Grading 2016

There will be weekly readings, exercises, and class discussions; take-home synthesis exercises at mid-term and towards the end of the semester; and a substantial project on a computing application to environmental and/or societal sustainability.

  • Post-reading quick questions: 10%
  • Post-reading exercises: 10%
  • Synthesis oriented mid-semester questions: 10%
    • Mid-semester Peer Commentary: 5%
  • Synthesis oriented late-semester questions: 15 %
    • Late-semester Peer Commentary: 5 %
  • Project: 45% 50%

The peer “commentary” grades above are a grade of you as a commentator and the quality of your commentary, not a grade that is assigned to students who you are commenting on.

Attendance: There are 42 regularly scheduled class meetings during the semester. Of these, 9 are marked as “Office Hours and consultation (optional)”, meaning you need not attend. Thus, there are 33 “required” classes, but I won’t count the first class meeting among them. Attendance is based on missing X class meetings from the 32 meetings that I am counting. If X=0 , then attendance counts 0%. If X > 0, the attendance component of your final score is floor((X-1)/3) * 0.05 * (32-X)/32. That is, there is no penalty for missing <= 3 classes, and the weight allotted to attendance increases in increments of 5% for every three classes missed, though not exceeding a weight of 50%. The weights of other components of the final grade will be adjusted proportionally to insure a final collective weight of 100%.

  • 0% if X <= 3 classes
  • 5% if 3 < X <= 6 classes
  • 10% if 6 < X <= 9 classes
  • 15%  if 9 < X <= 12 classes
  • 20% if 12 < X <= 15 classes
  • 25% if 15 < X <= 18 classes
  • 30% if 18 < X <= 21 classes
  • 35% if 21 < X <= 24 classes
  • 40% if 24 < X <= 27 classes
  • 45%  if 27 < X <= 30 classes
  • 50% if 30 < X

You can make up a missed class by attending office hours or other special session, but you need to talk to me if that is an option that you want to use.