HW5

Dear class,

Please excuse the typo on HW5 - it is due Friday, 12/4, not Monday.

Cheers,
MSS

Problem 6c

Dear class,

In problem 6c on HW4, you may compute a faster rate of diffusion of the protein than for active transport. This is not an error -- I should have chosen a larger protein here.

Cheers,
MSS

Quiz and HW statistics

Dear class,

Here are the course averages thus far:

quiz 1: 81.1 +- 10.9%
quiz 2: 72.5 +- 16.5%
quiz 3: 78.6 +- 16.3%
quiz 4: 89.5 +- 8.9%

HW1: 81.6 +- 14.1%
HW2: 78.3 +- 12.8%
HW3: 87.0 +- 11.4%

Cheers,
MSS

Notational clarifications in HW4

Dear class-

I realized that there might be some notational confusion throughout HW4 regarding different R's - some of which specify the gas constant, some the cell radius, and some a protein radius. I have re-tooled the notation to be clearer so as to delineate these different quantities. I also made some clarifications on a number of problems: please check in particular the new problems 3 and 6c.

Cheers,
MSS

No office hours today or tomorrow

Dear class-

I will not be having office hours today due to travel to an NSF panel in DC. However, should you have questions about HW4, feel free to email me, stop by Wed or later in the week, or see Brad in his office hours.

Cheers,
MSS

Quiz 3 & HW2 avg scores

Class,
The average on Quiz 3 was a 78.6% and the average on HW2 was a 79.6%. I hope to be able to hand back HW3 by Wednesday's class. I have office hours today (Friday 11/13) at 3pm if you have any questions on the recently handed back HW or quizzes.
-Brad

Grading with bonus project

Class-

There may be some confusion about the bonus project and how it will figure into your grade. Here's how we will compute your final grade.

At the end of the quarter after the final, we will first compute your grade as if there were no bonus project, but still dropping your lowest quiz score. From these grades we will compute the final grading scale (typically looking for natural breaks in the distribution) and assign you a letter grade.

Then, if you completed the bonus project satisfactorily, we will then recompute your grade two ways: one in which your second lowest quiz score is replaced with a 100% and one in which your final letter grade is bumped up by one +/- increment. Whichever of the two results in a higher final grade will be what we assign you.

In this scheme, missed quizzes will count as zero, but since we are dropping your lowest quiz score and since the bonus project gives you a second way to make up a quiz, this should permit you sufficient flexibility if you are unable to make a quiz for some reason. The purpose of the bonus project is to accomodate students who could not make a quiz due to conflicts and the rescheduling of the dates. As a result, we won't hold any make-up quizzes.

Hope that clarifies things,

Cheers,
MSS

HW4

Class-

HW4 is now posted online at the course website.

Cheers,
MSS

Bonus project question

I was asked the following:

Does the project need to pertain only to one protein or can we use multiple proteins (i.e. DNA and a DNA polymerase)? Also, say we choose a small protein, can the artwork be a collage of multiple repeated units of that particular protein even if it isn't found like that in nature?

You can certainly include more than one molecule, especially if the function of them is best illustrated by a complex. As far as the layout, you can choose any way of displaying the protein that you like (collage, etc) so long as you are able to illustrate some kind of function within your project.

MSS

Updated course schedule

Dear class-

As discussed yesterday, there are some updates to the course schedule:

• today, 11/5 -- Brad's office hours extended 3-5pm
  
• tomorrow, 11/6 -- quiz 3 (Chapters 5-7, 10), also office hours canceled
  
• Monday, 11/9 -- class canceled due to AIChE meeting, HW4 posted online
• Tuesday, 11/10 -- Brad will be available for HW3 questions 11am-12pm
• Thursday, 11/12 -- HW3 is due on Thursday, Nov 12 by 12pm in Brad's box
• Friday, 11/13 -- HW4 will be handed out on paper
• Monday, 11/23 -- HW4 due (normal due date)
• Monday, 11/30 -- Quiz 5 will likely be moved to this date due to a guest lecture by Frank Doyle on Wednesday, 12/2

Also, the solutions to HW2 have been posted.

Cheers,
MSS

Office Hours Change and HW Mistake

Hello everyone,

As discussed in lecture this morning, I will not hold my normal Friday afternoon office hours this week and they've been rescheduled for Thursday at 4pm. That means I'll have office hours from 3pm-5pm on Thursday this week only. Also, feel free to email me any questions you have and we could arrange a time to meet sometime before the homework is due next Thursday, Nov 12 at noon (in my mailbox).

On number two of HW2 I misread the question as T>Tfold so if I took off points for your graph being wrong, please either show me your HW on Friday or place it in my mailbox and I'll give you the two points back. Sorry for the error.

Thanks,
Brad