1. The assignment should not take more than one hour unless you are having enough fun to warrant a greater investment.

2. The purposes are

• Grades will be based up to 50% on these assignments.
• The assignments might help you make connections between your coursework and the research projects which are being described.
• The assignments might stimulate you to look beyond the coursework and learn something interesting
• A well-chosen topic should be fun to do.

3. A satisfactory piece should be about 1/2 page in length and might have various forms:

• It could look like a homework problem.  It could have diagrams.  There should be enough written material that someone could understand what you are doing and why.
• It could be a qualitative discussion including personal reactions or opinions.  In this case, the writing should be careful and interesting to read.
• It should be original with you.  You may discuss problems with friends but the answer you submit should be your own work.  If you find material from the web or other sources, don't copy without attribution.  This is plagiarism, a violation of academic honesty.  You can quote from sources (put the quoted material in quotation marks and give the source.)  Well-chosen quotations can give a very good answer to a question.  I will be suspicious of professional sounding discussions without sources cited, and I know how to check whether my suspicions are founded.  I will follow the University rules on academic honesty.