PH 429/529
Ground Rules
Science is inherently a social and collaborative effort, each scientist
building on the work of others. Nevertheless, each student must ultimately be
responsible for his or her own education. Therefore, you will be expected to
abide by a number of ground rules:
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We strongly encourage students to work with each other, more advanced
students, the TA, and the instructor, when they get stuck on assignments
(including computer work). However, each student is expected to turn in
assignments which show evidence of individual thought.
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Homework solutions from previous years are strictly off limits. You are
on your honor not to use them, and not to share your homework solutions with
other students. Allow faculty to use their time interacting with you, rather
than continually thinking up new assignments. Besides, if you don't do the
work yourself, it will show up very clearly on exams later. Likewise, the
solutions are for your use only. You may make one copy and keep it in your
personal files.
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Sources must be appropriately documented. If you find a homework problem
worked out somewhere (other than homework solutions from previous years), you
may certainly use that resource, just make sure you reference it properly. If
someone else helps you solve a problem, reference that too. In a research
paper, the appropriate reference would be:
- Jane Doe (private communication).
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If you find that you have worked on a problem for 30 minutes without making
any forward progress, it would be a good idea to stop and seek help.
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Assignments turned in after the due date can earn at most 50% of the total
points. Very late assignments will earn less. It is quite acceptable, when
necessary, to turn in partial assignments by the due date and the rest later.
Some students find it difficult to decide what constitutes too much
collaboration:
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Under no circumstances may you ever copy another student's work, even if the
two of you have collaborated to work through the problem. Under no
circumstances may you ever allow your own work to be copied.
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A similar standard applies to computer work:
Never work together so closely with someone that you produce the same Maple
worksheet. This invariably means that one person has been the dominant
partner and it is impossible for the instructor to determine who it was.
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Try to make progress on a problem on your own. If you cannot, seek help from
other resources to overcome a specific hurdle, then try to make further
headway on your own. Once you have solved the problem, be honest with
yourself about how much intellectual input came from you, and try to improve
next time. Rewrite the problem solution without reference to any notes,
explaining the steps as you go, as you would to a novice problem solver. Once
you have done this, you will have generated a unique solution and one that
will have taught you something about what you really understand. Do not be
discouraged if you find that some problems require hints and help all the way
through. If you are able to explain previously solved problems coherently,
you are making good progress.
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A good test of your understanding is to explain a problem to someone else. Be
conscious of your role in a collaboration. If it is clear that you have
mastered the problem and your collaborator is a novice, limit your help to put
the person on the track to solving the problem alone. Do not give too much
help. Conversely, if you are seeking help from an expert, don't allow the
expert to guide you all the way through. If the exchange is between people of
a similar level of understanding, keep challenging one another, asking
questions and providing answers, going beyond the limits of the problem. This
is the fun part of physics: endless discussion about interesting problems!
(Please note that expert and novice can refer to two students of
equal talent and ability, one of whom happens to have already solved the
problem!)
(see also
the general Paradigms ground rules, on which these are based)