| Reading and class schedule | Project | FTS-100 homepage |
| Homework |
Short writing assignments | Course description |
| Homework
guidelines |
Criteria
for grading writing |
kaiser@gustavus.edu |
| Due: | Assignment: | Late Policy: |
| Oct. 27 |
Book Discussion
On Tuesday, Oct. 17, you will be divided into small discussion groups to discuss the books you're reading. First, each of you should describe the book you've been reading and summarize what you've read so far. Then, compare your books. Imagine that the authors are having a discussion/debate about their books. What would they agree on? Disagree about? Finally, your group should discuss at least one of the four questions in the end of term project assignment. See if you can decide on a position to take, using evidence from your reading to support your position. So that I may assess your discussion, you should write two paragraphs. The first one should compare and contrast the books your group has been reading. The second one should explain what position or positions your group took on the question you discussed and present a convincing argument for that position. Be sure to take good notes during your discussions so that you can work on this after studying for the test on Thursday. |
Late papers are accepted until 11/2 but grade drops by one letter for each day late |
| Oct. 5 |
Which cipher system was used? Look at problem 2.5.6 in
Barr. The answer to this problem is in the back of the
book; however, the explanation is not. Write a short paper that
provides this explanation.
Your paper should be in the form of a report that presents both the data and the conclusions you made about the data. You should be sure to explain why you came to those conclusions. Be sure to look at the grading criteria for this paper. |
Late papers are accepted until 10/5 but grade drops by one letter for each day late |
| Sept. 22 |
Is it cheating?
Read the Gustavus
honor code and academic honesty policy, look at the statements
about honor code on several syllabuses for courses here, and complete
the writing
assignment on cheating. |
Late papers are accepted until 9/18 but grade drops by one letter for each day late |
| Sept. 14 |
The topic we will spend the most
time on
this semester is cryptography, which is concerned with methods for
communicating secret information and keeping it secret. Our
main textbook (Barr) assumes that the readers know and understand
what secret
information is and why it should be kept secret. In this paper I
would
like you to explore this assumption. What is a secret? What kinds of
information
need to be kept secret and why? How does cryptography come
into the picture? Privacy? Working with a partner, spend some time
brainstorming about how to answer these questions. Come up with
some ideas, questions, sources, etc. Then write a 1 -
2 page
paper that summarizes your thinking. Note that you are strongly
encouraged to
discuss this topic with other students, but each student should write
his/her own paper. Be sure to cite your sources. |
Late papers are accepted until
9/18 but grade drops by one letter for each day late |
| Sept. 9 |
Why
are we here?
Why did you sign up for this
particular FTS? Write a brief essay describing what your
interests in cryptography are, what skills you bring to this course,
what areas you're interested in learning about, what questions you have
about the subject, and so on.Your paper should be typed (use a word processor with a spell-checker) and should be about 250-300 words long. It will be graded using the general grading criteria; however, the grade on this paper will not count as part of your semester grade. |
no late papers accepted |