A Clarification of academic honesty

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Teachers value a lot of qualities: excellence, intelligence, courage, enthusiasm, maturity, a respect for others, perseverance, a sense of humor, confidence, open-mindedness, depth, kindness, etc...

The most important value is academic honesty.

If we tolerate academic dishonesty, we lose trust and credibility. The entire process of learning becomes a sham.

Can anybody profess to be perfectly honest in every situation? Perhaps not. But when we work to preserve academic honesty, we create an environment where:

• Equity is preserved.
• We can trust what we say and do.

The activity-based, technology-based nature of this course will require a good deal of collaboration with your colleagues on homework assignments, and in-class lab assignments. As a result, the lines between healthy discussion and inappropriate sharing of ideas/work can become unclear for some students.

Detailed clarifications are below. But I expect all students to adopt the following rules:

• All work I turn in will be my own.
• If I worked with somebody else on an assignment, I will say so.
• I will not bring unauthorized aid into any testing situation.
• I will cite all outside sources.
• I will not fabricate sources or data.
• I will not assist in helping anybody else be dishonest in their work.

• COLLABORATION: Students may work together to help each other understand homework questions. In fact this is encouraged. If you worked with other people on an assignment, please state this directly on the assignment.
  
• CHEATING / COPYING: A student uses another student's work (whether oral, written, or computerized) as a basis for figuring out how to complete their own work.
  Some examples:
  • copying homework assignments
  • Using another student's assignment / project / response as a basis for forming their own ideas for completing an assignment / project ( borrowing homeworks or projects for "inspiration" )
  • Giving a student the opportunity to cheat or copy (either by actively giving an assignment, or by "leaving it there" for somebody to "discover." )
• In short: "Understand together. Write it up alone. State who you worked with."

CALCULATOR POLICY:

• You may use the built-in programs / commands on the TI 83 on any test, project, or exam.
• If I have personally downloaded programs or lists into your TI 83 Plus, then you may use those on any test, project or exam.
• You may NOT bring into any test, project or exam any programs, notes or lists not specifically approved by me.
• If you have lists or programs from other courses you currently take, talk to me, and I will see if they will be allowed into the room.

Acceptable use of outside resources:

• Quoting or paraphrasing other sources requires citing your source, including website if an Internet - based source. Failure to do so, and masking this information as your own work, is evidence of cheating and plagiarism.

Getting data for a project:

All data for an activity or a project must be collected as outlined in the procedures of the project. This requires one of the following:

• A clear description of the procedure used to get the data.
• A clear citation of the course of the data - I must be able to track it down, based on your citation.

In other words: All data must be legitimate. Plagiarizing or fabricating data is another example of academic dishonesty.

Responses to suspected academic dishonesty:

In any case where academic dishonesty is suspected, I will first talk to the students involved, and explain why they are suspected. At this point, the Chair of the Math department and the student's dean will also be informed of the situation.

At this point, a dialogue between the teacher, the student(s), the Chair, and the deans will occur to discover whether dishonestly occured. In some cases the Honor Board may be involved, but this decision is handled by the deans.

If it's established that a student was dishonest on a task, then a grade of 0 will be given for the task.
In addition, the student may be required to redo the assignment, without credit. Other responses may be determined by the deans, the Head of upper School, or the Honor Board.