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Laboratory Work
Laboratory practices, exercises, and drills have
been designed to enhance the student’s learning experience and, consequently,
they are considered a major part of the class. All students are expected to
participate. All labs require a written report; some of them will be completed
during the labs, but most of them will be turned in at the beginning of the next
lab session (usually a week later). Most lab reports are done in teams (usually,
three students per team), however, your name cannot appear in a report if you
were not present during the corresponding lab practice.
Instructional Strategy
 | Lectures:
The professor will spend about 50% of the time lecturing. |
| Laboratory periods will be used for practices, exercises, and
drills to enhance the student’s learning experience. These practices
will take about 70% of lab periods. Lab periods will be used for reviewing
class material before midterm exams, for administering midterm exams, and
for discussing test solutions. |
| Class discussions are strongly encouraged to provide a deeper
understanding about the topics presented during a lecture. Class discussions
should take about 25% of class time. |
| Problem solving: About 25% of class time will be spent on problem
solving. |
Evaluations
Partial exams are optional.
If you decide not to take a partial exam (for any reason or circumstance) the
grade that you get in your final exam will be assigned to the missing exam.
The lab reports, quizzes, assignments, and the final exam are not optional.
Exams must be returned by the professor within two weeks.
All exams are comprehensive. This means that the material to be
examined on the second test, includes the material examined on the first one;
and that the material to be examined on the final test, includes the material
examined on the first and second tests.
Because the comprehensive nature of the tests, a student can replace the
grade obtained on the first test by the average of the first two tests; for
example, if she takes the first test and gets 60 points (out of 100) and she
takes the second test and gets 92 points, then she may choose to replace the
grade in the first test (60) by the average of these two tests (60+92)/2 = 76.
Similarly, a student can replace the grade obtained on the second test by the
average of the second and final tests.
To get a grade of C or better a student needs to get at least an average of
60 points (out of 100) on the three tests given in the course; notice that
this is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition. In other words,
laboratory work will not count toward her final grade if she does not get a
minimum of 60 points on the average of the tests.
All assignments and lab reports must include
detailed descriptions of the problems that are being solved. Assignments and
lab reports are graded based on technical merits and accuracy. You will not
get extra credit for fancy printing or expensive covers; consequently, spend
most of your time addressing technical aspects. Lab reports must be returned
by the lab instructor seven days after they were handed in.
Final grades will be assigned based on a curve
that will take into account: i) the course objectives; ii) the difficulty and
complexity of the assignments, quizzes, and exams; and iii) your relative
performance in the assignments, quizzes, and exams; and your class
participation.
Deadlines for assignments and lab reports
Assignments, lab reports must be handed in on
the dates indicated. The grade of late assignments and reports will be lowered
by 10% points for each calendar day (or fraction) that they are late.
Cheating and Plagiarism
Plagiarism is passing off someone's work as your own with the wilful
intention to cheat. Examples of cheating and plagiarism include copying all or
part of an assignment, lab report, or exam from a classmate, getting together
to work on an individual assignment, talking to a classmate during an
examination, the use of unauthorized notebooks, books, or other sources during
an examination, the unauthorized copying of examinations, assignments, lab
reports, or the presentation of unacknowledged material as if it were the
student's own work. Any work submitted by students must be their own.
Cheating, plagiarism, or doing work for another person which will receive
academic credit are not permissible. In the case of collaborative work, it is
certainly permissible to have appropriate interactions; however, unless
instructions explicitly state otherwise, students will prepare their own
separate and individual assignments, exams, and reports. Under no
circumstances, take-home exams (if any) are collaborative, and, during the
take-home time frame, there will be no discussion of the exam questions with
anyone other than the professor. All assignments and exams in this course are
supposed to be done individually. Lab reports are to be done in teams;
consequently, the interaction within a team is not only appropriate but highly
desirable. However, interaction between teams will be considered plagiarism.
If a student engages in cheating or plagiarism (copying or passing
information), he/she will get an F in the class and will be reported to
university authorities for the proper disciplinary action.
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