Formative assessment marks

Marks are out of 100.
First three numbers are the last 3 numbers of student number

712 - 63.5
653 - 62
375 - 90
235 - 91.5
762 - 69.5
613 -59.5
398 - 70


Good news. Everyone scored more than 50 and so no one has an automatic fail.
Maxwell Smart says Extra good news for agents  no. 375 and 235. 
Because of they scored above 85 this enhanced the effect of their summative marks. e.g. they only need 45% to pass and 75% to get a 7. (see course profile for more details).
Consistent engagement pays off!

Marks for student presentations

These were well done.


Marks are out of 10.
First three numbers are the last 3 numbers of your student number

712 - 8.3
653 - 7.9
375 - 8.8
235 - 7.5
762 - 7.3
613 -7
398 - 7.8

Course summary

Write 10-15 pages summarising the main points learnt in the semester. Each point must contain one figure and one equation.

The summary must be emailed as a .pdf file to me. 
It may be run through Turnitin in order to test for plagiarism.


This assessment piece counts for 10% of the summative assessment.


This is officially due at 5pm this friday June 1.

I may not start marking until tuesday morning.

Presentation logistics

Each presentation will be 15 minutes plus 5 minutes for questions.
Time limits will be rigidly enforced.


I expect you all to attend all the presentations.


I also expect you to fill out the feedback and assessment forms I will provide.
i.e. you will be grading each others presentations. Paul and I will take this into account when assigning your final mark.


It is your responsibility to bring a laptop and to check beforehand that you can get it to work with the data projector. 


On the same day as your talk please post on the blog your Powerpoint slides.


The material below is from John Wilkins one page guides and should be read and applied before giving your talk.

• Preparing a talk. [html ], [postscript ]
• Talk Grit [html], [postscript] (Jim Garland)
• How to give a Terrible Talk 
• Viewgraphs Preparation: NOT 

Schedule is 

Monday 11am   Kiran, Josh, Dale
Tuesday 11am   Andy, Joseph
Wednesday 11am  Ann, Dave      + course evaluation

Week 13 student presentation schedule

Monday 11am
Kiran, Josh, Dale

Tuesday 11am
Andy, Joseph

Wednesday 11am
Ann, Dave

Student presentations - week 13

10% of the summative assessment is based on class presentation.

Here is a preliminary list of possible papers you can use for your presentation.

First come, first served.

Claim yours with a comment below.

I welcome alternative suggestions.

You will have to give a 15 minute presentation where you

-summarise the key ideas and results of the paper

-relate the contents to what you have learnt in the course

-state things you did not understand

-any weaknesses you see in the paper

5 minutes will be allocated for questions and discussions.

Time limits will be strictly enforced.

Marks will be based on

-quality of presentation

-level of understanding of the paper

-ability to relate the paper to what you have learned in the course

-ability to answer questions

Superconductivity gets an iron boost

Thermal and electrical transport across a magnetic quantum critical point

Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry's phase in graphene

Ideal diode equation for organic heterojunctions. I. Derivation and application

Complex thermoelectric materials

Tunable Fröhlich polarons in organic single-crystal transistors

Understanding ion motion in disordered solids from impedance spectroscopy scaling

The birth of topological insulators

Quantum spin liquid emerging in two-dimensional correlated Dirac fermions

Assignment 6: due May 16th

The next assignment is due Wednesday May 16 at 1 pm. You will need to do some exercises with the ising model from solid state simulations. You can get a copy of the relevant section of the book here.
In preparation for next week, where we will start learning about magnetism, please read chapters 31-33 from A&M.

Assignment 5 due may 2

This assignment involves the ziman program of solid state simulations. The relevant section of the
book is here.

Assignment 4: due April 18

This assignment on the Bloch model is due Wednesday April 18 at 1 pm - note the time! You will also need to do some exercises with the Bloch model from solid state simulations. You can get a copy of the relevant section of the book here.

Mid-semester exam wed april 18 1pm

I propose to hold the mid-semester exam on wednesday April 18 at 1pm.
It will be worth 20% of the summative assessment.
It may cover all material up to and including week 6 (i.e. before the mid-semester break).
Here is a copy of last years exam. This years exam will be of similar structure and of comparable difficulty.

Assignment 3: due April 4

This assignment on crystal structures and diffraction is due on wednesday April 4 at 1 pm. You will need to do some exercises with the program bravais in solid state simulations. A scan of the relevant section of the book is here.

Maximum exam and assignment marks

You must include details of your calculations (including keep track of units) if you don't want to lose marks.
Just writing down the answer you got from plugging numbers into a calculator is not good enough. How do I know you did not just copy the answer off a another student?

Assignment 2: due March 21

This assignment on the Sommerfeld model is due on wednesday March 21 at 5pm. You will need to do some exercises with the program sommer in solid state simulations. A scan of the relevant section of the book is here.

Where are your blog posts?

Each student should make one post on the blog each week and write a comments on three other student posts, in order to gain formative assessment points.

This does not have to be profound. e.g. A simple summary of one key idea, equation, or experimental data graph is fine.

Here are a few ideas you might post about:

the integer quantum Hall effect

the fractional quantum Hall effect

the quantum of resistance

what are the main assumptions of the Drude model?

what are the differences between the Drude, Sommerfeld, and Bloch models?

who were Drude, Sommerfeld, and Bloch?

Also, here are a few good examples from last year

Peltier effect

Bravais lattice symmetries

Neutron scattering

Postscript files in SSS

Learning from your pre-test

I have marked all the pre-tests. You are welcome to come by my office and pick up your marked script.

A few things you should do for future exams, if you don't want to lose marks:

• Keep track of physical units at each stage of a calculation involving numerical values.
• Make sure the axes of a graph are clearly labelled and have a scale. 
• If you don't know the answer, don't waffle on as if you do.

Assignment 1: due March 7

A copy of the first assignment is here.
It involves looking at some exercises using the drude program in Solid State Simulations [you can download the program here].
Here is a scan of some of Ch. 6 of the book (also, the library has 4 copies)