Courses/Abbott
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This page contains generic information that applies to all my courses.
Contents |
[edit] CSNS account
Please create an account for yourself on the CSNS. Be sure to include your email address.
[edit] Final exam schedule
The final exam schedule for the current quarter may be found here.
[edit] Contact information
Office: ET 325.
Email: Russ.Abbott@GMail.com.
Hours: Any day; any time. I tend to answer my email regularly.
Personal issues: To arrange to see me personally and privately, please send me email and we will set up a time to meet.
Course discussion page: If you have public questions about the course, please enter them on the Discussion page for the course. The Discussion page is the second tab on each page. I or some other member of the class will respond.
[edit] Entering code into this wiki
MediaWiki leaves lines that begin with a blank space unformatted—although it does recognize formatting commands within the line. This provides a useful way to enter code. To see how this works, click edit to the right of the heading above.
Here is some code.
If you leave a space at the beginning of a line the text will be displayed more or less (but not completely) literally. So this is good for code. Note that code in the preceding sentence is displayed in boldface (and in italics in this sentence). Formatting within a line is possible. It is also possible to include external and internal links within a line. Note also that the two blank lines in this segment are contained in this box because they each begin with a space.
If you leave out the space, you will get a new box (like this), which may not be what you want.
This is the end of the code.
We have installed the java plug-in, which displays code with keywords in bold. Surround the code with the tags <java> and </java>
[edit] Generic grading policy
Grading is based on what you do during the term. At the end of the term, I will consider the letter of recommendation I would write about you, compress it down to a single character (or two characters if + or - applies), and make that your grade.
The letter of recommendation will be based on a number of factors including (but not necessarily limited to) your contribution to helping the class explore the material, the quality of your work, its timeliness, your initiative in exploring ideas beyond the explicit homework assignments, your willingness to help others, and your willingness and ability to explain your work in class. (See professional and academic values below for my attempt to elaborate what I mean by all this.)
[edit] Fundamental succeed/fail decision
The primary decision I make is whether I think you should take the course again to get credit for it toward you B.S. degree—i.e., whether your grade should be C or better. That decision is made primarily on the basis of tests. If you do poorly on the midterm and final, you will probably get a C- or below. Where you fall within a category (C or better or C- or below) will depend to a great extent on the considerations described below.
[edit] You can't change history
Grades are based on history—and you can't change history. That means that if you goof off during the first half of the course, there is nothing you can do during the second half—no extra credit projects or other sorts of extra assignments—to change the fact that you goofed off during the first half. That doesn't mean that you are doomed. But it does mean that whatever you do will be what you have done when I look back on it at the end of the term. Think about it this way. Would you like your letter of recommendation to say that you didn't do your work initially but worked hard in an attempt to make up for it latter? Would you hire someone with that recommendation? There are no miracles you can perform during the second half of the term that will make the fact that you goofed off during the first half go away. On the other hand, performing a miracle is definitely worth something.
[edit] Professional and academic Values
I organize professional values into three categories: contributory, technical, and interpersonal.
[edit] Contributory values
The contributory category concerns your contribution to a collective effort. When a group of people are doing something together, it is presumed that each person will contribute something. That's true whether the overall effort is a joint development project or a course in school. Each person should contribute something and not approach the project as something from which one does nothing but extract something for oneself.
This may sound somewhat different from the way most people approach a course—which in many cases is: what can I get out of this for myself. Often you are even encouraged to think of a course in these terms.
I want you to think of a course as a collective endeavor; the overall goal is to explore some body of material in such a way that we will all be richer at the end. That means that everyone should think about what you can contribute to the course and not just what you can get out of it.
Given this background, my highest contributory value is initiative. That means that someone who takes the initiative to find ways to contribute to the course—ways that go beyond the specific assignments made of him or her—is doing better in my view than someone who does (only) exactly as he or she is told.
Initiative involves finding, doing, and sharing things (a) that you find interesting and (b) that you think others would also find interesting. When you find yourself exploring an area beyond the basic assignment, ask yourself what about it interests you or why you are finding it worth doing. Then share what you have learned with the rest of us.
This is your class. What sort of experience do you want it to be? What can you do to make it that sort of experience?
[edit] Technical values
From my perspective, the highest technical values are intellectual honesty, insight, and competence.
Without intellectual honesty, your work can't be trusted. Intellectual honesty means being truthful about what you did, giving credit when you used other people's work, and representing your work honestly—not attempting to portray it as something it is not.
I value insight (including creativity) second because that's what I find most exciting. What I find most enlivening is finding out new things and seeing things in interesting and useful new ways.
Competence is third on my list—and being third is good, not bad—because it encompasses most of the rest of what's important about technical work: one must at least be competent. Competence includes being able to do high quality work.
[edit] Interpersonal values
In the interpersonal category my highest value is respect for others. That means
- understanding that other people are thinking and feeling beings and
- grounding your interactions on a recognition that what you do can have both a positive and negative effect on how other people feel.
With that in mind, please be respectful of me and of your classmates.
Doing so is a direct insult to me and to your fellow class members.
A religious act is performed out of good motivation and with sincere thought for the benefit of others. This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple; your philosophy is simple kindness.
