Policies

This syllabus and the dates herein are subject to change.

Class

This class is meant to be hands on. Therefore, you are responsible for reading pertinent material prior to each class.

Attendance

If you feel unwell please do not come to class. All class material will be posted after class and I would be happy to meet outside of our class time to help you catch up if needbe.

Accessibility Policy

Wake Forest University provides reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. Academic accommodations are coordinated through the Center for Learning, Access, and Student Success (CLASS). If you would like to request accommodations for this course, you should contact CLASS as early in the semester as possible (class.wfu.edu,118 Reynolda Hall). Please contact me privately after sending notifications through the CLASS office Student Portal system. Retroactive accommodations will not be provided.

How to get help

Math & Stats Center:

Honor code

Wake Forest University is committed to a culture of academic integrity. As a part of this community, you share the responsibility for creating a place of honesty, intellectual curiosity, and individual accountability. As you committed to with your honor pledge signature, you agree “not to deceive any member of the community; not to steal, cheat, or plagiarize on academic work; and not to engage in any other form of academic misconduct.” If you have questions about documenting your work, working with external sources, working with peers on assigned work, etc., consult with me as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty will be referred to the Honor and Ethics Council.

Sharing code & responses

  • You may use online resources (e.g., StackOverflow, ChatGPT) for help. For projects, you must explicitly cite any borrowed or adapted code. This includes both directly copied code and code you modified for your own work. Un-cited reuse of code will be treated as plagiarism.
  • For exercises and in-class worked problems, you are welcome to use resources freely, but copying without understanding is strongly discouraged.
  • Rather than relying on someone else’s work, ask for help - you are not alone in this course.

Course components

Exercises

Practice problems designed to reinforce concepts. These are graded for completion.

In-class worked problems

On most Mondays, class time will be devoted to group work on the assigned exercise problems. Each week, you will be placed in groups of 2–3 students. One problem from the previous week’s homework will be randomly assigned to your group. One member of the group will then present the solution to the class. Over the course of the semester, each student is required to present at least three times.

Grading Rubric (Presenter):

1 – Minimal: Attempted presentation but showed little preparation; major errors or unclear explanation.

2 – Adequate: Mostly correct solution with a few minor errors.

3 – Mastered: Fully correct solution; clear, accurate, and organized explanation; addressed the key steps of the solution; responded adequately to questions.

Grading Rubric (Group Member):

1 – Present

0 – Absent (unexcused)

Midterm

We will have two in-class midterms.

Grading

Your final grade will be determined as follows:

Component Weight
Exercises 10%
In-class worked problems 30%
Midterm 1 20%
Midterm 2 20%
Final Exam 20%
Total 100%

Grades conversion:

Letter Numeric
A > 94
A- 90 - 94
B+ 87 - 89
B 83 - 86
B- 80 - 82
C+ 77 - 79
C 73 - 76
C- 70 - 72
D+ 67 - 69
D 65 - 66
F Below 65

Late / missed work

  • Late work policy for homework:

    • late, but within 24 hours of due date/time: -50%
    • any later: no credit

  • No make-up assessments will be given.

  • All regrade requests must be discussed with the professor within one week of receiving your grade. There will be no grade changes after the final class.