You must notify the instructor in advance if you are unable to attend a lab. Using a preprogrammed calculator in a quiz or exam to store information not available to the entire class, including solutions or equations, is considered cheating. This is a physics class and, therefore, it has similarities to all other physics classes. Physics is a conceptual and mathematical science and will require using mathematics and mental models as tools for solving problems. For some students, the math serves as an obstacle to learning physics.
Some students believe that if they can follow the lectures in class, then they have learned physics.
This is not true. To learn physics, a student must do a significant amount of work outside of class thinking about, and interacting with, the course material. No one ever learns physics by simply reading about it or listening to someone talk about it. You learn it by making the effort to understand the material, building mental pictures, and by solving problems using the principles learned. The standard requirement in a college class is that you spend two hours outside class working on the material for every hour in class.