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Chem 100/100L Syllabus, page 3 - Grades - Updated August 24, 2008

Chemistry 100/100L Syllabus, page 3 - Grades - Fall 2008

eGrades for CHEM 100 and 100L are not combined. You will get a separate grade for each course.

Chemistry 100 (Lecture)
Graded Item
Value
Exams (3)
90%
Activities (Average of all)
30%
Drop worst exam or activities average
–30%
Bonus for best exam score
+10%
TOTAL
100%

Your worst exam score or your activities average, whichever is lower, will be dropped. Your best exam score will count 40% instead of 30%.

All exams are comprehensive. They cover all previous chapters, but focus mostly on the most recent chapters (i.e., those listed on schedule).
No make-ups are available for exams.

In-Class and Take-Home Activities are opportunities for you to collaborate and learn from your peers and/or ask me questions about the types of problems that you'll see on exams. If you miss an in-class activity, you can submit it late, but it will not count for points. Your lowest activity score will be dropped.

 
Chemistry 100L (Lab)
Graded Item
Points
Experiments (50 each)*
500
Problem Sets (30 each)*
300
Lab Quizzes (20 each)*
200
TOTAL
1000

* You will do 12 experiments, 11 problem sets, and at least 10 quizzes. Only the top 10 scores from each cateogory will count toward your grade.

Solutions and explanations should be clear enough so that one of your peers could easily follow what you did if they had not worked on the problem before. When a quiz, exam, in-class or take-home activity, problem set, or lab report calls for a calculated answer, no matter how simple, you have a better chance of getting the right answer (or partial credit) if you show a clear, step-by-step solution for the answer using dimensional analysis (unit conversions). This means that you need to show the units (dimensions) on each number and the conversion factor or equation used in each calculation.

Chem 100 & 100L
Grade Points Earned
A 90% or more
B 80 - 89%
C 65 - 79 %
D 50 - 64 %
F under 50 %

Originality. All work must be original and your own. Penalties, such as automatic grades of zero or immediate course failure, will result from cheating, copying, plagiarism, or deceit of any kind. (For additional details, see SDCCD Policy 3100.3.) Cheating on an exam or pre-lab quiz includes use of pre-written hints or notes, looking at another student's paper, allowing (or not preventing) another student to copy your answers, or use of a programmable calculator.

If you look at someone else's paper during an in-class exam or quiz, or copy directly from another student on an in-class or homework assignment, you and the person from whom you copied will both earn a zero on the assignment and/or be dropped from the class with a failing grade without notice or exception. Miramar College may also wish to pursue academic sanctions, expulsion, and/or legal proceedings. Please do not wear hats, hoods, headphones, or sunglasses while taking exams or quizzes.
Please be fair.

Collaboration. I expect and encourage collaboration among you and your peers while working on in-class activity, take-home assignment, experiment report, or laboratory problem set, but the work you submit must contain your own original solutions. In the laboratory, you may split up the specific laboratory tasks and manipulations, but each person must make his/her own observations of the experiment and be able to answer questions about any part of the procedure. Please do your best to stay involved and contribute to each experiment individually. When you write up your lab report or the solution to a problem, you should not use notes copied from someone else. The guideline is that you should have no trouble explaining or a+repeating work that you turn in.

Make-Ups.

Exams, quizzes, and in-class activities
. Make-ups are not available for exams, quizzes, and activities, whether or not your absence or tardiness is excused.

Labs
. Make-up labs are generally not available. Contact me as soon as possible if missing a lab class will be inevitable. Lab experiment reports and problem sets are due before you leave on the day of the lab. If you miss a lab due to an excused absence, you may complete and submit the problem sets and portions of the experiment reports that do not depend on experimental data and observations, with a late penalty of 20% per lab period. No make-ups are available for missed lab quizzes. If you know you are going to miss a lab, you may scan/email the assignments to me before the end of the lab period to avoid late penalties.