"The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, but one who asks the right questions." - Claude Levi-Strauss

In-progress class grades, final progress report grades, and end-of-semester grades are all posted in Infinite Campus. Ignore any grade information that appears anywhere else. Infinite Campus is the official grade-of-record for this class.

Check the ESS Infinite Campus Posting page for more information about the specific codes and comments used to communicate general course progress, individual assignment feedback, and overall final grade.

Earth and Space Science is a course that is built around the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards). It is a different way of presenting science information to students and a different way of evaluating student work. Additional information (specific to our class) is presented below.

You will do a lot of work in this class. Only some of that work will factor into calculating your overall grade. Most of the work you do will not be graded: you will get feedback but it will not raise or lower your grade.

To distinguish between these two types of "work," we use the words ASSESSMENTS and ASSIGNMENTS:

• Assessments: the work that is assessed and factored in toward your final course grade.

• Assignments: the "practice" work we do to build your skills and confidence to get you ready for your assessments.

Think of it like competitive sports. You spend time in multiple practice sessions before your match. The practice sessions are designed to best prepare you for your contest. Practice sessions give you the opportunity to improve your skills and get feedback so that you can be fully prepared on game-day.

That's how this class works.

Your work is primarily assessed on a mastery system using rubrics. While rubrics are individualized for each particular assignment/project/investigation/assessment, the general format is a 6-point rubric (including 0) that is generalized like this:

• 5 = Extensive demonstration of skills/standards

• 4 = Strong demonstration of skills/standards

• 3 = Convincing demonstration of skills/standards

• 2 = Inconsistent demonstration of skills/standards

• 1 = Limited demonstration of skills/standards

• 0 = Incomplete, Not Turned In, Missing, No Credit.

Grade are NOT factored based on a simple points system.

Since all formally scored assignments/projects/investigations/assessments (etc.) are converted to our six-point rubric (0-5), the traditional grading scale (90, 80, 70, 60, etc.) no longer works.

For example, if a student repeatedly demonstrated STRONG skills, they would receive a score of 4 on the rubric. If we translated that back to the traditional grading scale, 4 out of 5 equals 80%. On a typical grading scale, 80% is a very low B. Normally, we don't consider a B- as showing STRONG skills.

So we need to use a grading scale that more closely matches our class rubric. Here's is the "%-scale" for your class grades:

• 85% = A

• 70% = B

• 55% = C

• 40% = D

As a general rule, additional EXTRA CREDIT work is not offered in this class. Please do not ask for it.

The work provided/assigned is the work that we feel will give you the best educational experience. Do THAT work. Do it faithfully. Submit your work on time.

Do this and your grade will generally take care of itself . . . and you will never need to worry about extra credit work.

Occasionally, optional assessments are offered. When an assessment is OPTIONAL, there will be special instructions on the assignment for how you can OPT OUT of that particular assessment, if you so choose. Opting out does NOT mean that you don't turn in anything for that assignment. Every students always submits something for every assessment. ALWAYS. You either follow the directions for the assessment OR you follow the directions for opting out.

Failure to submit a properly completed document will always result in a MISSING ("0") score.

If you choose to complete an optional assessment, it will be graded just like any other assignment. If your overall grade is low, and you do well on your optional assessment, it can raise your overall grade. However, it is still an assessment. If you do poorly, it can hurt your overall grade.

If a student opts out of an optional assessment, they will be excused from that assignment and it will not factor in the calculation of a student's overall class grade.