(1) Asking questions, pointing out errors, making insightful comments in class.
For contributions in class or in Dr. Darcy's office hours (including appointments outside of normal office hours), you need to e-mail a short description of the contribution to
Your e-mails should be cumulative so that at the end of the semester we have one e-mail containing all your class contributions. In other words reply to the last one that you sent. including some details in your email (such as what question, comment, error did you point out) would be helpful, especially if you would like a letter of recommendation. However, the e-mails can be informal and should be quickly written. Do not spend much time on them.
You should send the e-mails on an approximately weekly basis, but you don't need to send an e-mail every week. I expect that the vast majority of student who participates in class will earn 100%. A rare few may earn 110%. The participation grade will replace your lowest HW grade assuming your participation grade is higher.
(2) Contribute to our class wiki: http://wiki.uiowa.edu/display/biocalc/Home and NOT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Biocalc
(3) Actively contribute in discussion section.
(4) Actively participate in office/mathlab hours.
Why earn participation points?
(1) You learn more by participating.
(2) In case you need a letter of recommendation and you haven't had enough small lecture courses yet. Letters from professors count more than letters from TAs. If you need a letter from me, I can use your participation e-mail to describe how active you were in class in addition to including comments from your TA. Being active in a large lecture class looks good in a letter of recommendation.