, though; on Mondays we'll do a one-hour lecture, take a short break, and then I'll work through any problems that the class has requested that we look at, either from the text or from reality.

Official Text

The text for the class is Callister, ``Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction'', Sixth Edition, published by Wiley. You need to get this text; most of the assignments will be set from it, and there will be weekly reading assignments. The syllabus for the final exam is defined by the contents of the assigned portions of the text, not by what we cover in lectures.

Unofficial Texts

In addition to this text, I recommend several other short, cheap books. You will not be examined on the contents of these books, but they are interesting and easy to read, and provide background to some areas of the syllabus:

Gordon, J.E., ``The New Science of Strong Materials'', Penguin, second edition published 1976.
Gordon, J.E., ``Structures'', Pelican, published 1978.
Levi, Primo, ``The Periodic Table''; (Levi was an Italian chemist who was sent to Auschwitz during the Second World War, but was enabled to survive through his knowlege of chemistry; this book is a collection of essays and stories about particular elements.)
Sacks, O., ``Uncle Tungsten''; Sacks is best known as a psychologist, but this book is a collection of essays about the chemical properties of matter.
Atkins, P., ``The Periodic Kingdom''; Atkins, a first-class chemist and writer, takes a stroll through the periodic table.

Your assigned work for the course comprises 4 components: weekly assignments, a mid-term, four labs, and the final. The grades for this work will be assigned as follows:

Grading Scheme

Your work will be marked according to both Scheme A and Scheme B below. Your grade will then be based on the higher of the two marks.

Scheme A

Assignments: Count for 30% of final grade; your mark will be based on your best 11 marks from the 12 assignments set.
Lab Project: Counts for 10% of final grade.
Mid Term: Counts for 20% of final grade.
Final Exam: Counts for 40% of final grade.

Scheme B

Assignments: Count for 30% of final grade; your mark will be based on your best 11 marks from the 12 assignments set.
Lab Project: Counts for 10% of final grade.
Final Exam: Counts for 60% of final grade.

Lab Work

There is an open lab associated with this course. Details of the lab assignments will be provided in the second week of classes.

Weekly List of Assignments

For each of the reading assignments, you should ensure that you have met the `Learning Objectives' set out at the beginning of the chapter, and that you can define each of the `Important Terms and Concepts' set out at the end of the chapter. (This will be tested in occasional zero-credit quizzes.)

Each of the written assignments is due on the Monday of the following week; thus, the first written assignment is due on Monday January 12, 2004.