HW 0

  • Submit to Canvas:
  • HW0 Solutions:
  • Canvas Self-Assessment Quiz:

Self-Assessment

Rules of Engagement for Self-Assessment Portion:

There will be a written homework assignment due in electronic form as a .pdf on Canvas due on Sunday at 11:59PM. There will be weekly homework assignments. If for some reason you need to submit your homework late, you should notify Prof Ratliff before the deadline and discuss options with her. Solutions will be posted on Monday after the assignment is due, and self-assessments are due Friday at 11:59PM. There will be approximately 8 homework assignments.

Self-assessment Details

You can find a short slide deck with more precise details on how to comment on your homework in canvas here.

To provide training and feedback that helps cultivate self-reflection, with the exception of one randomly selected problem that the TA will grade, you will grade your homework assignments and receive oversight and feedback from the instructional staff regarding the accuracy of your self-assessment. This enables all the benefits of self-reflection which has been shown to improve retention and understanding, as well as enable you to receive full credit on your homework as explained below.

Rubric: we will provide detailed solutions on Monday after the homework submission deadline, and you will have until Friday to grade each of your homework problems on a 0,1,2 point scale:

  • 0 points - no effort / not attempted
  • 1 points - attempted, but incomplete or incorrect solution
  • 2 points - complete and correct solution

For any problem that earns a 1, you have the opportunity to explain the error in your solution and how to correct it; if this explanation is correct, you earn the full 2 points on the problem. You do not give yourself the 2 points if you got an incorrect problem and corrected it. The TA and myself will assign you the extra point after going through your homework.  To specify grades and provide explanations of any errors, use the Comment feature in Canvas’s Assignment page for the homework (see the self grade guide here).

Notes and caveats intended to ensure the integrity of this process:

  • if you did not attempt the problem initially, you will receive 0 points;
  • if you do not grade a problem, you will receive 0 points;
  • if you grade incorrectly (i.e. initial solution is incomplete or incorrect and your explanation is incomplete or incorrect), you will receive 1 or 0 at the discretion of the instructional staff (this ensures you cannot simply assign all “2”s, nor can you receive full credit for incomplete or incorrect explanations).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  • Q:  should I download my .pdf, add comments (e.g. via Adobe Acrobat), and re-upload the .pdf?

  • A: That’s fine, but it’s probably easier to use the in-browser “CrocoDoc” viewing and annotation pane provided in Canvas.

  • Q:  does my .pdf need to contain all of my homework writeup materials, or can some be in an .ipynb file?

  • A: Your writeup must be submitted as a single self-contained .pdf document.  You must also upload sourcecode for any computational tools used to complete the assignment, but these will not be graded (they are used only to protect against plagiarism of source code).

Submission guidelines

You are welcome (and we encourage you) to typeset your homework assignments in LaTeX rather than write them by hand. Overleaf provides a nice easy method to do this without having to install anything.  We will provide both .pdf and, where necessary, .ipynb files for homework assignments and solutions.

If you write your solutions by hand, you must create a legible scan; if you have any doubts about the fidelity of your scans, send a sample to the TA / Prof in advance of the homework deadline.

how to scan information.