Devlopmental Psychology 234

My posted office hours are: MWR 10:00 - 11:30. However, since they are during prime class hours, I am open to meeting with you whenever I am in my office and I am not working under a deadline. A good strategy to meet with me is to set up an appointment right after class for a time which works for both of us. A second strategy is to send me an email with 3 different times you are available and I will return your email as soon as possible. My email address is dick@gac.edu. You can try to reach me by phone at 7411, but if I am not there, please do NOT leave a voicemail message requesting me to return your call--I won't. 

Attendance.
I take attendance each day because it helps me to learn your names, and I expect that you should attend class. Those who are present every or almost every day may find their grade increased to the next level if you are near a cutoff point after the final exam. This will also be true for a student who is attentive, asks questions, or contributes in class regularly. I will not lower your grade for attendance but those who miss 6 or more classes are ineligible for extra-credit projects, and for each class missed over 7, I will deduct 2 points from your point total. If you come to class and you fall asleep I will call it to your attention by waking you. I realize that sometimes you may be so busy you can't get your sleep, but on those days just don't come to class. In a similar vein, if you bring a computer to class for taking notes do not use it to browse the WEB. Students appear to be unaware how obvious it is when they are browsing and not taking notes.

Assignments. 
It is very helpful to complete the reading assignments before I lecture on those topics in class.  This allows you to derive the greatest possible benefit from both the lectures and the text, and makes it more likely that you will commit the material to memory. In addition, your reading of the text beforehand may suggest questions that you can bring up in class. You should expect that there will be material from the textbook that will not covered in class but will be included in exams. Likewise there will be material from the lectures that will not be covered in the textbook that will be in exams. 

Please note: The syllabus is likely to change during the semester and you should go to the WEB to get the most recent version, when you need to refer to it. This will be especially true for assigned articles.

Written Assignments, Labs and Quizzes.

Written Assigments
At times I will assign Web articles for you to read on a topic that is currently newsworthy and to which I would like you to respond.  Your response should show evidence of critical thinking and will be graded Pass/Fail. I will always respond back to you if you fail, but less so if you just pass, unless I think you wrote a particularly cogent response. Your response should be written in an email with the word "devel" somewhere in the subject line and should be sent to psy100dm@gac.edu. Do not send your response as an attachment. "Devel" in the subject line will return an acknowledgment that I have received your email. To receive credit for your response, I must receive it before the class we will discuss it, and you must attend class on that day.

If you miss a scheduled exam, a makeup will be given at the instructor's convenience. Incompletes for the course can only be granted for medical emergencies. 

Exams and Grading.
There will be four exams given during the semester. Your grade will be based on the total number of points received on these exams, plus 10 points for each article response completed. Your final grade will be based on the cumulative total of all of these. For example, all students who have a point total 96% of the person with the top score in the class will receive an A, those with a score less than 65% will fail.

NOTE!! Exam results will be sent by Email and scores will listed by ID number. If you would prefer that I do not post your score by ID, you should inform me ASAP.

Extra Credit.
It is possible to complete a project that earns a student extra-credit in this course.  Students who wish to do so cannot miss class 6 or more times during the semester.  Extra credit projects will usually take the form of a 5-8 minute PowerPoint presentation on a topic we will not be covering either in the textbook or lecture, or an exapansion of that material, but not a mere duplication. An extra-credit project may also take the form of an observational study or simple experiment. The first step to read over various portions of the book that interest you. Then set up an meeting with me to discusss your topic before you begin. It is expected that you will do some library resarch on the topic you choose, and that you will complete an annotated bibliography of 8 research articles from peer reviewed journals. The simplest and easiest way to do this is to use the PsychInfo database or the Academic Search Premier databases that can be accessed online at the library url. Merely googling material on line is generally not acceptable. Extra-credit will be around 10 points with more or fewer points given based on the quality of the work done. Please note: Extra credit projects have to be approved by me by the end of the 10th wek of class.

Policy on academic dishonesty. 

The honesty Pledge: "On my honor, I pledge that I have not given, received, or tolerated others’ use of unauthorized aid in completing this work."

I hope that I will not have to deal with academic dishonesty but you should know that any such transgression will be dealt with severely. It should be obvious that cheating on exams is dishonest, but it is also dishonest to copy another student's work, or represent someone else's work as your own, or to represent that you have completed work when that is not the case. Sanctions will include failing this course and a referral to the Associate Dean of the college.