ES 331/767 Procedures and Grading James S. Aber

Procedures

• All students must have access to the Web. A color printer and scanner are desirable (but not required).

• Each student must have an e-mail account and address, which are given automatically by ESU upon enrollment. Students may prefer to use another, personal email address, which is quite acceptable. Assignments, inquiries and other communications take place via e-mail.

• Lectures will be provided via the Web. Students are expected to review lectures whenever convenient during the scheduled time interval—see schedule. The webpages may link to other sites and sources of information. Students are encouraged to follow these links to discover more about the subject matter.

• Supplementary handouts will be provided via SFTP to students in pdf format. Such items include maps, illustrations, tables of data, etc. Many of these items are identified as figures in the webpage lectures.

• Examinations: Objective-style, written, "take-home" tests will be given twice during the semester—mid-term and final. All students are required to turn in exams via e-mail during the scheduled exam period.* See sample exam. Exams are each 25% of course grade.

• Lab exercises: Several lab exercises involving maps, charts, specimens, or simple calculations will be conducted during the semester. Lab materials are provided via SFTP. Reports are due normally one week after the lab is introduced in class—see schedule, and should be turned in via e-mail.* Late assignments may receive a grade penalty. Exercises are 20% of course grade.

• Short project: Undergraduate students (ES 331) will prepare a short project. Each project subject and format will be chosen with approval of the instructor. The subject of the project could be any topic relevant to ice age environments. The format may be quite flexible; students may create a video show or game, draw an illustration, diagram or cartoon, make a scrapbook or diorama, perform a puppet show, create a photostory, construct a sculpture or build a model, etc. Note: PowerPoint slide shows are not acceptable.

  Each project, regardless of format, must include an abstract and cite appropriate references. A draft or preview version is due by Nov. 15; the final version is due before Thanksgiving, as indicated in the schedule. Projects will be evaluated based on accurate scientific and historical content and creativity of presentation; projects are 20% of course grade.

• Web presentations: Each graduate student (ES 767) will prepare a special web presentation in HTML format on a selected topic chosen with approval of the instructor. The subject of the webpage could be any topic relevant to ice age environments. The presentations will be linked to the course homepage for all students to review—see past student presentations.

  Each webpage must include an abstract and cite appropriate references. Please check instructions for preparing student webpages. A draft or preview version is due by Nov. 15; the final version is due before Thanksgiving, as indicated in the schedule. Web presentations will be evaluated based on accurate scientific and historical content and effectiveness of presentation; webpages are 20% of course grade.

• Field trip: One, all-day field trip to Wabaunsee and Shawnee counties, northeastern Kansas will take place on Saturday, November 2nd. All students in eastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri are expected to attend. Students farther away must arrange an independent trip on their own with instructor approval.

• Class participation is expected; this includes weekly e-mail messages from all students, field trip, and contributions to the glacial blog. Send text and images for the blog to your instructor. Participation is 10% of course grade.

• All students should review the departmental policy on plagiarism. Go to grading scale.

• For further information about university schedule, policies and services, go to ESU syllabus attachment.

• ADA statement: Emporia State University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students need to contact the Director of Disability Services and the professor as early in the semester as possible to ensure that classroom and academic accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. All communication between students, the Office of Disability Services, and the professor will be strictly confidential.

Note: Reports, exercises and presentations must be original and unique works created by the student's own effort and submitted for ES 331/767 only. Images, text or other components may not be utilized for other earth science courses without permission of the instructor.

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ES 331/767 © J.S. Aber (2013).