Grades Assignment

You will use your grades on WebCT and the grading policy from the syllabus to figure out your class grade so far. This will be collected at the begining of class on Tuesday.

Grading Policy from the Syllabus:

  • Participation in class and lab activities, on the bulletin board, in assignments graded out of checkplus, and WebCT quizzes 20% Attendance is required. You are expected to contribute to discussions and to read the WebCT bulletin board, and will be randomly called on to present nightly homework (you may pass but this will affect your participation grade). You are also expected to actively engage the material in class and lab. This means that when we are doing a calculation, you must also do this on your calculator, and you are expected to take notes since the book does not contain everything you need to know. The first try of some WebCT quizzes will occur in the lab and will be worth 10% of the WebCT grade for that quiz. No make-ups are allowed, but the lowest score will be dropped. Each quiz will have up to 5 additional tries to achieve a perfect score on the quiz retake, and the highest of this score will be worth 90% of the WebCT grade for that quiz. Department policy mandates that missing more than 8 official and/or unofficial credit hours of absences during the course (careful - each class is 1.5 credit hours and each lab is 2 credit hours!) will result in a grade of F. Missing more than 5 credit hours will result in a lower participation grade. Save your absences for emergencies!
  • Weekly lab projects 35% Work will not be accepted without explanation and must also be turned in on or before the due date. If there is some reason you must miss a class, then obtain the assignment from the web pages. The lowest lab project will be dropped. Every other project will be equally weighted regardless of the total number of points (except those that are marked as counting as two labs). One late lab project allowed over the course of the semester - save this for emergencies.
  • Major topic exams, presentations and/or papers 20% No make-up exams will be given. May occur during the last week of class. You should view exams primarily as a learning experience, as reflected in the relatively low percentage of the grade. This means that exams are not only an opportunity for you to demonstrade your mastery of the material, but are also an opportunity for you to be challenged with new material in order for you to make new connections. To encourage exams as a learning experience some extra points will be granted for test revisions.
  • Final exam Monday May 7 12-2pm 25% Comprehensive. No make-ups allowed.
  • Extra credit Extra credit points will be granted if you answer someone else's math question on the WebCT bulletin board. There will be other extra credit opportunities during the semester for which points will accumulate. When final grades are given, extra credit points are taken into account in the determination of -,nothing or + attached to a letter grade.
    • You can obtain a passing grade in this class by completing your work and missing no more than 8 credit hours of class. You should expect to work hard in this class, and put in the necessary time outside of class in order to complete homework and assignments on time, as I also work hard to help you succeed. To obtain an A in this class, you must demonstrate deep understanding of the material.

    Fill in the following from WebCT grades


      Your name __________________________________________ Class Absences (in credit hours)__________




      Major topic exams, presentations and/or papers 20%

      Test 1 Grade out of 43_______ From above you see that Major topic exams, presentations and/or papers are worth 20%.

    1. So multiply (20)*test 1 grade / 43__________ This gives you your that average at the moment out of 20 points.



      Weekly lab projects 35%

      Write down all of your lab project grades from WebCT (Notice that Ben and stock are written twice - this is because they count double):

      Wile/20 _____ Ben/20 _____ Ben/20 _____ condo/20 _____ tax/20 _____ polls/32 _____ car/20 _____ bungee/20 _____ stock/20 _____ stock/20 _____
      Now cross out the lowest lab (just one!) both above and below. You will notice that there are 9 numbers left (since you have crossed out the tenth). We will compute an average. Take each grade (except the one you have "x"-ed out) and divide by the number of points that it is worth (which is written next to the lab above) and write the results below. Notice that everything BUT THE polls lab is out of 20. Each of your numbers below should be less than one.

      Wile _____ Ben _____ Ben _____ condo _____ tax _____ polls _____ car _____ bungee _____ stock _____ stock _____

      Take the 9 numbers, add them up and divide by 9. Your answer is _______ (which should be less than or equal to 1)

    2. From above you see that Weekly lab projects are worth 35% So multiply your answer above by 35_______ This gives you your average at the moment out of 35 points.



      Participation in class and lab activities, on the bulletin board, in assignments graded out of checkplus, and WebCT quizzes 20%

      Write down your 4 highest quizzes from WebCT (ie drop the lowest) _____ _____ _____ _____

      Take an average of these (ie add them up and divide by 4). _____ You will get a number that is out of 100.

      Adjust (ie raise or lower) this number based on your presentations of hw when you were called on, participation in class and lab activities, on the bulletin board and in assignments graded out of checkplus, which also make up your participation grade._____

    3. Multiply this number by .20 ____ This gives you an average out of 20.



      Your class average at the moment

      Add up your answers to 1. 2. and 3. above to get a total out of 75 ____.

    4. Take this number and divide by 75 and then move the decimal over two places to the right. ____ This gives you your average at the moment, as a % out of 100.