Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics
Bloomsburg University
| This course has been designated as one of the checkpoints for assessing the progress of our computer science majors in the development of general problem-solving skills. We do this with a 3-hour programming activity in the style of the department's annual programming contest for high school students. The purpose of this activity is not to assess your skill as a programmer, your knowledge of special language features, or your familiarity with algorithms and data structures; instead, we are assessing your ability to determine the essential logical ingredients of a solution to a computational problem. The actual coding will involve only the most elementary programming concepts and syntax. The activity will take place in February. |
Grading. Your grade in this course is determined by your performance on the problem-solving assessment, regular homework assignments, two exams during the semester, and a final exam. At the end of the semester, all of your scores will be aggregated using the following weights:
| Problem-Solving Assessment | Homework | Exam 1 | Exam 2 | Final Exam |
| 10% | 25% | 20% | 20% | 25% |
Your aggregate score is then converted into a letter grade using the following scale:
| A | A- | B+ | B | B- | C+ | C | C- | D+ | D | E |
| 94-100 | 92-93 | 90-91 | 83-89 | 81-82 | 79-80 | 72-78 | 70-71 | 68-69 | 60-67 | 0-59 |
There will be no make-ups or extensions to homework due dates, except for medical emergencies or other dire circumstances beyond your control.
Extra Credit. I am often asked at the end of the semester if there are any opportunities to earn extra credit. The answer is yes: if you actively participate in class discussions throughout the semester, then I will increase your course grade by half a letter (e.g., from C+ to B-, or from A- to A). But I emphasize: this credit is awarded only for active participation on a consistent basis. If you are committed to doing this, it will help greatly to read and think about the relevant sections of our textbook before each class.
Professional Conduct. This is obvious, but I will say it anyway for the record: no texting, checking e-mail, playing games, surfing the web, or other personal business during class. This rarely happens in my courses, but I do have a policy to deal with it: I deduct points from the offender's aggregate score for the semester, which will probably lead to a lower course grade. I apply this same policy to deal with consistently late arrivals to class.
Academic Honesty. Any attempt to mislead your professor about any aspect of your work in the course, or about your knowledge of course material, is a violation of academic honesty. This includes submitting work to be graded under your own name when you did not write the work on your own. It also includes showing or e-mailing your code to another student so that he can "study" it. You may certainly have an honest exchange of ideas with other students when working on a homework problem. Whatever you carry in your head after a conversation with a classmate is something that you have learned and may freely use as your own. But under no circumstances are you permitted to copy or even look at any part of someone else's code (or to allow a classmate to copy or look at any part of your code). Academic dishonesty of any kind will result in a failing grade for the course and may be reported to the university's Director of Student Standards for further action.
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