Each exercise and project will have a Due date associated with it. This is the date by which you should submit your work in order to avoid falling behind in the course.

If you do not submit your work by the due date, no penalty will be assessed provided you submit it before the graded work is handed back. If you do not submit your work before the grader has finished grading that lab or project, your work will not be accepted. You should make every effort to submit your work on time.

No work will be accepted after the last day of classes.

An Incomplete (I) grade will be granted only in unusual circumstances, and only if those circumstances have been verified by the Student Life Office. Procrastination does not qualify as an unusual circumstance.

I do not give makeup exams. Instead I assess the students understanding of the course material through a face to face interview based on the exam.

As a professional, my livelihood flows from my credibility. My credibility is based in part on the knowledge-ability of my students. If I pass students who do not know the course material, my credibility, and it follows, my livelihood, decreases. (While not my primary concern, the point is that passing students that do not know the material costs me something. Your grades do not exist in isolation.) My job as a professor is to certify that you know the course material at or above the level expected in subsequent classes and professional practice. If you convince me that you know the material, you will not fail.

It may be considerably more difficult to convince me that you know the material if you...

• do not attend or participate in class sessions
• do not approach the subject matter in the same way that I will be teaching
• do poorly on class assessments (assignments and tests)
• In any way, call into question your integrity.

As shown in your course syllabus, lectures are associated with readings from the course text. You may also have to access readings from the Internet; when you need information that is not in one of your texts, search for it there.

The readings and lectures are designed to reinforce one another. You are expected to read the material in the text as it is being covered in the lectures, make notes on any questions you have concerning that material, and raise those questions in class. If you study consistently, on a day-by-day basis, you will find that your preparation for the tests will be simply a matter of reviewing material that you already understand.

For lab courses, you should strive to read over each lab exercise the day or night before we will be doing it, so that you do not come into the lab "cold". Otherwise, you will be wasting the time of your teammates, and you (as a team) may have difficulty finishing the exercise in the allotted time.

In general, you should expect to spend at least 2 hours outside of class for every hour you spend in class, in reading, finishing up your labs, completing lab reports, projects, and/or other assignments.

If you do not keep abreast of the material, you will quickly find yourself lost and struggling. If you are in the habit of preparing for tests solely by "cramming" the night before, make every effort to break this habit, as this course simply contains too much material for you to do well.

Please feel free to ask questions when something is unclear.

The only stupid question is the one not asked.

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.