Attendance

How important is attendance in this course?  I expect you to come to class, of course.  However, I will not be taking attendance, nor will I deliberately write exam questions on material from class in order to "catch" you.  Nevertheless, anything that comes up in class lectures or discussions is fair game for exam questions, and of course class lectures tend to deal with what is important and tend to appear on exams.  In short, your presence in class will bring a reward without my explicit intervention.

The exception to this is that you have to be present at the beginning of the class in order to take and receive credit for a quiz.  This applies regardless of the reason for your absence;  the quizzes are not a moral judgment on your reasons for absence.