This course was a 100% meh course. It wasn't a horrible experience, but this class was definitely one to just get done and over with. I'm not sure if this was due to the class being 100% online due to COVID, the fact that this was summer with a 10 week course crammed into 6, or if this is how the course is normally, but this course felt very rushed and not very useful.

I technically took the course under Ni Ni, but I believe that both Ni and Arisaka design this course. Never saw or heard from either of the two, except through emails and possibly one video that Ni might have made of herself. In other words, your experience will be based on your TA and your groupmates, which depending on your TA, you might or might not be able to choose.

Since this was summer, the TA didn't really care about this class (I don't blame him, it would suck to teach this class during the summer). That meant we were given plenty of wiggle room when we did stuff wrong in lab, and that he graded leniently, but that also meant that he wasn't very helpful.

The grade was calculated as follows:

25% for assignments: 10% (pre-lab) + 15% (post-lab). Basically free points
10% attendance (-2% for first absence and -4% for the next 2). Also free points
5% survey: 2.5% each for pre-class and post-class. More free points
30% Unit reports (10% for each report). Somewhat difficult and VERY TIME CONSUMING
30% project (split as 15% presentation and 15% report). Somewhat difficult and VERY time consuming

​The grade ranges are:
A+ 95-100.0% A 90-94.99% A- 85-89.99%
B+ 80-84.99% B 75-79.99% B- 70-74.99%
C+ 65-69.99% C 60-64.99% C- 55-59.99%
D+ 50-54.99% D 45-49.99% F 0-44.99%

The labs themselves weren't very good, since they were ONLINE. The TA couldn't help us very much in the experimental setups, and it was hard to collect data since there were no labmates to help you set stuff up. The data analysis was through Python. I had no clue how the data analysis worked; the first three weeks were literally just copy and paste the code the instructors wrote for you, while the last three weeks were more or less copy and paste the code from the first three weeks, but tweak the code slightly. No previous knowledge of physics was really needed until the last project, since they told you what to do, down to the actual code.

Lab reports took a while to write, despite the fact I had 3 really good groupmates. They also came one after the other; I was constantly writing. It appears that the 4AL/4BL series was designed for the semester system. In other words, these people took a 16 week course, squashed it to 10 weeks for the quarter system, and further squashed it into a 6 week course for summer session. Also, instructions were super unclear for the lab reports. I had no clue how we were supposed to format, and in some cases, I HAD NO IDEA WHICH EXPERIMENTS I WAS SUPPOSED TO ANALYZE FOR THE REPORTS!!! Grading also felt arbitrary at times for the lab, despite the use of Gradescope.

The project was time consuming. Basically only one person was able to do the experiment, and we had to cross our fingers that the person did the experiment correctly. It came with a report and a presentation, and we had to video ourselves presenting the slides.

Tl;dr: This class should be an easy A, but you'll still have to work for it. There are lots of free points, but these points take time to obtain. You'll sort-of learn Python and learn how to use this software called Tracker, but that's really it.

The class ended up not being too tough, but it did feel like a lot of work for not too impressive of a result. The pre-labs and post-lab analysis are mostly just about following directions, you barely even need to know any of the physics that are being discussed since they basically hold your hand through everything, including giving you all the Arduino code that you need to work with.

The lab reports are, as advertised, a pain in the butt. They take a good amount of time if you want a good grade, and everything feels really vague in terms of requirements, since there's no clear rubric – you're kind of stuck guessing in the dark for what kind of analysis they want you to make. They do make up a substantial portion of your grade, so make sure that you get a good group, since those reports are enough of a pain with a group working on it, let alone doing it on your own.

Not a big fan of the class, but it's also not exactly Professor Arisaka's fault. It's a good introduction to how to write lab reports, but unfortunately, that's all I really got out of it.

This course was so free, but your experience in this class is entirely dependent on how strict your TA's grading is and how much your lab mates are willing to do work. You don't interact with the professor at all and the lab content is entirely laid out on these 10+ year old slides. Workload-wise, I spent at most an hour every week working on pre-lab/lab reports outside of labs. Also, your group only needs 2 Arduino's (in fact a majority of the labs only required one Arduino). So if your lab group already has two save your money!

