During midterms and the final exam collaboration is not allowed. The only things allowed on your desk are the exam and approved resources, which include:

• Ten 8.5 x 11 inch doubled sided sheet of notes
• non-communicating graphing scientific calculator
• 1 page of scratch paper
• writing utensils (pen or pencil)

Using the internet for anything other than accessing the quiz PDF and submitting your work to Gradescope is prohibited

By submitting the quiz to Gradescope, you agree to abide by the following rules. 

Academic Integrity Honor Code

I understand that in all my OSU courses including this one, I am expected to abide by the Oregon State University “Code of Student Conduct”. I recognize that all forms of cheating not only violate the code of conduct I commit to as an OSU student, but they are dishonest, harmful to me and my learning, and unfair to others.

Academic Misconduct  |  Any action that misrepresents a student or group’s work, knowledge, or achievement, provides a potential or actual inequitable advantage, or compromises the integrity of the educational process. Prohibited behaviors include, but are not limited to doing or attempting the following actions:

1. Cheating. Unauthorized assistance, or access to or use of unauthorized materials, information, tools, or study aids. Examples include, but are not limited to, unauthorized collaboration or copying on a test or assignment, using prohibited materials and texts, unapproved use of cell phones, internet, or other electronic devices, etc.
2. Plagiarism. Representing the words or ideas of another person or presenting someone else's words, data, expressed ideas, or artistry as one's own. Examples include, but are not limited to, presenting someone else's opinions and theories as one's own, using another person's work or words (including unpublished material) without appropriate source documentation or citation, working jointly on a project and then submitting it as one's own, etc.
3. Falsification. Fabrication or invention of any information. Examples include, but are not limited to, falsifying research, inventing or falsely altering data, citing fictitious references, falsely recording or reporting attendance, hours, or engagement in activities such as internships, externships, field experiences, clinical activities, etc.
4. Assisting. Any action that helps another engage in academic misconduct. Examples include, but are not limited to, providing materials or assistance without approval, altering someone's work, grades or academic records, taking a test/doing an assignment for someone else, compelling acquisition, selling, bribing, paying or accepting payment for academic work or assistance that contributes to academic misconduct, etc.
5. Tampering. Interfering with an instructor’s evaluation of work by altering materials or documents, tampering with evaluation tools, or other means of interfering.
6. Multiple submissions of work. Using or submitting work completed for another or previous class or requirement, without appropriate disclosure, citation, and instructor approval.

By submitting your work to Gradescope, You are certifying that on the individual quizbits and exams in this course you have not and will not engage in any act that is considered academic misconduct in any way, including those noted in the “Code of Conduct” excerpt above.

Midterms  |  The individual quizbits are a chance for you to work on communicating your knowledge through clear solutions that take advantage of multiple representations (math, words, diagrams, plots, etc.). The questions will be available through Gradescope. Solutions are handwritten on paper or tablet and submitted through Gradescope. The will be graded on completeness, organization, and correctness of your solution. Partial credit is given on all non multiple choice questions. See the Canvas announcement the week before the exam for more details.

Final Exam  |  The final exam will be comprehensive, i.e. it will cover the entire course. The final exam is closed book, but you will be allowed 10 pages of notes. Please bring your student ID card, writing utensil and an approved calculator. The final exam will constitute 35% of your final grade.

The TAs will grade the quizbits and final exam. Partial credit will be given on most worked out problems. Clearly organizing your solutions is paramount to partial credit. Most solutions should include at least the following:

• physical representation: diagram or figure
• list of known and unknown variables that pertain to the problem
• list of equations that pertain to the problem
• organized, step-by-step, application of each equation with the appropriate variables
• any assumptions or symmetries that are exploited must clearly be stated
• sensemaking analysis
• clearly boxed answer with at least 3 significant figures

Exam Grading Appeals  |  If you feel you were graded unfairly with respect to the posted rubric, you must first appeal on Gradescope. The graders are graduate TAs and while they are awesome physicists, they are also human. When stating the reason for your appeal, it is NOT sufficient to simply say “I think I deserved more points for this.” You have to explain why. Most of the time they will look back and be able to resolve the issue right through Gradescope. Appeals on Gradescope may take many weeks to process.

If you are still not satisfied with their decision, you can further appeal to the instructor. Do so by emailing the instructor with the subject "Grading Appeal". Appeals must include a copy of the original exam (you can print from Gradescope to paper or PDF) with any marks or annotations you wish to make. There must be a written description identifying the problem/item, and specifically why the scoring is incorrect, etc. It is NOT sufficient to simply say “I think I deserved more points for this.” You have to explain why. The best approach for this is to use the photocopy of your exam and basically “re-score” the problem in question—as if you were the grader—showing how your version of the scoring is more aligned with the posted solution and rubric. You have 10 days from the release of the first grade appeal to file a further appeal to the instructor. Instructor appeals are often processed after the final exam when all information is available for making informed decisions (e.g. it is common the appeal doesn't change the overall grade in the class). Warning: the instructor re-grades the problem, so you may gain or lose points. The instructor’s decision on appeals is final; there are no re-appeals.

Don't panic after recieving your quizbit or final exam grade. Remember the grading scale which can be found on the grades page on Syllabus. Additionally it often takes time to get traction in physics. It is not uncommon for a student to get a 45% on their first quizbit, a 55% on the second, and by the end a 65% on the final exam. They do well on the rest of their work and recieve a solid B in the course. Do not let one score deter you. Please seek out support from your instructor, a TA, or an LA if you are feeling discouraged. We can and do help! Also, you are not defined by your performance in physics and one bad exam or course grade will not prevent you from achieving your professional dreams.

Research shows that one of the most important parts of the learning process is the meta-cognitive step. This is where you look back at what you've learned and synthesize that information. This can be a reflective exercise. In physics one way it manifests is reviewing your homework, quizbits, and exams. After your exams are graded pull up both the Rubric and points given on Gradescope, as well as the solutions from BoxSand. Go through each problem and identify what you did correctly and what you could have done better. Even go back and solve the parts you missed. This is especially important in physics because the content builds off each other. At the end of the PH203 you will take an exam that could have content from the entire sequence. The focus will be on the 203 content but we will have built ideas in 201 that show up throughout the year. The plot below shows the difference in our OSU class from a previous year and the average number of downloaded solutions per grade. You should take notice of the jump between C and B students. B students are participating in the metacognitive step at a much greater rate than C students.