Course Policies

Grading. The weighting is roughly:

40% exams: one midterm, one final
40% labs
20% homework, in-class quizzes (maybe), and subjective factors

Graded work. Labs will be done in groups of size at most two. We expect at least one problem set: problem sets will be completed as individual work.

Collaboration. We encourage any and all collaboration except during exams. The course will be more productive and more fun for everybody if you take the time to help each other out. However, you must take responsibility for your work. In general, I expect every student to be familiar with the approaches taken for all of their graded work, even if it was a group effort. To encourage everyone to participate fully, we make sure that every student has an opportunity to explain and justify their group's choices and approach. Any individual work that you hand in for a grade must be your own work. For our purposes, that means:

You acknowledge any assistance you received.
You write it up yourself.
You can explain what you did and why.

Deadlines. This is spring semester, and spring means seductive weather, pre-graduation parties, spring break, job searches, and....basketball. I propose the following contract. You will receive at least two weeks notice of any deadline. You will bring any difficulties or conflicts to my attention at least one week before the deadline. Deadlines may be changed for the class as a whole, but not (as a rule) for individual students. You will submit your work by the published deadline. Late work will always receive sufficient credit to motivate you to complete it, but late work will be penalized on a sliding scale. If your work is late, you will spare us any sad stories, and take your lumps fair and square.