Grading Policy

Grading Overview

Grades for this course will be determined by considering 2 elements: (1) student participation in the weekly Canvas Discussion module and (2) tutorial assignments

using Cain answering online questions about the video podcasts, team-based hydrological experiment design, and written exams.

Grade Weights

• Weekly Discussion Participation = 40%
• Tutorial Assignments = 60% 

Late Policy

Philosophical Considerations

During the early years of the pandemic I switched to a policy of maximum flexibility under those circumstances. While that provided the benefit of compassion towards stress, life tragedies, and overall workload, it had the negative consequence of failing to prepare students for their career realities.

Having a compasionate, lax policy simply motivates students to rationally choose to put their effort into other priorities that have higher pressure, such as other class or other life activities. The outcome was that a lot of work never got done and students barely participate din our class discussions.

One consequence of having graded assignments with highly flexible due dates is that once a student took advantage of that flexibility they fell behind. That precliuded them from participating and following along with the class. Over time, several students just fell more and mor ebehind. Then, because assignments are ultimately due by the end the quarter, they had a mad dash to suddenly try to do all the work in a short perid, which was worse that a normal late policy. Some of those students never completed the work. That indicates a failure of compassion.

Finally, in a career, deadlines are rarely flexible, stress is high, anxiety can be ever present, and things just have to get done. If we don't practice meting deadlines now while you are a college student, then you won't be ready for the real world, and that will be a shock to you.

Ideally, I wish it would be possible to just let you do things and turn them in at your own speed as long as everything is submitted by the end of the quarter, but that does not work in practice. Optimal learning comes from doing a similar, reasonable amount of work frequently, essentially daily. This is true of both physical and mental exercise to make progess. 

Late Policy Specifics

• Deadlines are specified in canvas.
• Tutorial assignments are every Wednesday at noon, because the goal is to have them finished for discussion.
• Flexibility is provided in that assignment submission closes 2 days later, but you will lose 3% of your grade per day late.
• Participation in Canvas Discussion is due Monday for submitting a question and Wednesday for responding to the question. There is no flexibility for this assignment.
• Exceptions to these deadlines is on an individual basis only, such as due to late addition of the course, medical circumstance with a doctor's note, or other significant crisis explained to the professor. Exceptions are at the professors discretion and are not guaranteed.