Final grades and missing student work: what to do?

Even though I got my grades filed last Friday (hours before the midnight deadline), this week I kept encountering colleagues for whom the grading drama Would. Not. End. As you might imagine, this led to some discussions about what one should do when the grade-filing deadline approaches and you are still waiting for students to cough up the work that needs grading.
I’d like to tell you that this is a rare occurrence. Sadly, it is not. Before we get into speculation about why students may be failing to deliver the deliverables, a quick poll on your preferred professorial response:

Final grades are nearly due when you discover that a student who’s done well on most of the assignments hasn’t handed in one of the major ones. What do you do?online surveys

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Friday Sprog Blogging: planning our (science-y) summer.

It’s June already, and we still have not finalized summer plans for the Free-Ride offspring. (Hey, my semester just ended, and it was only yesterday that I wrapped up the Large Administrative Task That Shall Not Be Named Now That It’s Finally Done. I’ve been a little distracted.)
Anyway, given that we’re at the stage of summer planning where there are a lot of ideas still on the table, I decided to ask the Free-Ride offspring to muse on any science-y aspects of the possible summer activities they are considering.
Here’s the younger Free-Ride offspring’s list:

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Friday Sprog Blogging: evidence of science.

Jet-lag and grading fatigue (plus being on the other coast for three days) mean that I haven’t had much time lately to sit down with the sprogs and have a conversation about science. However, Casa Free-Ride presents me with clues which suggest that the Free-Ride offspring have been thinking about science.

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Ethics case study: science goes to the dogs.

I want to apologize for the infrequency of my posting lately. Much of it can be laid at the feet of end-of-term grading, although today I’ve been occupied with a meeting of scientists at different career stages to which I was invited to speak about some topics I discuss here. (More about that later.) June will have more substantive ethics-y posts, honest!
Indeed, to tide you over, I want to ask for your responses to a case study I wrote for the final exam for my “Ethics in Science” class.
First, the case:

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Friday Sprog Blogging: science in pictures and words.

The Free-Ride offspring have been wary of extended conversations with me lately (maybe since most of them eventually come around to, “Surely you’d like to help your mother grade these papers!”). However, I was able to extract some pictorial evidence that each of them has been thinking about science.
From the younger Free-Ride offspring, some basic things you ought to know about phases of matter:

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Friday Sprog Blogging: grading.

The Free-Ride offspring are pretty sure what I do for a living is grade papers. But seeing as how they’re both students, I thought I’d ask what the view of things is like on the other side of the red pen.
Dr. Free-Ride: When you come in and find me working on the weekend, what am I usually working on?
Younger offspring: Grading?
Dr. Free-Ride: Yeah. I know that you do a lot of homework and assignments.
Younger offspring: Mmm-hmm.
Dr. Free-Ride: And your teacher grades them.
Younger offspring: No! We correct them together.
Dr. Free-Ride: You correct it all together?
Younger offspring: Yeah. She doesn’t really look at them.
Dr. Free-Ride: What?

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Repent! The end (of the semester) is nigh!

Yeah, still grading here. Yesterday I returned mass quantities of graded papers (with a free paperclip for every student!) and have another assignment to grade today … just in time for two more assignments which come due tomorrow. And then, the final exam!
Ever the optimist, this morning in the shower I wondered how things would turn out if the Rapture were to happen while I’m in the midst of all this grading. It’s the kind of hypothetical that demands a poll:

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