Guidelines for a successful learning experience
Attendance: All classes will begin on time and you are expected to be on time and attend each entire session. City Colleges require faculty to take attendance and to keep records of attendance. Poor attendance normally results in poor grades. Please be aware that if a student is excessively absent, and is not actively pursing the course, the student will be dropped from the course at mid-term. Arriving late may result in missing a short quiz or other class activity. It is not possible to make up these short activities.
Make-Up Work: Make-up work is not practical or fair. For example, make-up exams are never the same as the original exams and are not fair to those who particpate on time. Sometimes emergencies do occur. The grading policy is designed so that allowances are made for missed work. For example, the lowest exam score is dropped from the grade. If quizzes are given then some will be dropped. One laboratory may be missed with no penalty. Students should plan to attend every single class.
Laboratory Dress Code: Please do NOT wear clothing that is considered unsafe in the laboratory (high heels, sandals, shorts, tops that expose the chest). You have the option of wearing a laboratory coat if that is more convenient for you. Please be aware that expensive clothes are at risk of damage from possible spills of acids and other corrosive or staining chemicals.
Presenting work: Please do NOT submit papers that are torn, crumpled, or have torn spiral edges. Any document that you submit should be neat, clean and labeled with the date and your full name. Any paper submitted should also have a title. Homework should be kept in a notebook and be organized by topic or chronologically.
Your email address: Please do NOT send me email from an unprofessional email address like whitecocaine@any.com or bigstud@any.com or hotbody@hot.com. Either use an email that is neutral such as msmith@any.com or use your student email provided to you free of charge your.username@student.ccc.edu. To protect your privacy I am not permitted to discuss any grade related matters or personal concerns such as absences via email unless you use the email assigned to you by the City Colleges of Chicago.
Interruptions: If you arrive late please enter the class quietly. Minimize the noises associated with removal of jackets and taking a seat. Please raise your hands to answer questions and be a respectful listener when others are talking. Please do NOT talk (or whisper) to others during lecture. Please do NOT leave the classroom and return until break unless it is an emergency. Ask yourself this question - If everyone did what I am doing would it be possible to concentrate on learning in this class?
Food and Drink: Eating is not permitted in the classroom. Water bottles must have lids. Both food and drinks are strictly forbidden for your own safety during laboratory.
Questions About Grading: Please do NOT ask the following questions: 1) Will this be on the test (or quiz)? 2) Do we have to know this for the test (or quiz)? 3) How many (or what type of) questions will be on the test (or quiz)? These type of questions change the focus of the class from the subject matter i.e. chemistry to the methods of evaluation. This does not help anyone learn. It increases the anxiety in the classroom and is very distracting. If you are concerned about these kinds of issues then send me an email or visit me during office hours and we can discuss your concerns.
Plagiarism: Don't do it!
(Definition from Wikipedia - Plagiarism is the passing off of another person's work as if it were one's own, by claiming credit for something that was actually done by someone else. Deliberate plagiarism is an attempt to claim another person's work as one's own, usually by removing tell-tale evidence or changing words so the plagiarism is made harder to spot.
An unacknowledged use of words, information, research, or findings not one's own, taken from any source is plagiarism only if a person is claiming personal credit for originality. It is not plagiarism to use well-known 'common sense' facts (e.g.: "gravity causes things to fall downwards" or "World War II ended in 1945") without acknowledging a source, because readers understand the author is not claiming originality of commonly known facts.
If you want to learn more about plagiarism I suggest this tutorial: Plagiarism