Chapter 5 Laboratory Academic Regulations

5.1 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.

5.2 Policy on Missed Labs

All of the labs are online and are each allocated a 2-week period for completion. Therefore, we anticipate that students missing labs is an unusual occurrence. However, if you are unable to complete a lab assignment on time, you must provide appropriate documentation to request a late submission. This needs to be submitted to Dr. Martin within one week of your lab not being submitted. 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, you and your TA may discuss a new submission date. In the rare event that a new submission date 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 that are not submitted on time 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 internet did not work/had problems.”

5.3 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.

5.4 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.