Attendance and Participation (ENGR-2300)
Fall 2021 - Participation will account for 5% of the overall grade. Attendance is part of the participation grade. Attendance also is 20% of the grade on the reports. The discussion sheet for each class will be used to track attendance. This is also called the T-P-S sheet, Think - Partner - Share. If you miss or are late for a class you must use open shop to make up the work that your partner did during class. There is a missed class form available on the course website. form
Participation will still be based on the criteria listed below for the parts that apply.
Attendance
Attendance is important in this class. Since most of your assignments are
group assignments, it is unfair to have students who do not attend class and
inherit the grades that the other group member(s) work for. Therefore, we have
many rules regarding attendance.
- ATTENDANCE: Attendance is taken at the beginning of class by signing the discussion question sheet filled out by your team and the team you work with.
- LATES: If you show up late (after 10 minutes), you get a "late" and aren't counted in the class attdence for that day. It is your responsibility to let the instructor know that you have come in late.
- EXPERIMENT POINTS: Each experiment is comprised of 80 points for the paper and 20 points for attendance. Each experiment has two or three class days associated with it. If you show up on time for all three days, you get all 20 points. If you show up for 2 of 3 days, you get 10/20 points. If you show up one day, you get no points for attendance, but you still get a grade for the experiment. If you do not show up for any of the three days, you get no grade (0) for the experiment itself. You can make up this experiment by doing it as an individual during open shop. In addition, if you show up for class, but you do not participate actively in class, your professor has the option of taking off points.
- PROJECT POINTS: Each project is comprised of 80 points for the paper and 20 points for attendance. Each project generally has three class days associated with it. Points are assigned the same way as they are for experiments.
- MAKE-UPS: Classes can be made up during open shop hours. You can make up one class in one open shop. You must fill out the following form and have it signed by the instructor or TA on duty. You cannot make up a missed class during an open shop time in which there is no EI TA on duty. The class should be made up before the due date for the experiment or project you wish to apply it to. It is your responsibility to fill out the form and give it to your instructor. If your professor feels you have missed too many classes or your group requests it, the other members of the group will have to sign your make-up form before it can be applied.
Overall Class Participation
Overall Class Participation is worth 5% of your final grade. Average participation will recieve 3-4 points out of the 5. It is based on the following criteria:
- INSTRUCTOR ASSESSMENT: Your instructor will assess your general performance in terms of how much you contributed to the work your group was doing during class time.
- TA ASSESSMENT: Your TA's will assess your general performance in terms of how much you contributed to the work your group was doing during class time.
- QUESTIONS: During checkoffs you will be asked questions by the staff which we use to judge how well you understand what is going on. These questions fall into four categories: circuits (Do you know how to wire and debug a circuit using the diagram?), equipment (Can you correctly hook the circuit to the equipment?), theory (Do you understand the theory that was taught in the lecture?) and software (Can you effectively use the computer tools we use in the experiments?). The questions can be directed to each partner/group member. Be prepare to prove that you know what is being presented to the instructors or TAs when you request a checkoff signature.
- GROUP SELF-ASSESSMENT: A few times in the semester we have each student take an on-line survey in which she/he must rate the contribution of each member of the group in terms of several criteria. This gives you (in a confidential manner) a chance to tell us who did the work and who did not.
- SPECIALIZATION: In this class it often happens that certain students become experts in one task. For example, one ends up doing all the wiring and another all of the computer work. Although we realize that this is very efficient, it is the job of the staff to make sure that you all learn how to wire circuits, use the equipment, understand the theory and use the computer tools. Therefore, we are asking you to help us by rotating the tasks and helping each other learn, rather than specializing. Groups that rotate tasks well will gain an extra bonus here. Groups that end up highly specialized will pay an additional penalty.
- ATTENDANCE: If you have shown up for all classes, then you can get an extra bonus here. If your attendance is very poor, you pay an additional penalty. If you have missed and made up many classes, it will count against you. In the simplest terms, your overall % attendance will be multipllied by the combined assessment from instructor, TA and teammates.
- ENGAGEMNET: To recieve a high participation rating be engaged and engage others. Read the experiment documents, watch the videos, and work with your partner. Before asking for help you should double check your wiring for the circuits or your schematic for the simulations. Asking questions and asking for help is appropiate and won't cound against your participation as long as you have made a serious effort first. Also be prepared to show the required work when you ask for a checkoff. Most checkoffs need to be live: the circuit is working and the instrumtation board is showing the results, or the simulation is running and also has the results displayed.
Examples of contributions to the work your group does during class time include: (1) Preparation for class; (2) Answers to Questions of the Day; (3) The quality of materials and information presented to TA/Instructor when getting work signed off; (4) Interesting questions raised in class and on Discourd; (5) Creative approaches to completing assigned work, especially in projects; (6) Effectively getting help when needed; (7) Clear demonstration of improved understanding of concepts; (8) Feedback on course materials that were particularly helpful; (9) Providing answers to questions from other students on Discourd; (10) Identifying errors or points of confusion in course materials, including homework; etc. From this list, you can see that participation is just being engaged in the course, helping your partner(s) and other students learn and the TAs and instructor do their job better.