Once a student leaves the classroom after taking an exam, the student may not re-enter the classroom as long as that exam is still taking place. The student's leaving the exam will be taken to signify that the student has finished that exam. We won't know until we've taken the exams and carefully thought about the results. I have to do this because we will be covering a lot of material at the forefronts of knowledge. This isn't like high school, where everything has been taught for years to hundreds of other people, and so how to teach it has been thoroughly tested by the time it gets to you.
Writing is a key skill for everyone.
No scientific investigation is complete until it becomes known to the world. Scientists usually do this by writing papers and publishing them. Too many scientific discoveries have been ignored because the scientists did not do a good job of writing up the results, in ways that people could understand. I will therefore assign a 2200-word paper , due on the last day of instruction, Wednesday, May 16 . Having something to say in your paper is essential.