2008
         BIOLOGICAL SIMULATION TECHNIQUES: Academic Integrity

This statement is about working together, collaboration, helping, copying, and
cheating.

In BL4430, you will submit a number of exercises and projects that will have
your name on them.  The general rule is that submissions with your name on them
must have been done by yourself, individually.  Putting your name on work done
by somebody else is plagiarism.  Faculty at Michigan Tech are required to
report plagiarism, whether it is done by students, staff, or other faculty.

    -You must be very careful not to copy the work of any other student.
    -You should not allow others to copy your work.

While it is permissable to "help" other students in the course, you have to be
very careful when doing this not to give so much help that the other student is
in effect copying your program.  If you help another student too much, the
other student is not learning, but is relying on your expertise.  While this
can be a big ego boost, it defeats the purpose of the course.  If another
student is "stuck" more than a couple of times on a program, you will probably
be better off referring the student to the instructor.

In this course, you may receive help from another student as long as the ideas
and help are communicated in English.  So, you should not look at a copy of
another student's program either transmitted to you electronically or viewed
on their video screen or read from a printed copy.  Neither should you accept
a vocal readout of their code.

When you are learning to set up a simulation on a computer, discussing what
you are trying to do with another individual can increase your understanding 
and rate of learning.  The communication with other students can help your
comprehension.   Since the objective of the class is education, talking about
the general problem in English is acceptable.  However, when you have to look
at someone's code to understand how they solved a problem, then you have missed
some steps in the educational process of rendering a concept into code.  Making
mistakes is part of the learning process, and looking at code bypasses this.
(An expert is somebody who has made a lot more mistakes than you have yet made.)
Do not look at another person's code.

The programs you write should be your own work, so that you completely 
understand them.  The instructor may ask an individual questions about the 
details of a program.  If the individual cannot explain the program or does not
understand what the program does, the instructor will consider this evidence
that the individual was not the author of the program.
      
Any students found to be involved in either giving or receiving programs 
will be reported to the Office of Student Affairs.  Penalties recommended to
that Office will range from losing two or three letter grades to failing 
the course.  Dismissal from the university is a possibility if you have been
previously involved in plagiarism
      
To avoid getting involved in illegitimate activities of this sort, here is 
some advice:
 
   1. Do not get behind in your work.  If you avoid getting into a panic, you
      will not be tempted to do something stupid.
    
   2. If you need help, ask for it from the instructor.  Any reasonable
      questions about model development and BASIC programming and machine
      operations will be answered cheerfully and happily.  (Replies to
      unreasonable questions will be cheerful and happy also, although
      perhaps not as helpful.)

   3. Do not leave around materials that other persons might copy, including
      scratch sheets and listing of code.  Carefully destroy any such materials;
      leaving paper materials in recycling boxes is not recommended.
    
   4. If anyone asks to see your program, tell them to ask the instructor for
      help.
    
   5. If you see anyone copying your material, report it to the instructor so
      that you will not be held responsible for exchanging material.