Lectures are not supposed to be dry, monotonous recitations of expert knowledge. Every lecture is meant to stimulate and provoke your thinking. We lecturers need you students to be an active and engaged audience, and we have found that if we give students points for attending lectures, they show up and participate. In every lecture there will be one, simple, factual, multiple-choice question about the reading and the main ideas from the recent lectures posted on the class Canvas site (so you should bring a internet-enabled digital device).

It's really more of a pause in the presentation to consolidate the big ideas than it is a test. You will always be able to take this quiz multiple times. You get credit, in other words, for being in class and attempting to answer, rather than being “right.” But, you have to be there to find out the magic password from Ryan or Jadran. You will only be able to take this quiz during lecture. (Students with special requirements can make arrangements with Ryan to receive the password and take the quiz at a time they are able to take it.) To get full credit for this portion of the final grade, you can only skip four questions in four lectures. (Or, you are expected to come to at least 22 lectures and answer 22 questions.)