This class is abysmal. This is not a physics class, this is a computer science class. Arduino IDE is impossible to deal with on an Apple product. You will be coding profusely in Python, and likely required to write your own Arduino code for the final project depending on what your group chooses to do. This class is completely guided by slides that are outdated (dates are from previous quarters), poorly structured, and are completely centered around Windows UI, not Mac. I understand that it is an expectation of engineering majors to use Windows and never Mac, but this is a physics class. Likewise, your TA makes or breaks this class. If there is a tech issue...better hope your TA has experience. Need something for your final project...better hope your TA knows where everything is in the lab.

Easily the most miserable class on campus. And it doesn't take much to refine it to make it easy, the professor just refuses to do so.

4AL is just a bunch of busy work. The class is relatively easy as there are no exams and just lab reports and group projects. It's really important to have a good team that fairly splits up the work. Overall, as long as you complete the work and follow the rubric, you should easily end up with an "A."

I believe 4AL is a great course to experience writing research papers and working with data. My TA (Elias) was super nice and gave us lots of help with programming. I was lucky to have great group members too. The workload was pretty manageable (one post lab and pre lab per week), and three group projects. Most people get A and A+.

However, if you don't have much programming experience, the learning curve for python in this class is pretty steep. Most of the time, you have to rely on the person in the group that has prior programming experience (which was me in my group).

this class is VERY DEPENDENT ON YOUR TA. My ta Alexander Galkin was amazing. When he talked to his lecture slides, it was understandable although some parts maybe left out but you can always ask him questions and he will gladly help you out. For the final project, he was a great tremendous help when one of my labmates went to his office hours! and the only time we start our final project was the very last day of lab day :sob: :sob: but we clutched up! here are the grading breakdown:

​(Individual) Pre-Lab Survey - 2%
​(Individual) Attendance - 10% (-1% for each missing lab)
(Individual) Weekly Pre-lab assignments - 15%
(Individual) Weekly Post-lab assignments - 15%
(Team) Unit 2 Report - 10%
(Team) Unit 3 Report - 15%
(Team) Final Project Presentation - 15%
(Team) Final Project Report - 15%
Cleaning up lab/table - 3%

Typically, for some weekly post-lab, sometimes it will be group work sometimes it will be individual. ALSO, for the REPORTS, make sure to start them early, be concise about it, and make sure to STRICTLY follow the rubric. Also, to make it more professional, use Latex :D.
Anyways, this class is ALOT of work than most, if not some 4 unit or 5 unit class :sob:. Dont take it for granted.

have fun and goodluck! P.S Shoutout to my labmates throughout this quarter (bluetooth that don't work most of the time)

Content-wise, this class is extremely free. You slide an Arduino down a ramp then write a lab report on how you've proven that gravity exists. It barely even qualifies as a high school physics experiment.

Workload-wise, I've put more time into this class than I have for most of my 4-unit lower divs.

Grading-wise, it's entirely dependent on your TA. I had the misfortune of having a TA who repeatedly took off points for grammar and phrasing (we lost 3 points for calling the air track cart a "plastic platform") and then proceeded to deny the regrade request. We also lost lost points for writing "the force on an ideal spring" instead of "the force exerted by an ideal spring" which first of all is extremely dumb to take points off for, and second of all doesn't even make sense because of Newton's 3rd law. From talking to my friends, it seems like most TAs are fine, but it's something to keep in mind when taking this class.

This class is completely run by a TA. My TA was nice and helpful! For each lab, you'll just copy the circuit diagram and Arduino code, run the experiment, and fill in some blanks in a Python template to analyze the data. It was a solid introduction into data/error analysis and report writing. For a 2-credit class, I thought it was paced well.

The projects were fairly designed, but if you have a bad group, expect to do everything yourself. The TA was utterly useless however.