Grading

My Grading Practice

I know that getting good grades can sometimes be stressful. To help to reduce that stress and improve the likelihood of getting your best grades, allow yourself the time and space you need to do your best work. Cramming really won't work in this class. Don't procrastinate....it is SO easy to do in an online class, and if you get stuck on something reach out to me or one of your peers sooner rather than later. I welcome any and all of your questions and am happy to help you think through your ideas so that you can successful complete and assignment or perform well on an exam.

How Coursework is Weighted

Assignments (units assessments and any other out-of-class assignments): 5%
Back Up Brain/In-Class Participation: 15%
Unit Exams: 50%
Lab Grade: 30%

Overall Course Grades

90-100% = A

80-89% = B

70-79% = C

60-69% = D

Below 60% = F

Assignments

Homework is designed as practice and a key may be provided for you to check your own work. It is much better for your understanding of the concepts to stay on top of the homework; budget time each day to study and/or review. There will be frequent assignments on Canvas, including short lecture comprehension quizzes, case study questions, terminology checks.

Brain Back-Up

Over the course of the semester, you will create your own unique resource referred to as your “Brain Back-Up.” This is basically just a compilation of any notes you take while learning. You want your external brain to be in a format that is optimally useful and accessible to YOU. You will be able to use your Brain Back-Up (BB) on all exams.

Your BB should contain your original work, although of course you are welcome to share ideas and discuss concepts with your classmates. Your BB will be assessed for completion (not accuracy).

Brain Back-Up Rules

1. All content in your BB must be your own work.

2. You may include UNLABELED images in your BB, even if you do not draw them yourself. (You can white-out the labels on the image if you want.) You are welcome to LABEL any images by hand. It is wise to cite the image source if you do this.

3. Please do NOT include MY typed lecture notes or text chapters in your BB. However, you CAN include all your own stuff (and you are welcome to copy any material into your BB. Again, it is wise to cite the source.

Unit Exams

Three Unit Exams and one Final Exam will be given. To prepare, students should review the assigned reading, homework questions, and the lecture notes.

The Final Exam is a bit different than other courses. The exam will come in 4 parts, one corresponding to each unit. You are required to complete unit 4, but as for the others it is completely up to you; you could pick 1-3 other units to demonstrate mastery!

Better on Final: Students who score higher on a final exam unit than on the initial tests will have their original exam replaced by the average! Example: Student scores 60% on the Unit 1 exam originally. Then, on the final exam Unit 1 section, scores an 80%. Because of the improvement shown, I will change the original Unit 1 exam score to be 70%.
Worse on Final: Scoring lower on a final exam section will not lower your initial grade.

What happens if you miss an exam?

There are no makeup exams. If you miss an exam, you will use the Final Exam to take the place of the exam you missed.

Lab Grade

There are 16 tentative laboratory exercises, each accompanied with questions. The questions will be graded based on the accuracy of answers and completion. The top 14 lab reports will be counted toward the total grade. You must be present in the lab in order to submit a lab report. Labs are due at the end of the lab period or the following week at the beginning of lab. One late lab report will be accepted.

Quizzes:

There will be 5 lab quizzes at 25 points each given throughout the semester.

The quizzes will be multiple-choice questions with an emphasis on the previous weeks’ content.

There are NO make-up lab quizzes.

Page updated

Report abuse