A student's course grade should reflect the student's level of competence with the course material, along, perhaps, with other relevant qualities. I have struggled my entire teaching career to come up with a grading scheme that satisfies that goal. Tests and quizzes, for example, generally fail to provide a full picture of students' capabilities.  They are snapshots in time; they are limited in the sorts of material that can be tested; they do not reflect how well someone functions as a colleague and co-worker; and they are produced under time pressure, which is not realistic for the sort of work one does in most classes.

Last quarter my co-instructor and I came up with these evaluation criteria for weekly assignments, which we used as the basis for course grades.  Rather than simply imposing them on you, I would like to open a discussion of the sort of grading mechanism you would like. Please reply to this forum post and participate in the discussion. 

If you were in the class last semester in which we used this approach, please discuss how it worked for you.

I know I'm more likely to look forward to coming to class when I know people are willing to share what they've discovered through doing the assignment. That might sound silly but I think for a class like this, it's important to have an environment where we can get a good discussion going between everyone. I've been in a few of Dr. Abbott's other classes and I've learned the most (and have gotten the most enjoyment out of it) when there is an active discussion about that week's assignment, including any additional neat things people have found as a result of doing a little bit of extra digging into the material. 

I know that it is difficult to base grades around something as loose as that, but hopefully whatever we end up doing encourages that kind of a classroom environment.