ISIM Policy and Grading
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    Attendance and Responsibility

    This is a lab class where everything happens in the lab. Thus, class attendance is mandatory. If you must miss a class for a legitimate reason please inform us early as possible so that we can plan appropriately and provide you with makeup materials. Due to the fact that the number of students in each class takes up the available chairs and equipment, you must attend the section in which you are enrolled. If you are sick one week please contact us about which section you should attend for makeup. If you miss class for illness or other legitimate reasons we are happy to work with you to get back on track.

    Ninjas

    There are several Olin students who are working as Ninjas for the course. They are called Ninjas for their general awesomeness, not their ability to fight or their skill with a sword. Ninjas will provide extra tutoring and after hours support. They will also grade assignements.

    Laptop Use

    Bring your laptop to every lab class. Please put your laptops screen down if we are reviewing content or working examples during class.

    Equipment

    All equipment for the course is college property and should remain in AC428. Removing equipment from this room without permission is called stealing. period. Anyone removing equipment from the room will be reported to the honor board for theft.

    Grading Policy

    Like all of the 1st semester courses, your ISIM grade will either be Pass or No Record. If you show up and do your work, you chances of passing are extremely high. This grading strategy is to help you focus on learning instead of grades and to relieve some stress while you transition into being a college student. You're going to face some challenging content, and some things will take a while to click (don't freak out if you're struggling to understand something... you're not alone). In addition to learning technical content and skills, we want you to practice professionalism and time management. Therefore, we are asking you to turn in everything on time (even if they are not perfect), so that you don't fall behind. You have the opportunity to resubmit things if you need to. What you need to do to pass ISIM:
    • Submit lab reports on time with a score of Marginal or better (see ratings below).
    • You can keep one Unacceptable or Missing rating on lab report without needing to resubmit. For any lab report submitted on time that receives an Unacceptable rating, you can talk to the NINJA/professor about how to improve, and then you can resubmit that lab report. This must happen within 3 weeks of the due date, or before the end of the semester, whichever is first.
    • Turn in 75% of the problem set assignments on time. Most of this work which is completed in class.
    • Complete 75% of quizzes on time (assume there will be 10 quizzes).

    Life throws us all curveballs sometimes. If issues outside class are impacting your ability to keep with the work - see one of the faculty. They will help you come up with a plan to get on track. Do not ask Ninjas for extensions or special accomodations.

    Weekly lab reports

    All labs will be submitted via Canvas one week later before your next lab session starts. Ninjas will grade and comment on your labs during the class period when you submit it. They will provide comments such that your future labs will get better and better as the year goes on. If you have questions on the comments, please see one of the faculty. For each of your lab reports, you will receive an overall grade and specific comments for strategies to improve your report (the comments are on Canvas). We are providing grades on lab reports to help you get a sense of expectations. The grade options are:
    • "4-Excellent": Very high quality work. Figures are beautiful. Writing is clear and concise. The evidence/data collected is clearly presented, and the analysis/interpretation is thoughtful.
    • "3-Good": Good quality lab report. Room to grow in figures or writing, but overall an appropriate quality for the course.
    • "2-Marginal": It's clear that you made an honest attempt. There are some significant errors, major conceptual misunderstandings, and/or poor communication in writing/figures.
    • "1-Unacceptable": The quality or quantity of work in this lab report is not acceptable to be considered a completed lab report. Often this is because a significant portion is missing, but you actually attempted the lab. (There is an option to resubmit these - details below.)
    • "0-Missing": Nothing has been submitted.

    Problem sets

    We will alternate between using class time to work on labs and problem sets. Problem sets are activities to integrate the fundamental circuit analysis techniques with hands-on experiments. The problem set assignments will checked for completeness, but not graded and corrected. The problem set assignments are meant to get you to explore the fundamental concepts. We will usually ask for some analysis or some simple figures. Problem sets are not lab reports and don't require you to provide detailed explanations. Handwritten analysis is fine. Problem sets are graded on a binary "Acceptable" or "Unacceptable" scale. Acceptable means it is apparent that you made a good faith effort and were able to complete the majority of the tasks. In a graded world, "Acceptable" is everything from A to C. Unacceptable means it did not appear that you were able to complete the majority of the tasks and/or a good fraction of the work is clearly incorrect.

    Quizzes

    There will be a regular diagnostic quizes. The point of the "diagnostic quiz" is for both you and for us to get a glimpse of what you understand and what you are still figuring out. Your score on these quizzes will not affect your grade (but you must complete 75% of them on time, so set yourself a reminder).

    Collaboration Policy

    You are encouraged to work with others, but please turn in your own work. You will be required to take all your own data and do your own experiments. Turning in the same plot as a friend is considered academic dishonesty.


    Aug 2018.