Grading

Your grade will be based on reports that you turn in on each laboratory experiment. Each report will be graded according to how well it communicates your results and understanding of them, including the degree to which it matches or does not match expectations. An ideal report should include a clear exposition of the methods and an analysis of the sources of error, written clearly but concisely, in good English. The reports will be assigned letter grades based on these considerations, and the average of these grades will be your grade in the course. My impressions of your behavior and procedures in the laboratory will also be a factor in the grade assigned to a report.

Missed Laboratories

Missing a laboratory is as serious as missing an exam, and should only happen under very special circumstances. If you know in advance that you will miss a laboratory, you must make arrangements to make it up in another section of this course - either mine or another instructor's. The laboratory must be made up during a scheduled session in the same week, and the report is due at the normal time. If you plan to make up a laboratory in another section, please make a request to the instructor of that section, so that you will be expected.

If you miss a laboratory and are unable to make it up at any session the same week, and have a valid excuse showing that you were not able to attend any session that week, then you may make up the lab during the next scheduled Makeup Week shown in the schedule below. You do not need to attend these weeks unless you have a laboratory to make up. Only one laboratory may be made up during a Makeup Week. Missed laboratories which are not made up will receive an F.