Chapter 8 Laboratory Academic Regulations

8.1 Accessibility Statement

Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. If you have a disability/health consideration that may require accommodations, please feel free to contact me directly and/or the AccessAbility Services Office as soon as possible. I will work with you and AccessAbility Services to ensure you can achieve your learning goals in this course. All enquiries are confidential. The UTSC AccessAbility Services staff (located in S302) is available by appointment to assess specific needs, provide referrals and arrange appropriate accommodations. (416) 287-7560 or ability@utsc.utoronto.ca.

8.2 Policy on Missed Labs

If you need to miss a laboratory period for any reason, contact your Teaching Assistant (see list of emails in 2.1) and Prof. Martin by e-mail (adam.martin@utoronto.ca) within 48 hours of your missed lab. In order to avoid receiving a grade of zero for your missed experiment, you must provide appropriate documentation to support the reason for your absence. This needs to be submitted to Dr. Martin within one week of your absence. If the reason for your absence is medical, submit a UTSC Medical Certificate completed by your doctor. Note that the completed note must meet the following criteria:

  • Your physician must have examined you during the period of illness/injury (not after the fact)
  • The missed lab period must fall within the indicated start date and anticipated end date
  • The physician must rank your illness as either moderate, serious, or severe; illnesses deemed mild or negligible will not be considered valid excuses

Once the appropriate documentation has been received and if space and time permits, a make-up lab may be scheduled. In the event that a make-up lab is not possible, the marks from the other labs will be re-weighted to make up for the grades associated with the missed experiment. For labs missed without a valid reason or without adequate documentation, you will receive a grade of zero on the associated assignment. Note that the following reasons are NOT considered valid excuses and will result in a grade of zero:

  1. “I slept in.”
  2. “I forgot which day my lab was.”
  3. “My bus was late.”
  4. “I went to the wrong room.”

8.3 Policy on Late Arrivals

Do not be late for your lab or you are not likely to be allowed to carry out the experiment/laboratory, especially those that first involve local fieldwork. In such cases, the experiment will be treated as a missed lab and the above policy on missed labs will apply. Please refer to the syllabus for more information.

8.4 Due Dates and Penalties

The due dates for your formal lab assignments are non-negotiable. There will be no extensions granted under almost any circumstance, including for illness, since you have ample time to complete assignments.

8.5 Academic Offences

Submission of written material that is not original (that is, work that has been copied from another source or even paraphrased liberally from a friend’s work, is not the product of the student’s own work, or is made up, or is your friend’s original data rather than your own) will not be given credit. Please read the CODE OF BEHAVIOUR ON ACADEMIC MATTERS - JULY 1, 2019. Suspected offences will be reported to the Chair of the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences and the Office of Academic Integrity and, if sanctions are taken, a letter recording the offence will reside in the student’s permanent academic file. In the case of repeat offences, a statement recording that fact may appear on the student’s transcript.

Note that the following are all considered examples of academic offences:

  • Copying someone else’s work, even if you change a few words, without due credit.
  • Allowing someone else to copy your work.
  • Altering your experimental data to try and improve your results grade.
  • Using others’ experimental data because e.g., you missed a lab.
  • Making up/fabricating experimental data.