TAM 251: Introductory Solid Mechanics

General Info	Grades	Formal Assessment	Contact Info
Website	Grading	Lectures	Office hours
Course description	Final grades	i-Clickers	Online forum
Prerequisites		Quizzes
Reference text		Discussions
		Online homework
		Final exams

Website:

The official class website is http://courses.engr.illinois.edu/tam251/

Description:

Relationship between internal stresses and deformations produced by external forces acting on deformable bodies, and design principles based on mechanics of solids: normal stresses, shear stresses, and deformations produced by tensile, compressive, torsional, and bending loading of members; beam deflections; elastic energy and impact; multi-dimensional stress states; buckling of columns.

Big Idea:

Solid materials deform and break. The extrinsic relation of force and displacement is governed by intrinsic material measures of stress and strain. The challenge is to connect the extrinsic to the intrinsic.

Prerequisites:

TAM 210 or TAM 211.

Reference texts:

There is no required textbook for this class. However, theses texts are very useful

• R. C. Hibbeler, Mechanics of Materials, 9th edition, Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2014.
• F. B. Beer, E. R. Johnston, J. T. DeWolf, and D. F. Mazurek, Mechanics of Materials, 7th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2015.
• R. R. Craig, Mechanics of Materials, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Grading:

The total score for the course is computed with the following weights:

Final grades:

The total score s corresponds to final grades as follows.

97% ≤ s < 100%	A+	93% ≤ s < 97%	A	90% ≤ s < 93%	A-
87% ≤ s < 90%	B+	83% ≤ s < 87%	B	80% ≤ s < 83%	B-
77% ≤ s < 80%	C+	73% ≤ s < 77%	C	70% ≤ s < 73%	C-
67% ≤ s < 70%	D+	60% ≤ s < 67%	D	55% ≤ s < 60%	D-
s < 55%	F

 

Lectures:

Prompt and regular attendance at lectures is required to obtain credit for iClicker content.

iClickers:

Short quizzes are conducted during lectures using iClickers (75% participation, 25% correctness). An iClicker remote can be purchased from any of the bookstores, and must be registered on Compass, under the tab "Register i>clicker". You need to register your iClicker by the end of Week 2, when the iClicker roster will be synced for the last time. The first iClicker use for credit will take place in Week 2 of the semester. Your lowest three scores will be dropped. These drop should be reserved for unexpected occurrences such as sickness or a family emergency.

Computer-based quizzes:

You will have 7 total online quizzes using the PrairieLearn system. You will not be allowed to use notes, textbooks or electronic devices such as laptops or cell phones. Solutions will not be posted. All quizzes will be held in the Computer-Based Testing Facility (CBTF). Make sure to check the CBTF website to get information about the facility and what you need to do to sign-up for your quiz. Each quiz grade is determined from the following formula: max([First Try, 1/3*(First Try) + 2/3*(Quiz Retry)]).

If you have an excused absence for the quiz, then you will take the assessment at a later date, or make other arrangements at the discretion of the instructor.

Discussion sections:

Discussion sections start in Week 1 of semester, with the schedule below. Prompt and regular attendance at your discussion section is required. You must attend only the discussion section in which you are enrolled. You will not receive a grade for the worksheet if you attend the wrong discussion section.

Most discussion sessions will consist of a group worksheet exercise, which is a high-energy and efficient 50-minute learning experience. Students will be placed in permanent groups of three to four people during the third week of classes. If you are more than 5 minutes late to a discussion session then you will not receive credit for the section. All members of the group should be working together as a team. The TAs and CAs will be evaluating team work, problem-solution skills and interpretation of the problem.

There are two main goals for the discussion worksheets:

1. Gain experience in team-work. This is a critical skill in all areas of engineering, from large-scale industrial projects to academic research. Working productively in teams is a skill that must be learned just like math or physics, and regular practice is essential. Often you will have to work with people who you do not especially like, or who you find it difficult to work with. It is important to lean how to manage these situations so that the important work is still accomplished.
2. Apply engineering concepts to real-world problems. Each worksheet focuses on a real-world problem that you will have to use your engineering skills to solve. This will include using the material from class, but also knowledge from previous engineering, math, and science classes. You will also have to think like an engineer, and understand when to make approximations, how to judge the appropriateness of different models, and which mathematics and physics is most useful for a given engineering problem.

We also hope that these discussion worksheets will help you to meet other engineering students and we encourage you to get together outside of lectures and discussions to work collaboratively on homeworks and exam study.

The discussion section schedule is listed below:

• All Monday discussion sections are in 176 Education Building.
• All Tuesday and Thursday sections are in 252 Mechanical Engineering Building.

