University of Wisconsin-Madison

In general, we do not accept late assignments (i.e., homeworks or projects). When the assignment is due, turn in what you've been able to get done and move on with your life. With programming projects, some students can be tempted to try to fix every bug and get everything perfect, but a perfect project is not our goal in this course; instead, get the project as completed as you can by its due date, turn it in, and then start thinking about your next assignment! If you have special (rare) circumstances that prevent you from turning in an assignment, please contact the instructor.

Final letter grades are determined from your final cumulative score that is computed using the following breakdown:

• 50% Homeworks: About eleven (11) homeworks (each worth betwenn 4-5% of your final grade). The purpose of the homeworks is to give you the opportunity to explore and to create. Some of the homework will be to experiment with different web sites, some will be Scratch programming, some will be short essays, and some will be pencil and paper analysis. For those homeworks that have a creative component, you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your work to the rest of the class!
• 15% Programming Design Project: One (1) programming project in Scratch worth 15% of your final grade. This project will be due at the end of the semester. The project is open-ended to allow you to be creative; therefore, the grading is somewhat subjective. Since few projects are ever perfect, it will be extremely rare to receive a 100% for a project. However, interesting and ambitious projects that may have a few bugs or problems will still receive high scores. You may work in a team for this project.
• 35% Exams: Three (3) exams, consisting of two in-class midterms and a final. The two midterms are each worth 10% of your final grade and the final is worth 15%. The final exam will be have a cummulative component and a component that focuses on the third part of the course.
• Extra credit: Class Participation and Sharing: You may receive a few extra points based on your attendance and your participation during lectures. In many ways, I agree with Woody Allen's quote that "80% of success is showing up." We cover a lot of material in this course and you will find it is important to attend lecture to keep up. If you attend lecture, you are going to see and learn a lot of interesting material!

  Most of the homeworks will have a method for obtaining extra credit as well. The extra credit will involve sharing some "creative" or unique aspect of your homework with the rest of the class.

Letter grades are assigned at the end of the semester. Scores for homeworks, projects, and exams are reported through the Learn@UW System.

When mapping final cumulative scores to letter grades, we are likely to use the following scale (though if you have attended class regularly we may be slightly more generous than this scale indicates).