Your grade will be based on your total points:
Please be aware that I DO NOT offer extra credit
Short Assignments: There will be four (4) written assignments. These assignments are take home and open book, and you may discuss the material among yourselves, but all of the work you hand in must be done individually. Please read and understand Ithaca College’s policies on plagiarism (see below). Please note that both the quality of your answers and, where appropriate, correct grammar and writing counts on these exercises. Unless we have previous arrangements, if an exercise is not in by the Due Date, I will deduct 10% of the total points each weekday that an assignment is late. No points will be awarded for any assignment that is more than one week late. You need to hand in your assignments in class; I do not accept work that is e-mailed unless I ask for that exercise to be submitted via e-mail or we have made previous arrangements.
Examinations: The three 50 minute in-class examinations throughout the semester will be a combination of multiple choice and short answers. Exam questions will come from lectures, readings and other course material that I may assign. Please note that I will drop the lowest of the three exams for the calculation of your course grade. Exam attendance is mandatory. An examination missed during an unexcused absence will result in a zero grade for that exam. See Course Policies Page for more information.
Reading Quizzes: Each class meeting (with some exceptions, my choice) will begin with a very straightforward reading quiz designed to reward those who come to class prepared. You will need your PRS clicker to answer these questions. If you don’t have your clicker, you can’t get the points.
Concept tests: Will be given periodically throughout the course with and without warning, they are designed to quiz your conceptual understanding of the material. I will also occasionally give a bonus point to each of you that answers all of the questions (usually 2) correctly in a given Concept Test.
These are the percentages I will use to assign grades for your Mid-Term grades:
Final Course Grades may include + / - letter grades solely at my discretion.
Every student who is performing below a C will be asked to meet with me to discuss their performance in an attempt to initiate a course of action that will increase performance to a C or better.
So what does an 'A' or a 'B' grade mean? To give you a framework to understand what type of course performance would translate to a given grade, please see this document.
An incomplete grade is awarded only to allow missing work to be made up in cases of documented emergencies only under these circumstances: 1) if all other work is satisfactory, and 2) if advance arrangements have been made with the instructor about the work to be completed including the deadline for completing the missing work.