EXTRA CREDIT GENERAL INFORMATION

•You can earn extra credit points via any of the options listed below.  Your extra credit points will all be added to your total quiz points at the end of the semester.  Keep an eye on your “extra credit” grade in WebCT to see how many extra credit points you’ve accumulated so far this semester.  Extra credit should be turned in throughout the semester - especially at the beginning of the semester.  Don’t wait until the end because in the end...it’s too late.

•I offer extra credit for good reasons, not just because I like the word “extra”.  Not only is it good for your understanding to create tutorials and example problems with detailed solutions for yourself, as you learn this stuff you’re the best person to explain it to others since the misconceptions that you overcome while learning are still fresh in your head.  Once we’ve mastered a concept it becomes more difficult to remember why it was so hard to learn in the first place so your fresh perspective helps remind me why you might need a “teacher” in the first place to help you learn this stuff.  Also, your contributions will be available for your classmates to learn from.  This is the primary purpose of my extra credit project so keep your target audience in mind when you create something for extra credit.  If it won’t help a confused classmate then it won’t help you or me and won’t be worth many extra credit points.

• I may post your extra credit submissions online on this website or submit it to the Textpotential Educational Organization for the whole world to use.  Your name will be included (unless otherwise desired by you) with the submission and will be in their list of contributors on their website www.textpotential.org and will be subject to a creative commons copyright policy.  In other words, make a good homework problem and it may be published in addition to you receiving extra credit.  If you don’t want your work to be placed online then please let me know.

EXTRA CREDIT OPTIONS

•EXAMPLE EXAM PROBLEM (Multiple Choice):    Create an example exam problem.  Not just any problem.   It needs to be multiple choice Parscore friendly so I can possibly use it on future exams.  I'm not looking to see if people can simply work a problem.  I want to know if you can generalize their knowledge or see the implications of what they know.  In other words, I'm testing for comprehension, not just "knowing" the facts.  Design a good problem for me and I'll issue you extra credit points.  The amount of extra credit points awarded will depend on the quality of the problem.  Make sure you provide a detailed solution to the problem explaining as much correlation as possible to other class material.  Include a description of the concepts your problem is testing for.  Look at my exam solutions to get an idea of what an “explanation” can be.  You can make ONE example exam problem per exam for extra credit so make sure it is a good one.  The exam problem should be relevant to material that will be appearing on a particular exam.  It must be turned in at least a week prior to the exam and you may see your problem on the exam if I liked it.  Again, all extra credit points will be added to your total extra credit points which will be combined with your total quiz points at the end of the semester so don’t be looking for extra points added to your exam grade - they won’t be there.

•EXAMPLE QUIZ PROBLEM:    Each week on quiz day, at the beginning of class, you may turn in one example quiz problem that you have created yourself. Again, don’t take problems from other books.  I’m looking for original and creative material.  Be creative but design the problems and solutions with their purpose in mind (to aid understanding for someone that “doesn’t get it”).  Give a detailed solution and any comments about the problem including what concepts the problem is leading the student to/through.  Extra credit points assigned will depend on the quality of the problem.

•UNIT CIRCLE (Precalculus Students Only):    Create your own version of the Unit Circle diagram.  You can do it digitally, or by hand.  It can be a simple drawing or an interactive applet like the one found on Dave’s Short Course in Trig.  It can be in color or in black and white.  It can be simple or ornate, beautiful or ugly.  Just try to make it so that it is useful.  Try to represent the information and concepts on the unit circle in your own, unique, clear, and meaningful way.  Don’t give me something that has already been done.  Check out Textpotential’s Unit Circle Gallery for ideas and to see what’s already been done.  Produce something original if you expect any extra credit points to be added to your quiz average.  You may turn in only one unit circle for the semester so make it a good one.  The more useful it is to the other students, the more points it will be worth.  (Exceptions to this point guideline come only from very creative submissions.)

•TUTORIALS:    The tutorials I’ve created for you in the tutorial section are the kinds of things you should create for yourself in all of your classes.  Create your own tutorial for any particular concept/section in your own words and in your own style.  Don’t give me someone else’s work.  Again, I’m looking for non-copyrighted, original material created by you.  These are due on quiz days along with the extra credit homework and quiz problems.  Create these tutorials to help yourself prepare for the quizzes.  Although I limit the number of extra credit homework problems to one a week, you can produce as many tutorials as you like, limiting only to one tutorial per concept.  But remember, quality produces more points than quantity.  If you want to make something of professional quality then use latex to type up your tutorial or use other software to make movies or interactive programs.  Let me know if you would like some suggestions if you are the “techie type” and want to put those skills to work to do something meaningful for the world.

•CORRECTIONS:    Find any errors in my tutorials, in my old exam and quiz solutions or anywhere on the class website and I will issue extra credit.  I’m adding new material all the time and I’m leaving it to you to bring the bugs to my attention.  Find the bugs, small or large.  I fix errors often so the files on the website are constantly being updated so check the revision date of the file you’re looking at if you find an error and check to see if that error has already been corrected and if a new file has been uploaded in it’s place.

•iQuiz:    iQuiz is a program used to make quizzes for the Apple iPod VIdeo.  You can read about it here and download the iQuiz Maker here.

•LATEX:    Learn LaTex and typeset your extra credit nicely with it.  Click here for a LaTex tutorial or go to the Tex User Group (TUG) website for everything there is to know about latex and for free LaTex downloads.  You can also click here for a tutorial I found on the web.  LaTex is perfect for Computer Science majors, an absolute MUST for math majors, and valuable tool for any science major or major that will lead you to a job that includes any legal or technical writing.  All research papers and most books are typeset in LaTex.  LaTex comes in many different flavors like Linux and is also free.  You can download the full LaTex package for the Mac here or search the TUG website for PC downloads.  You can also use Computer Algebra Programs, such as Mathematica, to produce LaTex code.  Check out some sample latex files of my own here or, if you don’t want to write your own tutorial or problem then go to my Written Tutorials webpage to find some content that you can LaTex for extra credit.

•GOOD IDEAS:    If you have any other unique ideas for things that can be provided via the web to aid in student understanding then let me know.  If you can provide anything that could help others understand Precalculus better and/or easier, it would be a valuable resource to us all.

MORE EXTRA CREDIT INFORMATION

•I WILL NOT TAKE ANY EXTRA CREDIT AFTER THE LAST QUIZ: Earn it during the semester while you still have a chance.

•DON’T GIVE ME CRAP:  Don’t expect points for crap.  This is not a welfare organization and I’m not doing this to boost your grade.  I’m doing this to promote creative thought and to make your learning tools more closely match your learning needs.  Don’t just copy something out of a book or the internet like a monkey or scribble something down in two minutes before class.  I will be posting decent submissions on the website for future students to use and admire.  Different styles register well with different people so I’d like to provide some variety.

•TURNING IT IN:  If you’ve done something in a digital format please email me the digital version (you don’t have to do the extra credit digitally) because then it will be easier for me to use.  I usually scan hand written/drawn stuff so I can save it on my computer.  Again, digital files are preferred (especially in LaTex ) but not required.