{"id":54,"date":"2015-01-01T13:30:30","date_gmt":"2015-01-01T20:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc320\/?page_id=54"},"modified":"2016-12-28T13:49:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T20:49:23","slug":"bonus-point-reward-program","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/bonus-point-reward-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonus"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>What?<\/h3>\n<p>Bonus points are available for doing anything that, in the staff&#8217;s opinion, is Awesome. What&#8217;s Awesome? A good guideline is the Three Laws of Bonusotics:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A bonus-point accumulating activity (BPAA) goes above and beyond the standard expectations of the course.<\/li>\n<li>A BPAA contributes to the learning of the student who did it without detracting from others&#8217; learning. Preferably, a BPAA contributes to the entire class&#8217;s learning. &#8220;Learning&#8221; is broadly defined.<\/li>\n<li>There is no other Law, but there have to be\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Three_Laws_of_Robotics\">Three Laws<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The course staff has sole discretion over whether an activity qualifies for bonus points and how many to award. To calibrate, we will usually award one bonus point at a time and won\u2019t award more than 4 at a time without national news coverage.<\/p>\n<h3>Examples<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Noting an interesting connection between course material and general current events or an algorithmic development or application of interest.<\/li>\n<li>Posting something especially scintillating on the discussion board, particularly if it gains acclaim from your peers.<\/li>\n<li>Following up on an open question raised during class (by searching the literature, developing an algorithm, writing a proof, or performing experiments) and posting a summary of the results.<\/li>\n<li>Posting an insightful and entertaining parody version of a popular song that centres around algorithmic concepts. (E.g., for inspiration, Sean Sandys\u2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/webhome.csc.uvic.ca\/~ruskey\/classes\/326\/TreeSong.html\">post-Vietnam era tribute to balanced trees<\/a>.)<\/li>\n<li>Establishing a weekly, open 320 study period by reserving space and posting an open invitation.<\/li>\n<li>Proving P=NP (or P\u2260NP) and sharing authorship with the instructional staff.<\/li>\n<li>Anything else the course staff deem worthy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Why?<\/h3>\n<p>Well, besides being good for you (like spinach), bonus points lead to the following fabulous rewards:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Upon earning your second bonus point,<\/strong>\u00a0you earn the complexity rank of\u00a0<strong>constant<\/strong>\u00a0and receive a mildly amusing piece of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.ca\/search?q=define:schlock\">schlock<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Upon earning your fourth bonus point,<\/strong>\u00a0you earn the complexity rank of\u00a0<strong>logarithmic<\/strong>\u00a0and we drop your second lowest assignment\/quiz mark. (Remember: we\u2019re already dropping your lowest.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Upon earning your eighth bonus point,<\/strong>\u00a0you earn the complexity rank of\u00a0<strong>linear<\/strong>\u00a0and we add 1% to your midterm exam mark.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Upon earning your sixteenth bonus point,<\/strong>\u00a0you earn the complexity rank of\u00a0<strong>quadratic<\/strong>\u00a0and we add 1% to your final exam mark.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Should you earn 32 or more bonus points,<\/strong>\u00a0then you are <strong>exponentially awesome <\/strong>and receive\u2026 some more schlock (but better schlock).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, the class as a whole will also accumulate rewards:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>For every bonus point you\u00a0accumulate,<\/strong>\u00a0we will donate $1 (to a maximum of $512) in the class&#8217;s name to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unhcr.ca\/\">UN Refugee Agency<\/a>, who are solving one of the world\u2019s most important <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Flow_network\">network flow<\/a> problems. (Donation will occur as a unit near the end of the term.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>If you\u00a0reach 256 bonus points,<\/strong>\u00a0we will throw an end-of-term party in class!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What? Bonus points are available for doing anything that, in the staff&#8217;s opinion, is Awesome. What&#8217;s Awesome? A good guideline is the Three Laws of Bonusotics: A bonus-point accumulating activity (BPAA) goes above and beyond the standard expectations of the course. A BPAA contributes to the learning of the student who did it without detracting &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/bonus-point-reward-program\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Bonus&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7560,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-54","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7560"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1019,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/cpsc3202016w2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}