ATTENDANCE/GRADES: Except while enrolling waiting-list applicants during the first week, I usually do not record your presence at lecture or lab. Lecture and lab notes verify your attendance. Check the current grade sheet posted monthly on the web site to verify the accuracy of your quiz/exam scores in my bookkeeping. The form on page 6 enables you to check your grade, and determine for yourself "what you need to get".

There has been considerable confusion regarding my availability.  Another class immediately follows ours here, so AFTER CLASS IS NEVER PERSONAL CONSULTATION TIME.  Use my office hours.  Also, many people believe that success in life comes by “extra credit” in lieu of accomplishing the original tasks.  Wrong, and there is NO extra credit in 101.

I expect you to do your assigned readings; you can read them well within the University's expectation for "two hours of study time for each hour of class time". This includes PRE-reading the background discussion in the lab manual before coming to each lab. My role is not to recite your texts to you, and so during each class I usually expand beyond the material that exists in your readings; some lecture topics are not present in your text at all. These still count! I do draw some exam questions from the text, internet visits, and lab materials, but I focus Exams I to III on the topics that I cover in lecture. Quizzes cover lab topics. The final covers lecture, text, and lab. Your grade thus reflects your attendance. If you must miss class or lab due to athletic events or other classes' field trips, please notify me TWO WEEKS in advance so that I can arrange to make the missed material available to you. You may NOT take the final exam before its scheduled date; I'm still writing it.

LABS: This course carries about twice the credit of most non-lab courses, so you should expect much above an ordinary course's work load. Lab is the principle reason for the extra credit, so treat this distinguishing feature as being extremely important; I will! There are approximately twenty-four separate two-hour lab activities. Bring a calculator, several colored pencils, and the lab manual (which contains information that we will use, as well as your lab notes upon completion) to all lab sessions. Read each exercise's explanatory text before attending lab. There will be a lab quiz roughly every two weeks; each counts for five percent of your course grade. I will NOT collect each lab exercise from you because (as a student rightly said) this takes your notes away; you check your work on the web answer keys.

Please also bring your textbook to each lab (except on the field trip). While the exercises may not require direct use of the textbook, it is helpful to consult this reference resource during many of the labs (see the CALENDAR of text readings, and lab topics/answer keys on the right-hand side, in this web syllabus).

EXAMS: Scheduled quizzes and exams will be multiple choice and computer-scored. I do not drop the lowest exam or quiz score. I GIVE EXAMS I AND II DURING A LAB PERIOD--NOT IN LECTURE--DURING THE SCHEDULED WEEKS (see the calendar). Exams are cumulative, particularly the final. I cannot give a final exam earlier than its scheduled date, but I will schedule it for a later date if you have three or more finals on the same date as ours. All make-up rules (see test-taking below) apply to "special" finals.

Study Strategies: I design most of my exam questions to force you to "think analytically" (meaning solve problems using your knowledge of new facts and/or methods). It is necessary, but not sufficient, to memorize basic facts-you must be able to apply those facts! Therefore, do not expect simple definitions, recognition lists, or memorization questions on my exams and quizzes. As you take notes, keep it in mind that frantically recording and subsequently memorizing my every word is far less important than being able to use those facts that you can remember.

I strongly suggest that you study by writing potential exam questions from your notes on the left side of a sheet of paper, and answers to the right. This forces you to reread your notes, and it provides you with a condensed study guide. I also encourage group study with your peers; historically, performance levels are dramatically higher among students who collaborate with their peers.

ADDITIONAL:  please take note of the following pdf document, specifically pages 2-4, that explains Student Rights and Responsibilities within the UWSP campus community, including required behavior by students and faculty within the classroom environment:  www.uwsp.edu/admin/stuaffairs/rights/. Finally, I record all lectures (but not labs), and you may copy these (from on-campus workstationsonly) for re-listening from https://uwsp.courses.wisconsin.edu/  .