Your grade in this class will be based on 3 one hour exams given in class, a final exam, participation in recitation sections, and (possibly) in class quizzes. The 3 one hour exams and the final exam will be given on the following dates:
The 3 one hour exams and the final will comprise 80% of your grade. Your performance in recitation makes up the remaining 20% of your grade. Your average in the course will be computed as follows: Each exam will be assigned a weight of 20% and the final 2 x 20%. The average on the exams and the final will be computed after the lowest 20% has been dropped. For example, if one of your "in class" exams is your lowest grade, it will be dropped and your final will count 40%. If your final is your lowest grade, it will count only 20% with the "in class" exams making up the remaining 60%. Short quizzes will be given if I feel that attendance is poor or the class is doing poorly on the exams. If quizzes are given, the above computation will count less than 80% and quiz grades will be averaged in. To the above average will be added your recitation grade which counts 20%.
Attendance at your recitation section is
mandatory. In order to pass the course, you must pass the
recitation with a grade of 60 or higher. You will have a
required assignment for each recitation and you may have quizzes
which are announced or unannounced. If you have an official excuse
for missing a recitation, you must turn in the assignment for that
recitation by the next week's recitation in order to get credit for
the assignment. Students with special needs
during lecture and/or exams should see me early in the
semester.
In order that all students may obtain the maximum benefit from
lecture and recitation, I would like you to observe the following
rules: No talking among yourselves during lectures, all cell phones
must be turned off (off means off, not on vibrate), and do not move
about or leave during lecture or recitation.
Please be aware that all cases of academic dishonesty will be reported to the academic honesty committee according to the procedures outlined in the Tiger Cub. Academic dishonesty includes copying the work of others either on exams or in recitation. In order to discourage cheating on exams, multiple copies of exams will often be used and some exams will be copied before being returned to students. Please realize that these procedures are not designed to catch cheaters. Rather, they are aimed at preventing cheating which is fair to no one.
As you may know, the Concepts of Science course is one way of satisfying four hours of the eight hour science requirement in the core curriculum. Students choosing this option usually follow SCMH 1010 with a laboratory course in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or Geology (although one of these courses may precede SCMH 1010). It should be emphasized that SCMH 1010 is a challenging interdisciplinary science course requiring a great deal of effort on the part of most students. However, hard work in this course is generally rewarded by a good grade and a greatly increased understanding of the nature of science.
My office hours are from 1 to 3 PM on Wednesdays. Please feel free
to come and talk to me about problems you may be having with the
course. I shall conduct informal help sessions at mutually agreeable
times preceding exams. I also encourage you to ask questions during
my lectures.
Web sites for Concepts of Science may be found at the following
locations:
The text loosely translated to web pages:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/classes/scmh/0101/home.html
Shevlin's page:
http://www.auburn.edu/~shevlpb/cos/cos.html
Michel Smith's page:
http://www.auburn.edu/~smith01/contents.html
Tom Elder's page:
http://www.forestry.auburn.edu/elder/sm101/sm101toc.html