Grading and Course Policy

In every lecture, we will take time out to have you work in small groups to respond to polling questions. Some of these will be based on material we are presenting in class, some may come from reading assigments we will offer you. Over the quarter there will be an average of 2 polling questions per lecture. Some may have more, some may have fewer. Polling questions are worth 2 pts each. For each question, one point is awarded for responding and an additional point is awarded for a correct answer. We will award 2 pts for those polling questions where any answer is correct (they will exist).

Sections meet weekly. We hope these are lively and interactive sessions in which you will look to important and emergent issues in neuroscience and the evidence and controversies surrounding them. To make your participation more meaningful, prior to each section, you will submit to your TA a question related to the topic of the day. At the end of the section, you will submit a summary of what you have learned through the discussions you had. These assignments count towards your final grade.

Towards the end of the course, you and your lab partners will focus on a topic related to neuroscience that is of interest to you. It could be an extension of information you heard in lectures, issues that are relevant in the news, or any other topic that is of interest to you. Every group will submit a poster proposal. We will use the period during finals to have a class-wide poster session. Further guidelines for poster preparation will be made available a few weeks prior to the end of the quarter.

There will be no final exam for this course. In fact, there will be no exams at all. Instead, your total grade will be computed as follows: 50% for in class polling points, 25% for the questions and summaries you will have submitted for discussion section, and 25% for the poster projects you will complete. The course gradebook is hosted on Catalyst.