Science is inherently a social and collaborative effort, each scientist building on the work of others. Nevertheless, each student must ultimately be responsible for his or her own education. Therefore, you will be expected to abide by a number of

Ground Rules:

We strongly encourage students to work with each other, more advanced students, the TA, and the professor, when they get stuck on assignments (including computer work). However, each student is expected to turn in assignments which show evidence of individual thought.
Homework solutions from previous years are off-limits. You are on your honor not to use them. Allow faculty to use their time interacting with you, rather than continually thinking up new assignments. Besides, if you don't do the work yourself, it will show up very clearly on exams later.
Sources must be appropriately documented. If you find a homework problem worked out somewhere (other than homework solutions from previous years), you may certainly use that resource, just make sure you reference it properly. If someone else helps you solve a problem, reference that too. In a research paper, the appropriate reference would be:

Jane Doe (private communication).

If you find that you have worked on a problem for 30 minutes without making any forward progress, it would be a good idea to stop and seek help.
Homework solutions will be posted in a notebook in the SPS room, hopefully shortly after class on the due date. Assignments turned in after solutions are posted can earn at most 50% of the total points. Very late assignments will earn less. It is quite acceptable, when necessary, to turn in partial assignments by the due date and the rest later.