About those optional exercises...

This is the archived website of SI 413 from the Fall 2012 semester. Feel free to browse around; you may also find more recent offerings at my teaching page.

You will notice that some exercises in labs are marked "optional". What this means is:

I will look at them and test/grade them if you submit, but it will not count towards your lab grade.
There is no penalty for not attempting them, in terms of grades.

So why would you ever do them? Well, perhaps one of these situations applies to you:

You are interested in the subject of this course and want to challenge yourself a little bit.
You want me to give your final grade a second thought when it falls just below the "A" or "B" cutoff line.
You want me to write you a recommendation letter for you in the future.
You are so talented that the rest of the lab is boring and lacks any intellectual stimulation for you.
You finish the rest of the lab early and need some productive way to spend your time.

My hope is that these "optional" exercises are fun little challenges for you, with little risk. Any feedback you might have for me regarding their efficacy would be appreciated.