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I'm curious about whether your institution or department has an attendance policy for your lab-based classes?
For our courses that include a lab (i.e. - general chemistry with lab), our departmental policy is that if a student misses 3 labs, they fail the entire course.
For courses that are just lab (i.e. - inorganic lab, biochemistry lab), the policy can vary based on instructor. But if a student misses more than two labs, they probaly aren't going to do very well in the course anyways.
Just had to enforce the departmental policy this week for a student in gen chem, which got me thinking about what other schools do regarding absences in lab.
Hi Nicole,
We have a strict 2 misses and your're out policy outlined on our syllabi, and they have to be there within the first 10 min in proper attire or they can't come in. We only have ~8 labs a quarter, so missing 2 is basically missing 75% of the material already. We do drop the lowest score, so if they miss one day its not the end of the world as long as they do well on their other labs.
Kyle
We likewise have an unofficial two strikes and your out policy (technically, we ask them to withdraw). It's not quite offical department policy, but I think every member of the department uses it - they just aren't required to. The institution is working on an official school-wide policy.