Astronomy 311:  Classroom Policies

 

Attendance

 Astronomy courses are viewed by many students as rigorous owing to the nature of the material covered.  Such rigor demands maturity of those students enrolled.  Short quizzes and in-class assignments will be administered randomly throughout the semester and these cannot be made up, if missed.  Performance on the in-class quizzes and assignments serve as "extra credit" to supplement major exam scores.
Lecture Notes PowerPoint notes from lecture will be posted on Desire to Learn (D2L).  These notes do not represent an alternative to attending lecture since they can be quite sketchy and many classroom activities will not be reflected at all in the notes.

Examinations

 Three in-class exams will be administered during lecture time in Room A-109.  The final comprehensive examination will occur Tuesday, Dec 15, at 12:30 pm, in A-109.  Note that the in-class exams cannot be made up, if missed.  However, if your final comprehensive exam score is higher than any of your in-class exam scores, the lowest in-class exam score will be replaced by the equivalent score that you receive on the final exam.  Thus, a single missed in-class exam will automatically earn a score equivalent to your final exam score, but a second missed in-class exam will likely be disastrous for your course grade.
Grading Formula The three in-class exams are worth a total of 60% (20% each), the final exam is worth 35%, and the observatory report is worth 5% of your course grade.

Course Grade

For the final course grade, point totals will translate as follows –

A = 90% and above, B = 80 – 89%, C = 70 – 79%, D = 60 – 69%, and F = below 60%.

Depending upon circumstances, these ranges may be adjusted downward, but not upward.  Subjective measures, such as effort or improvement, may be considered in borderline cases.
A Final Note... The grading policies stated here represent a contract between instructor and students.  University policy allows any student to challenge his/her course grade if it can be shown that either (a) the instructor never provided grading policies to the class or (b) the instructor failed to follow the stated policies.  As a consequence, student requests for exceptions to the grading policies outlined in this document cannot be granted.