EG Grading Policy

EG1004 Grading Policy

Grade responsibility

All course grades, including bonuses and penalties, are shown in the MyPoly gradebook. Therefore, you can see the grades we have assigned to you. You are responsible for insuring that these grades are correct. For example, if you have a zero for a lab grade but submitted the lab, it is your responsibility to notify your faculty member as soon as possible.

Shortly after the end of the term we calculate the grades using the grades shown in the MyPoly gradebook. If you have missing grades and have not identified them to your faculty member, they will be considered zero. We will not be able to investigate any claims of missing or erroneous grades after the term is over.

For lab reports, some of the reports are individual reports, and others are team reports. For the individual reports, you will prepare the entire report yourself, using the data your team collected. As individual efforts, you will receive individual grades. For team reports, the entire team shares in the preparation of the report, and all the members of the team receive the same grade.

All presentations are team efforts, and all members of the team will receive the same grade. Similarly, since the projects are team efforts, all members of the project team will receive the same grade.

Components of the course grade

 

Item	% of grade
Teaching Assistant Lab Report Grades (technical content)	20%
Writing Consultant Lab Report Grades (written expression)	20%
Lab Quizzes	5%
Recitation Presentations	15%
Semester Long Project (breakdown below)	30%
Attendance at lectures	10%
Semester Long Project Bonuses and Penalties	Shown below

Note that there is no final exam for this course.

Teaching Assistant Lab Report Grading Breakdown

All lab reports are graded for technical content by the Teaching Assistants under faculty supervision on a basis of 100 points. At the end of the term, all the lab report grades are added up and divided by the total number of points possible. This is then multiplied by 100 and multiplied by the weighting shown above to contribute to the overall grade. The following are the weightings used for each lab report grade:

Section	% of grade
Abstract	5%
Introduction	20%
Procedure	30%
Data/Observations	30%
Discussion/Conclusion	15%

All lab reports are due by 11:59PM the night before the next lab. This means that in most cases the lab report will be due about a week after you've performed the lab. However, if your lab does not meet the next week during the term, then your lab report would be due about two weeks later.

Lab Report Lateness

For a lab report that is late up to one week, there will be a mandatory 20 point deduction in the grade. For lab reports more than one week but less than two weeks late, there will be a mandatory 40 point deduction in the grade. For lab reports more than two weeks late, no credit will be given.

Writing Consultant Lab Report Grading

All lab reports are graded for grammar and style by the Writing Consultant on a basis of 100 points. At the end of the term, all the lab report grades are added up and divided by the total number of points possible. This is then multiplied by 100 and multiplied by the weighting shown above to contribute to the overall grade. The same penalties for lateness will apply for this grade as well as the Teaching Assistant grade described above.

Lab Quizzes

At the start of each lab session there will be a brief quiz about the lab. This ensures that you have read the lab ahead of time, and are prepared to perform the lab. If you are not present for the quiz, you will receive a grade of zero. This ensures that you will be on time for the lab. Therefore, BE ON TIME FOR THE LAB! Quizzes are graded on a basis on 10 points. At the end of the term, all the quiz grades are added up and divided by the total number of points possible. This is then multiplied by 100 and multiplied by the weighting shown above to contribute to the overall grade.

Recitation Presentations

After you've done a lab, you will usually be doing a presentation of it at a later recitation. Your presentation will be done (usually with a lab partner) as a group. Your Recitation Teaching Assistant will grade your presentation under faculty supervision on a basis on 10 points. If you are not present for the presentation, the rest of your team will give the presentation without you, putting an unfair burden on them. In addition, if you have not been excused by your faculty member ahead of time, you will receive a zero for the presentation. This is true even if you arrive for the recitation after the presentation has started, so BE ON TIME FOR THE RECITATION!. At the end of the term, all the presentation grades are added up and divided by the total number of points possible. This is then multiplied by 100 and multiplied by the weighting shown above to contribute to the overall grade. The following are the weightings used for each presentation grade:

	% of grade
Component	Labs 1-3	Labs 4 and up
Technical Content	60%	60%
Demonstration of Understanding	10%	20%
Proper spelling and use of proper words	5%	5%
Proper form on slides	5%	5%
Presentation skills	20%	10%

Recitation Presentation Lateness

Your recitation presentation is due by the start of the recitation. That means that the presentation must be submitted to eg.poly.edu and a hardcopy of the presentation must be made by the starting time of the recitation. If your section requires electronic submission of your presentation to the Digital Dropbox on MyPoly, that must also be completed by the start of the recitation.

Because the presentation is done "live", NO LATE RECITATION PRESENTATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THE DEADLINE, AND YOUR TEAM WILL GET A ZERO FOR THAT PRESENTATION.

