Grading

Your grade in this class is based on several short assignments, laboratory exercises, exams and class participation. The short assignments will involve activities such as outlining or answering questions on required readings, developing testable geomorphological hypotheses, and addressing questions that arise in class. Although the content of these assignments is critical, your writing skills (grammar, organization, clarity and spelling) do count.

There are approximately 9 laboratory exercises. Some of these involve group work and some you will do on your own. With the group exercises, each member of the group will receive an individual grade - that is, everyone in the group may not receive the same grade for a particular exercise. Please see the group evaluation form attached to this syllabus. This form requires you to assess not only the contributions of the other members of your group, but your contributions as well. It is important to recognize that everyone has something to contribute to a group project, even you. It is also important to recognize that others may depend on you for certain information, and failure to provide this information affects both you and the other group members. Your peers should not be punished for your failure to do an equal share of the work, and likewise, you should be rewarded for whatever work you actually do.

Please note that failure to hand in the short assignments or the laboratory exercises on time may result in a grade penalty. Late assignments will not be accepted once an assignment or exercise has been returned (i.e. I will not accept Assignment 2 from you after I have handed it back to everyone else, which means you get a zero for that assignment).

There will be two exams. Both exams are 2-hours long. Exams consist primarily of short answer or essay type questions. Although the content of your answers is the primary concern, your writing skills do count. There may also be questions which involve labeling or identifying landform features on diagrams, maps or air photos. You may be asked to do some mathematical calculations (so make sure you bring a calculator). All exams are graded as a percentage. The number of points each question is worth is stated on the exam. Generally speaking, mathematical formulas will be provided as part of the exam. It is more important that you understand when and how to use a formula, and how to interpret the results, than it is to memorize the formula. Please note, exams should be taken at the scheduled time. Make-up exams are only allowed for extreme cause and with a verified excuse.

Class participation is the most difficult part of your grade to assess because it is somewhat subjective. It is difficult to keep track of the number of contributions you make to discussions and the quality of those contributions, however, I will attempt to do that. Please make sure you participate.

These activities will be weighted as follows:

Assignments	15%
Labs	40%
Exam 1	20%
Exam 2	20%
Class Participation	5%
Total	100%

The following cutoffs will be used as a guide for letter grades:

A	90%-100%
B	80%-89%
C	70%-79%
D	60%-69%
F	below 60%