Syllabus

Personnel

Texts

• Java, An Introduction to Computing, Adams, Nyhoff, & Nyhoff
• Hands On Testing Java Frens & Adams & Hoot, on-line
• Lecture notes (available only in the bookstore)
• Program examples (handed out in lecture)

Grading

Your final grade consists of the following components:

• 20% Weekly laboratory exercises
• 20% Weekly programming projects
• 5% Written and GUI assignments
• 40% Bi-weekly quizzes
• 5% The midterm project
• 10% The final project

Labs and projects are given once a week; written and GUI assignments are spread throughout the semester; quizzes are given every other Friday; the midterm project is due after the midpoint of the semester; the final project is due at the end of the semester.

Attendance

You are not graded directly on class attendance, but try to be faithful in attendance nevertheless. Because each week's topic builds on the topics of previous weeks, it is very difficult to catch up once you fall behind. There has always been a clear correlation between attendance and performance.

Labs

Prior to your lab session, you should read through the lab exercise and complete the pre-lab questions for that exercise. Your answers to these questions must be turned in before you lab meets.

During the lab session, you will create (or modify) one or more files. Your completed work is due by 11:59pm the following day and will also be turned in electronically.

Projects

Each lab has a corresponding programming project associated with it based on the material learned in the lab. Each programming project is due at 11:59pm six days after the lab (for example, a project assigned at a Tuesday lab is due the following Monday at 11:59pm).

Submitting Work

The first lab will walk you through the steps of submitting your work electronically.

Late Work

Clear due dates are given for all assignments on the schedule page. Anything submitted after the due date is late, unless you have made prior arrangements with your instructor.

For a late assignment turned in up to a week lake, you will be charged 10% of the possible points for each day that you are late. You have 4 grace days where the 10% penalty will not be applied. These grace days will be granted to you automatically at the end of the semester.

Assignments later than one week will also be accepted, but you will not get more than 30% of the possible points. You cannot take any grace days on these assignments that are late by eight days or more.

You cannot use any late days for the final project. The due dates for the code and report of the final project are hard and fast with absolutely no exceptions.

Please come and talk to your instructor if there are exceptional circumstances.

Honors

There are no special honors sections of CS 108; however, any student can elect to take a normal section of CS 108 for honors by contract (see the bottom of the department's webpage on honors courses). Honors-by-contract involves putting together a significant project for you to work on throughout the semester in addition to the regular assignments for the course. Some previous honors projects include a C++ GUI for the not-one tournament or writing all of the labs and projects in an additional language.

It is perfectly acceptable to work on an honors project with someone else; the project must just be scaled appropriately.

A proposal and contract must be put together within the first two weeks of the semester. (You'll find a template for the contract on the department's webpage.)

Work Policies

Laboratory exercises are intended to be collaborative, meaning that we encourage you to brainstorm and troubleshoot with your fellow students.

In contrast, programming projects are not intended to be collaborative, but should be your own original work. You are free to discuss generalities, such as how to go about solving a particular problem. However, you are not to look at another person's code, receive help in debugging your own code, or show your code to anyone else (excepting the instructors or graders of course).

Honesty

Programming projects will be checked for originality. Unoriginal work submitted as your own constitutes theft of that work and will be dealt with in accordance with the Discipline Code, as specified in the Student Handbook.

Weekly Schedule

Prior to each Monday session, you should have read the first two sections in that week's chapter. You should finish the chapter by the Wednesday session. Unless otherwise noted, you may skip the starred sections in the text, including the sections on GUIs. Before each lab session, you should have read through the lab exercise and completed its pre-lab questions.

Each reading in the schedule has a list of exercises that should prepare you for the next quiz.

Standard Clauses

Disabilities

Calvin College will make reasonable academic accommodations for persons with disabilities. Students should notify Student Academic Services if they have a documented disability. Students with disabilities should meet with their instructors during the first two weeks of class to discuss academic accommodations.

Incompletes

An incomplete grade (I) is given only in unusual circumstances, and only if those circumstances have been confirmed by the Student Life office. Procrastination does not qualify as an unusual circumstance.

Responsible Use of Technology

You are expected to abide by the guidelines expressed in the policies given in Calvin's Technology Policy Documents (including the "Responsible Use of Technology at Calvin College", found on that page).

Offensive material (i.e., pornography) is not filtered in the lab; however, all Web accesses are logged. These logs are checked monthly, and violators are turned in to Student Life.