Semester Long Project

The Semester Long Project is graded for technical content by the Teaching Assistants under faculty supervision. The Milestone presentations and final presentation are graded on a basis of 10 points. Each of the presentation grades will be multiplied by 10 to give a grade based on 100 points, and then multiplied by the weightings shown below to arrive at the overall project grade. The following are the weightings used for the semester long project grade:

Item	% of grade
Milestone 1 presentation	10%
Milestone 2 presentation	20%
Milestone 3 presentation	20%
Final presentation	50%
Component testing	Required
Commissioning	Required

The lateness policy for Milestone presentations is the same as for other recitation presentations, as shown above.

Items shown as “Required�? do not have weight in calculating the semester long project grade, but must be successfully completed to receive a grade, and the project will be considered incomplete until these items are submitted.

For Milestone 2, you must submit your signed Component Testing form. Failure to do so will reduce your Milestone 2 grade by 1 point (10%).

Semester Long Project Bonuses and Penalties

The following bonuses and penalties will be added to or subtracted from the semester long project:

Item	MyPoly label	bonus or penalty points
Early submission of project	EC1	+10
Modular Field BDR Project:
Completion of black tunnel route	EC2	+3
Completion of ramp route	EC3	+6
Disruption of triangulation system	EC4	+3
Retrieval of at least one triangulation device	EC5	+6
Modular Field Treasure Hunt Project:
Completion of Treasure Hunt	EC6	+5
Traverse Black Sea	EC7	+2
Traverse Mobile Ramp	EC8	+2
Pick up Keys and drop off at Black Sea or Base	EC9	+2*(# keys dropped)
Pick up Keys and drop off at Ground Zero	EC10	+3*(# keys dropped)
Retrieval and Delivery System Project:
Completion of RDS Project	EC11	+8
Ice Station Autonomous Robot Project:
Completion of ISAR Project	EC12	+10
Real Time Train Guidance Project:
Completion of Train Guidance Project	EC13	+8
Supermarket Project:
Completion of Supermarket Project	EC14	+3
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Project:
AUV Hybrid	EC15	+15
AUV Skimmer	EC16	+10
AUV Rover	EC17	+5
All Projects:
Faculty Member award for innovation	EC18	up to +10
Each business day project is late	LD	-10 until grade is zero

The project is due the day of the final presentation. The project is considered late after that time. There is also a final cutoff date for the submission of work of the last Reading Day of the term. This means that at the cutoff date or 10 days after the final presentation (whichever comes first) the project will receive a grade of zero.

For example, if you do an early submission of a Modular Field BDR that uses the ramp route and the project is scored as an 80, your semester long project grade will be 80(the base)+10(early submission)+6(ramp route), for a total grade of 96.

If you turn in your project early to get early submission credit, you must do your project presentation using the CD you submitted, with no additional material. If you change your presentation from what's on the CD, you will not receive the early submission bonus.

Lab Competition Bonus Credit

Some of the labs are competitions. To reward those teams who perform well, the following point bonuses will be added to the lab report grades for both the TA and WC for the appropriate teams:

Number of teams in competition	Place	Bonus Points
Any number	First Place	10
4 or more	Second Place	5
8 or more	Third Place	2

If there is no report required for a competition lab, the bonuses will be divided by ten and applied to the presentation for that lab, i.e., the first place team will receive a bonus of one point, etc.

Attendance at Lectures

Attendance will be taken at the lectures each week. As you enter the Auditorium, your student ID will be scanned to confirm your attendance. Be sure to have it with you, and have it ready as you approach the door.

At the end of the term, the percentage of times you were recorded as present will be used in calculating your final grade, as shown in the table above.

Grade Reporting

You'll find a header for EG1004 on your home page on MyPoly. Once you click on that header, you'll be able to select the course gradebook, where you can see all of your grades. We advise you to check it frequently. If there are missing grades for work that you submitted, and the Gradebook indicates that the work of other students has been graded, bring it to your supervising faculty member's attention. As you can tell from the preceding material, you will be receiving many grades from this course, and with hundreds of students taking the course it is possible that some work will be lost. If this happens we will resolve it quickly. However, it is your responsibility to notify us when this occurs. Any missing work will be treated as a zero grade, so it is in your interest to make sure that this doesn't happen.

Grade Appeals

When you receive your graded work, you may feel that you have been graded unfairly. For example, points may have been deducted because of a missing component that was actually there. If, after consideration, you believe there was an error made in grading any of your work, you should bring it to the attention of the supervising faculty member for your section. The faculty member will want your original graded work plus any grade sheets that were attached to it by the staff. They will then review it using the EG1004 grading guidelines used for all sections and make any required adjustments. The last opportunity to request a grade appeal or to point out missing grades on the MyPoly Gradebook is during your last recitation (the recitation in which you give your final presentation).

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