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Daily Assignments (10; 50% of grade)

On most days, an assignment will be made to be worked on that afternoon and evening and submitted the next day. The assignment will generally consist of two types of problems.

• Core problems: These are ones that all students must understand how to do. Usually they will provide practice in applying the skills learned in class on that day or from an associated section of the book. Such problems need not be submitted, as they will not be graded. Nevertheless, they are to be thoroughly understood, and provide examples of the type of insight/thinking/skills required for performing well on exams.
• Exploratory problems: The daily assignment will usually include a list of such problems to choose from. Submissions of these make up the largest component of the final grade. The satisfactory student will, in general, need to get at least an “S” on ten of these problems, 4 worked independently, and 6 worked in a group (2 to 3 students total in the group). (While you may submit more than one of these problems on a given day, no more than 4 such problems assigned 1/8-1/10 will be graded; no more than 5 assigned 1/13-1/17 will be graded; and no more than 4 assigned 1/20-1/24 will be graded. Moreover, you must submit at least one each day.) Independent submissions may not be substituted for group ones! Problems submitted by a group will receive a “U” or an “S”; those submitted by individuals will be marked with a “U”, “S” or “H”.

These will be given out much like the daily assignments discussed above, with answers due at the beginning of class on the next day. The major differences between these and daily assignments are that

• All problems are of the “core” variety.
• All problems must be answered.
• All problems must be worked without the assistance of outside materials (those other than resources — like the textbook and Mathematica — used routinely in class) or any individual, whether connected with the course or not.

Group Project (30% of grade)

As you work with various classmates on daily assignments, keep an eye out for people who have interests in common with you in preparation for forming a 3-person group. Also, pay attention to possible project topic suggestions as they are made in the reading or by the instructors. Toward the end of the term you will be given a couple of days of class time to research these topics, pool your knowledge together with your fellow group members, and prepare both a talk on the subject (to be presented jointly to instructors alone) and a poster (presented to the full class).

Honors

Earning an “honors” grade in the course requires that you receive an “H” on four individually-submitted exploratory problems (according to the rules indicated above, you may submit as many as 7 of these to be graded), earn at least 86% on both exams, and do reasonably well on your group project.

We consider the distinction between exploratory problems worked in a group and those worked individually an important one. When collaboration has occurred between 2-3 people, indicate this by submitting one problem solution for the group, providing all names of the group members (never more than 3). There are a number of reasons experience working in groups is important, none of which will be mentioned here. But problems submitted by an individual should definitely constitute more than an individual write-up to a collaborative process. The work and ideas should substantially be your own. Two students who say they are working individually, yet draw non-obvious conclusions which are substantially the same, should not expect to receive an “H” on their write-ups.