 

	Monday	Tuesday	Thursday
9-10			ADC Lihua Heather
10-11			ADD Lihua Heather, Ran
11-12			ADE Lihua Ran
12-1	AD1 Anthony Suhaib, Zack
1-2	AD2 Anthony James, Julia
2-3	AD3 Anthony James, Julia	AD7 Matt Zack, Julia
3-4	AD4 Liz Suhaib, Colton	AD8 Matt Colton, Zack
4-5	AD5 Liz Suhaib, Ran	AD9 Matt James, Colton

 

Online homeworks:

Weekly online homeworks will be assigned via PrairieLearn. Each assignment is due at 11:59pm on the assigned due date. Due dates are available inside PrairieLearn. These assignments place an emphasis on mastery. The idea is to keep doing questions until you master the underlying concept or method. Once you do, you should be able to answer these questions very quickly.

The way this works in PrairieLearn is that each question has a value, a point total, and a point maximum. If you answer a question correctly, two things happen:

• The point total increases by the value, until you reach the point maximum.
• The value increases (2x, 3x, 4x, etc.).
• The value increases (2x, 3x, 4x, etc.).

If you answer a question incorrectly, one thing happens:

• The value goes back to what it was originally (1x).

This system rewards repeated correct answers, which tend to demonstrate mastery. There is no penalty (other than resetting the value) for answering a question incorrectly, so don't be afraid to submit an answer. Similarly, don't be afraid to keep doing a question after you reach the point maximum - your point total with never go down!

If you click on the "?" just to the right of the line about available credit, you'll see all the dates associated with this homework. In particular, it says:

• you can receive 100% until Main End Date
• you can receive 80% until Extended End Date(two days later)
• you can receive 0%, but can keep doing problems as practice for the rest of the semester.

Note that your score will never go down. For example, if you achieve 90% by the Main End Date, you won't be able to increase your score after that time, but you won't be penalized for not reaching 100% - your score will remain 90% forever. On the other hand, if you achieve only 70% by the Main End Date you will be able to increase your score after that time (to a maximum of 80%) until the Extended End Date.

Office hours:

Teaching and Course Assistants office hours are held in 429 Grainger, according to the schedule below. Office hours start in Week 2 of the semester.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
12-1
1-2	Prof. Mercer (MEL 2133)
2-3		Prof. Ertekin (MEL 4044) Lihua	Lihua	Matt	Anthony
3-4	Heather	Suhaib		Matt	Julia
4-5	Heather	Suhaib, Lihua		Matt
5-6		James, Colton Quiz Review*		Julia
6-7		James, Colton Quiz Review*	Zack	Ran
7-8			Zack	Ran
8-9

* Quiz Review will be held in 520 DCL.

Note: Professor office hours are located in the rooms listed in the table. On Monday, 4/1, Professor Mercer's office hours will be in MEL 4044.

Quiz review policy

As of Monday March 11: Quiz review will be held in 520 DCL (the DCL CBTF room) at the day/time listed above. You will have the opportunity to sit at a CBTF computer and review your entire quiz from the previous week, as well as your scanned scratch paper from the quiz (if you turned it in after you finished your quiz). TAs will be available to help analyze your quiz with you if you wish.

Please note: Quiz review gives you the opportunity to see your specific quiz instance, with the specific numbers for your question, and review it with the TA. If you visit TA or Professor office hours, we are always happy discuss a question you saw on the quiz as you remember it, and you may take all the notes you wish at this time, and keep them - but review of specific quiz instances can only be accommodated during the quiz review sesion.

Online forum (Piazza):

This class uses Piazza for ALL communications between the instructor, TAs, CAs, and students. Students should not communicate with instructors via email. This is so we can ensure a faster response and keep everyone informed about what's going on.

Students are encouraged to post public messages on Piazza ("Post to Entire Class"). If you like, you can post anonymously, but we encourage everyone to use their name because it makes a friendlier and more welcoming environment. We will never judge anyone for asking anything on Piazza, and you will see professors, TAs, and CAs making mistakes and saying stupid things as well!

You can use the private feature on Piazza by posting a message visible only to the Instructors. In this, you must type "Instructors", instead of sending a message to a specific TA or instructor. Again, this helps to ensure that you get a prompt response.

TAs and CAs are scheduled to be checking Piazza on the following days:

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Anthony	Anthony Colton	Matt James Ran	Matt Lihua	Julia Heather	Zack Lihua	Suhaib

The use of Piazza should not replace the in-person Office Hours time, since some questions cannot be fully addressed via an online forum.

Final Exam:

The final exam will be held in the CBTF during finals week, and will be cumulative (covering all course material).