Grading Rubrics

Computational Problems

• Correct or Reasonable Answer Was the answer correct? In some cases, we might make allowances and give credit for incorrect answer that are reasonable. However, incorrect answers that are clearly wrong will not receive credit. (For example, if you were to calculate the distance to a nearby star as 20 kilometers, this would not be reasonable. However, if you got 10 light-years and the answer were really 15 light-years, this would probably be OK. In other words, reflect on your answers a bit before moving on.)
• Appropriate Method Was your method a reasonable one? Did you use a reasonable equation with reasonable input values?
• Explanation of steps taken Did you explain what you were doing and where you were getting numerical values from? A few words (not necessarily even complete sentences, although they help) at each step makes it clear what you are doing. Doing this will also probably improve your score on the previous two items.

Short Answer Problems

• Correct or Reasonable Answer As above, does your answer makes sense based on what we've been learning in the class?
• Clear and Good Reasoning Does your reasoning make sense? Can we clearly tell what you were thinking? Are your sentences easy to understand and does one sentence follow from the previous? This is the bulk of the points for this kind of problem because this sort of problem is intended to get you to reason through problems and then explain that reasoning to someone else.
• Clear English While a few spelling or grammatical errors are acceptable, rampant misspellings or poor grammar are not. In order to express yourself clearly in English, your readers have to be able to understand your writing at the mechanical level before they can understand you on a conceptual level.

Some, but not many, of our in-class activities will have right (or at least reasonable) answers.

• Accuracy of Answer Are the answers accurate? (Either correct or reasonable)
• Accuracy of Reasoning This is the main source of points. In effect, is the reasoning you include reasonable/accurate? You can make a mistake here, and still get partial credit. (As usual)
• Readibility Can we read your work. This is both legibility of the handwriting and comprehensibility of what you wrote.

In-Class Creative Work

These are for in-class work that involves your creativity more than right/wrong answers. Most of the activities will be from this group. Such activities include brain-storming and any kind of art (cartooning of processes, etc). Mainly, we want you to show that you thought about the problem and were able to apply what we've been learning towards solving it. Your solutions need not be correct, but they should show that you understand the course material.

• Completeness Did you do the entire assignment? Did you put real effort into it?
• Accuracy Does you work reflect an understanding of what we have learned so far?
• Readibility Can we read your work. This is both legibility of the handwriting and comprehensibility of what you wrote.

• Arguments are Accurate Are your arguments accurate based on what we observe/measure or based on what we have been learning in class?
• Arguments are Relevant to the Conclusion Is it clear how your arguments support your conclusions?
• Arguments are convincing Do your arguments make me believe your conclusion or make your conclusion seem reasonable? Or are there stronger arguments that you could have easily made?
• Clear English Is it easy to understand the mechanics of your English? Is the spelling and grammar generally correct? (Again, a few mistakes are forgivable. But don't forget to run a spell-check before you print your essay.)
• Correct Use of Scientific Terms As part of your argument, you will probably have to use technical terms. Using them where appropriate shows that you understand the terms and the subject matter. It also makes the argument more convincing. (But be careful: in general, too many technical terms can deter a reader. But you're pretty safe using them with me.)
• Good Overall Structure Do your sentences follow each other logically? Are the arguments easy to follow? Did you break your essay up into paragraphs, where paragraph breaks represent a change in topic?

Journals

• Readability Can I read and understand what you wrote? This includes handwriting; if your handwriting is really bad (like mine), you might consider typing your journal. Also, you don't need to have wonderful spelling and grammar, or even complete sentences all the time. But I do need to be able to understand what you're saying.
• Reactions to Course Material One of the main goals of the journals is for you to think about the course material (the subject matter in the readings, mainly) yourself. This can include what you find interesting, confusing or surprising. It can also include connections you make to other parts of the course or even to completely different fields. It can even include speculation or unanswered questions you might have about the material.
• Reactions to the Teaching Methods Another big goal with the journals is for you to be aware of how you are (and aren't!) learning. So take some time to reflect on how the assignments, in-class work, book and instructor have helped (or hindered) you to learn.
• Personal Reflection This is your time to reflect on how you think your understanding of science, the universe around you and our place in the universe is developing through the term. For instance, you might find that you read science stories in the newspaper differently now than you did before the course began.

Night Observing Projects

• Observations This is the bulk of the points for this assignment. Basically, did you do the observations and then record them so that I can tell that you did them?
• Presentation Your sketches should be reasonably neat and your writing should be clear enough that I can read it. In effect, I expect you to take a little bit of time to make things look nice.

Long-term Observing Projects

• Question Asked Was the question answerable? Did it show some thought about the motions or behaviors of the Sun or Moon? (Remember, you can always discuss your question with Aditya or me!) Making your question clear right at the beginning makes it a lot easier for the reader to understand the point of your experiment!
• Method Is your experimental method likely to answer the question you asked? Did you consider how you would need to do the observations and any complications that are likely to arise? (Again, don't hesitate to talk to us!) Research papers should always explain their methods so that the reader could reproduce the experiment if they wanted to.
• Data Did you collect the data? Also, are they presented in a neat format (like a table, set of sketches or a graph)? Raw data (even bad data!) are important in research so that your readers can check your analysis and conclusions for themselves.
• Analysis of Data Did you recognize trends in the data? Do you explain how you deduce these trends clearly? (By the way, "I can't answer the question based on these data," is a reasonable conclusion, provided it's true.) Good research papers make it clear how the author(s) come to their conclusions. Without this, the reader has no idea if your science is valid or not.
• Conclusions Do your conclusions follow from the data and the analysis? Do you recognize problems with your experiment or suggest directions for future research? A good conclusion wraps up the research and speculates on what the results mean or about what might be done next.
• Clarity Overall, do I understand what you are trying to say? Can I easily follow your experiment and analysis? Many research paper would fail this part, by the way. But I learn to avoid these papers, so it isn't a good thing!
• Structure Is the write-up written with clear sections, each section being a different phase of the experiment? This is important for readers so that they can most easily understand what you sought to test and how you tested it. It also makes referencing your paper a lot easier.
• Proper English This is the spelling and grammar thing again.