Chem 100/100L - Grades

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Grades - Updated January 24, 2010

Chemistry 100/100L Spring 2010 Syllabus: Grades

Grades for CHEM 100/100L are separate. You will receive a grade for each course.

Chemistry 100 (Lecture)
Graded Item	Value
Exams (each x 3)	25%
Activities (average)	25%
Drop lowest from above	–25%
Comprehensive Final	25%

Your CHEM 100 grade depends on scores from three exams, several activities, and a final. The activities include frequent in-class exercises and occasional homework. All exams are comprehensive, covering all previous chapters, but focusing primarily on the most recent chapters (i.e., those listed on schedule). No make-ups are available for exams or the final.

Chemistry 100L (Lab)
Graded Item	Value
Lab Reports	50%
Activity Exercises	25%
Lab Quizzes	25%

Your CHEM 100L grade depends on scores from lab reports and activty exercises from the lab manual, and from lab quizzes given at the beginning of each lab period. The lowest score in each lab grading category (except for the final lab quiz) will be dropped.

See the Policies page regarding opportunities for late or make-up assignments.

Solutions and explanations should be clear enough so that one of your peers could easily follow what you did if they had not worked the problem before. When an assignment calls for a calculated answer, you increase your chances of arriving at the correct answer (and receiving partial credit) if you show a clear, step-by-step solution using dimensional analysis (unit conversions). The answer alone will not earn you full credit. This means that you must show the units on each number and the conversion factor or equation used in each calculation.

Chem 100 & 100L
Grade	Points Earned
A	90% or more
B	80 - 89%
C	65 - 79 %
D	50 - 64 %
F	under 50 %

Collaboration. I encourage collaboration among you and your peers while working on labs and assignments, but not on tests. In any case, the work you submit must be your own, and not a copy. You may split up the specific tasks, but each person must make observations, do calculations, and write answers individually. The guideline is that you should have no trouble explaining or repeating work that you turn in.

Academic Honesty. All students are expected to uphold the highest standards of honesty and integrity in their academic work. Penalties, such as automatic grades of zero, will result from cheating, copying, plagiarism, or deceit of any kind (SDCCD Policy 3100). Cheating on a quiz or exam includes use of prewritten notes, allowing another student to copy your answers (i.e., not preventing it), looking at another student's answers, using a cell phone or programmable calculator, or deceit of any kind. In addition, please do not wear hats, hoods, headphones, or sunglasses while taking exams or quizzes. Please be fair.

If you look at someone else's paper during a test, or copy directly from another student on any assignment, then you and the person from whom you copied will both earn a zero on the assignment or test without notice or exception. Miramar College may also wish to pursue academic sanctions, expulsion, and/or legal proceedings.

Fairness is paramount in academics and is my first priority in grading. Grades are determined based on the percentage of points earned in each grading category. For work done in non-erasable ink, I will consider re-grade requests if you think I have assigned points erroneously.

Exams and Quizzes have fixed starting and ending times, and there is a difference between knowing the material and knowing the material well enough to produce answers in a timely manner so that you can finish a test within the allotted time. I expect you to anticipate my test questions and ask beforehand if you don't feel comfortable with your knowledge of the subject matter being covered.

"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing." – Dale Carnegie