Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. — attributed to E. W. Dijkstra

Instructors

Communication

Outside of class, we’ll use a variety of communication tools.

Materials

Throughout the class, we’ll use the following materials:

Weekly Expectations

We will proceed one unit per week. To succeed, you’ll need to complete the following assignments each week:

Unless stated otherwise, the assignment submissions are due by midnight of the due date. The Moodle calendar will list these due dates/times.

You’ll generally find us responsive on Monday through Friday, but less so on the weekend, particularly Sunday. You’re free to schedule your work as best works for you, but we’ll be trying to observe a Sabbath in our own schedules.

The lab is configured to support the course work, but if you’re prepared to do some administrative work, you can configure your own machine to do the lab work. Alternatively, you can login remotely to the labs using a web browser. See Remote Lab Access for more information.

Grading

We will compute your final grade as follows:

Note that there is no final exam. Instead, we will have a project showcase during the time allotted by the registrar for the final exam. The date and time corresponding to your section is different from the normal weekly meeting time; please note it on your calendar.

You do the preparation activities on your own. You can work with others, but you must submit your own solutions to the reading exercises. See the first preparation assignment for the details.

If feasible, you will work in pairs during the lab exercises and you may work in pairs for your homeworks as well. When you work in a pair, one of the partners should submit one copy of your work with both of your names and usernames on it. It’s wise for both partners to have copies of your shared solution. Your partner must be someone else from this course this semester. For the final project, you must work on your own.

Feel free to discuss ideas with us or with your classmates, but don’t copy code. You may, on exceedingly rare occasions, reuse someone else’s code provided that you make it clear what code you’re reusing and what code you wrote yourself. We’ll grade you on the code you write. In general, it’s not a good idea to copy code from Web sources or to use large language models (e.g., ChatGPT).

We’ll throw out your lowest quiz score. Your grades will be available in the Moodle gradebook, generally before the next assignment of a similar type is due.

Rhetoric Center:

You will complete significant writing and/or speaking projects in this course, and the Rhetoric Center assists all students as they plan, compose, and revise writing, speaking, design, and research projects. You can work with a trained peer consultant to develop ideas, to work on organization, to receive feedback from an attentive audience, and to work on polishing final products. For details on the Rhetoric Center, its hours, and how to schedule appointments, see: https://calvin.edu/offices-services/rhetoric-center/.

Disabilities

Calvin University has a continuing commitment to providing reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Like so many things this fall, the need for accommodations and the process for arranging them may be altered by the COVID-19 changes we are experiencing and the safety protocols currently in place. Students with disabilities who may need some accommodation in order to fully participate in this class are urged to contact Disability Services in the Center for Student Success, as soon as possible, to explore what arrangements need to be made to assure access. disabilityservices@calvin.edu.

Incompletes

We will give an incomplete grade (I) only in unusual circumstances, and only if those circumstances have been confirmed by the Student Life office.

Late Work

We will indicate a due date for all assignments. Anything submitted after that date is late, unless you have made prior arrangements with us. For each late assignment, you will be charged 10% for each business-day that you are late (e.g., if an assignment is due on Friday, you may turn it in on Monday at 10% off, Tuesday at 20% off and so on) and you need to email us to tell us which assignment you’re submitting late and how late it is. We will not accept work that is more than one week late unless you talk to us about the circumstances and negotiate a late-submission plan. We will generally grant up to 30% for these negotiated plans. We will also grant you 4 grace days with no penalty, no questions asked. Please note that grace days do not apply to the quizzes or the final project, and that we do not accept or negotiate for late work after the last day of class. If there are exceptional circumstances, please talk to us so we can work something out.

Academic Integrity in Computing

Code re-use can be a valuable practice in computing, but mindlessly copying code or using generative language models is not an effective way to learn programming and reusing code or algorithms without attribution is plagiarism. If you've copied code with attribution, we’ll grade you on the code you wrote not on the code you copied. If we detect copying without attribution, i.e., plagiarism, we'll be forced to give you a failing grade for the assignment and perhaps for the course. Additionally, we will report you to the office of Judicial Affairs, which may result in the incident being part of your student record.

Calvin’s General Statement on Academic Integrity

The student-faculty relationship is based on trust and mutual respect, which can be seriously undermined by the suspicion or reality of academic dishonesty. Academic Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism (students plagiarize when they do not credit the sources of their writing - the words, information, ideas, or opinions of others), improper group work, reuse of a paper from another course and/or cheating on a test. Students are encouraged to speak to their faculty member with specific questions related to academic dishonesty. For further clarification or information, please visit https://calvin.edu/directory/policies/academic-integrity-policy.

Responsible Use of Technology

We expect you to abide by the guidelines expressed in the policies given in your institution’s technology policy (for students on campus, see Calvin’s Technology Policy Documents).

Diversity and Inclusion

It is our intent that students from all backgrounds and perspectives are well served in this course. God delights in diversity; so will we in this course. If you or someone else is hurt by anything said or done in class, let us know so we can work toward a remedy.

Etiquette

We expect you to treat students and instructors for this course with respect by adopting courteous communication practices throughout the semester in all venues, including online forums. No personal attacks, trolling, or other kinds of bad language will be tolerated.