Attendance, Participation, and Classroom Procedures

Attendance

It has been said that 90% of success in life comes from just showing up. Please show up on time and prepared to learn and interact with your professors, the TAs, and your fellow students.

Attendance is tracked with the Learning Suite attendance system. Mark your own attendance for each Tuesday and Thursday class session. You do not need to mark attendance for lab sessions. Attendance and participation points are entered at the end of the semester.

Participation

Please participate in class by asking questions and helping answer others' questions. There will be opportunities to work in small groups during class time. Use these activities to actively engage in the learning task with your fellow students.

Many class sessions include a short in-class activity that you record on Learning Suite: uploading a screenshot of a map, a photo of a worked solution, or a short reflection. These are completed during class, so being there matters.

Classroom Procedures

• Each class period starts with a brief mini-devotional: a prayer, a spiritual thought, and a personal note offered by class members. Sign up for a slot on the shared sheet linked from Learning Suite.
• Sometimes we review past quizzes and lab assignments.
• Tuesdays are concept lectures with slides, discussion, and interactive activities.
• Thursdays are demos and hands-on work in QGIS. Bring your laptop with QGIS installed.

Communication

• Course announcements go out through Learning Suite.
• Questions about labs: start with the TAs (contact details on Learning Suite), then the instructors. Dr. Ames' office hours can be booked at calendly.com/dan-ames/office-hours.