There are four possible
ways to get extra credit in this course.
There are 11 regularly-scheduled afternoon labs in this course, labs
1 - 11 in the lab manual.
Only 10 labs are required for full credit in the lab portion of
the course. The 11th lab is either a make-up, for students who
have missed an earlier lab, or, for those who have done
all the labs, it counts as extra credit.
In addition, the 12th lab in the lab manual, `The Real Night Sky',
can be done for extra credit or as a make-up. It must be done
during one of the public Open House events at the campus observatory.
The schedule of these events is given at the end of the lab manual.
Third, one can get extra credit by viewing the Dinosaur exhibit and
other exhibits at the
Gray Fossil Site, and writing a report.
Be sure to attach your Dinosaur exhibit wristband to your report.
Alternatively, this activity can be used as a make-up if you missed
a lab.
Instructions on this option will be handed out on the first
day of class.
Fourth, you can earn up to 3 percent extra credit by
class participation, which includes helping with class demonstrations,
speaking up in class, and good attendance.
Because of an emergency or illness,
I missed my lab (or will have to miss my lab).
How can I make it up?
There are NO individual make-ups for the labs.
To make up a missed lab,
as discussed in the answer to the question above,
there are three options.
Either do the 11th afternoon lab
(since only 10 out of the 11 regularly-scheduled
labs are required for full-credit for the
lab portion of the course), or do the take-home `Real Night Sky'
lab, or visit
the
Fossil Site and write a report on your visit.
I was sick and
missed a quiz. Can I take
a makeup?
Do not worry about missing a single quiz.
The lowest two quiz grades
OR
your grade on the final will be dropped. There will
be NO
individual makeups for the quizzes
or homeworks. Instead, the final is, in a sense,
a general `makeup' for
everyone in the class. If you are sick
and missed a quiz or homework, take it easy
and get healthy, and don't worry about it.
Missing one quiz
will not hurt your grade.
I urge you, however, to take every quiz unless there
is an extreme emergency, in case other unforeseen problems
arise later on in the semester.
Do
you have any suggestions that may help me study
for the quizzes?
Review the
study guides and the practice
quiz problems.
Try making up your own practice quiz problems and
exchanging them with friends in the class as additional practice.
Please get in touch with me
if you do not understand something
we have covered in class.
When is the
final for this course?
The final will be given Monday April 28
at 10:30 A.M.
MARK THIS DATE AND TIME ON YOUR CALENDAR.
Can I take the final earlier than the
scheduled time? (or later?)
The final must be taken at the regularly scheduled time.
There will be NO make-ups
or early exams.
Remember, the lowest of either
the lowest
two quiz grades
OR
the
grade on the final will be dropped,
so if you take all of the quizzes, you do not need to take
the final.
I suggest, however,
that you take the final even
if you have
taken all of the quizzes unless you have an A average.
There is always the possibility that by taking the final
you will improve your
grade.
Do
you have any suggestions that may help me study
for the final?
One hint
is that the final will cover the same material that was covered in
the quizzes (plus the additional material covered in class after
the last quiz).
In studying for the final, make sure you understand the
answers to the quiz problems, and review
the six study guides again.
Go over
the problems that you got wrong on the quiz, and make sure you
understand the correct answers. If you are uncertain about the answers to any
quiz problem, get in touch with me.
The final is worth two quiz grades, that is, it will replace the
lowest two quiz grades if one does well. What if the final
exam score is only higher than ONE of the quiz grades?
(What if all the quiz grades save one are higher than the final exam score?)
Each quiz will be 20 problems, while the final will be 40 problems.
If your raw score on the final (out of 40 problems) is higher than the sum
of your two lowest quiz scores, then it will
replace both of them. Otherwise, the two
grades will stand. For example, if your
lowest quiz grades are 5 and 16 (out of 20), and you get a
20 (out of 40 problems) on the final, then the final won't replace
them. But if you get a 22 out of 40 on the final, it
will replace them.
Is the final cumulative?
Yes, it may contain questions on anything we covered during
the entire semester.
Will you tell us our grades in the course before the final?
I would like to know if I need to take the final or not.
On the last day of class,
I will let everyone know the grade they
will get in the course
IF THEY DO NOT TAKE THE FINAL.
Note that if you have missed a quiz, a zero will be averaged into
your pre-final grade, thus your pre-final grade does not
necessarily represent the grade you will get in the class
if you take the final exam.
Remember that the final exam is worth two quizzes. The grade on
the final can be used to replace your two lowest quiz grades,
or can be used as a make-up if you have missed 1 or 2 quizzes.
If you have taken all 6 quizzes, you do not have to take the
final unless you want to improve your grade. If you do not
have an A in the course before the final, I strongly advise you
to take the final. Taking the final cannot hurt your grade;
it can just help. If you have a pre-final grade of a C and do worse on
the final than your two lowest quizzes, your course grade will be a C.
What would happen to an unprotected human being in the
vacuum of space? Would they explode?
See the answer on the
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
`Imagine the Universe!' web page.
