Electronic Instrumentation

Electronic Instrumentation Attendance and Participation (ENGR-4300)

Last Updated January 2007

Attendance

Attendance is important in this class. Since most of your assignments are group assignments, it is unfair to have students who do not attend class and inherit the grades that the other group members work for. Therefore, we have many rules regarding attendance.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance is taken at the beginning of class
LATES: If you show up late (after 10 minutes), you get a "late". Two lates add up to one missed class. It is your responsibility to let the instructor know that you have come in late.
EXPERIMENT POINTS: Each experiment is comprised of 80 points for the paper and 20 points for attendance. Each experiment generally has three class days associated with it. If you show up on time for all three days, you get all 20 points. If you show up for 2 of 3 days, you get 10/20 points. If you show up one day, you get no points for attendance, but you still get a grade for the experiment. If you do not show up for any of the three days, you get no grade (0) for the experiment itself. You can make up this experiment by doing it as an individual during open shop. Each LATE will cost you 5 points. In addition, if you show up for class, but you do not participate actively in class, your professor has the option of taking off points.
PROJECT POINTS: Each project is comprised of 80 points for the paper and 20 points for attendance. Each project generally has three class days associated with it. Points are assigned the same way as they are for experiments.
MAKE-UPS: Classes can be made up during open shop hours. You can make up one class or two lates in one open shop. You must fill out the following form and have it signed by the instructor or TA on duty. The class should be made up before the due date for the experiment or project you wish to apply it to. It is your responsibility to fill out the form and give it to your instructor. If your professor feels you have missed too many classes or your group requests it, the other members of the group will have to sign your make-up form before it can be applied.

Overall Class Participation

Overall Class Participation is worth 5% of your final grade. It is based on the following criteria:

ATTENDANCE: If you have shown up for all classes, then you get an extra bonus here. If your attendance is very poor, you pay an additional penalty. If you have missed and made up many classes, it will count against you.
INSTRUCTOR ASSESSMENT: Your instructor will assess your general performance in terms of how much you contributed to the work your group was doing during class time.
TA ASSESSMENT: Your TA's will assess your general performance in terms of how much you contributed to the work your group was doing during class time.
QUESTIONS: Periodically, you will be asked questions by the staff which we use to judge how well you understand what is going on. These questions fall into four categories: circuits (Do you know how to wire and debug a circuit using the diagram?), equipment (Can you correctly hook the circuit to the equipment?), theory (Do you understand the theory that was taught in the lecture?) and software (Can you effectively use the computer tools we use in the experiments?).
GROUP SELF-ASSESSMENT: After the completion of each project, we have each student take an on-line survey in which s/he must rate the contribution of each member of the group in terms of several criteria. This gives you (in a confidential manner) a chance to tell us who did the work and who did not.
SPECIALIZATION: In this class it often happens that certain students become experts in one task. For example, one ends up doing all the wiring and another all of the computer work. Although we realize that this is very efficient, it is the job of the staff to make sure that you all learn how to wire circuits, use the equipment, understand the theory and use the computer tools. Therefore, we are asking you to help us by rotating the tasks and helping each other learn, rather than specializing. Groups that rotate tasks well will gain an extra bonus here. Groups that end up highly specialized will pay an additional penalty.
FOLLOWING RULES: The studio has a lot of expensive equipment in it. You are required to respect this fact by not doing anything that would potentially damage the equipment. This includes eating and drinking in the classroom. If you do not follow these rules, you will lose points on your participation grade. For additional information about studio rules, please see the studio policies page.
YOU MUST BUY AT LEAST ONE KIT (Two are recommended.): If you do not have at least one kit per group to work with you will at the very least, lose participation points. If you have an old kit that is complete, you may substitute this for a second purchased kit. If you are unsure if your kit is complete enough, ask your instructor.