Lab Write-ups

• Title Page -- The first page of your lab will be a title page, consisting of the following information:
  • The title of the lab
  • Your name
  • The date
  • Names of your lab partners (clearly separated from your name, of course).
  • An introduction to the lab, 2-3 sentences in length. The introduction should tell what the lab is about and what you will do in the lab. You should be able to write it before coming to lab just from having read the lab over.
• The main body of the lab. This is where you answer the lab questions (see guidelines below). Each answer should be labeled with the number of the question.
• A conclusion, 3 paragraphs long. The first paragraph should tell the reader what you did and what you learned in this lab. Explain anything that might have surprised you or anything you found interesting.

  The second paragraph should tell me what you found difficult, annoying or weird about the lab. Please offer suggestions on ways to improve the lab, if you can think of any.

  The final paragraph should tell me what you enjoyed about the lab or found most useful/interesting. The second and third paragraphs can be short, a few sentences. The first ought to be somewhat longer.

• Numbers Have Units -- Most numbers in this course will have units, be they meters, seconds, grams or light-years. (The major exception which we will encounter is ratios. Ratios are, by definition, unitless. I'll try to point them out as we see them.) Units should be shown with all numbers, whether they are in tables, calculations or final answers. Final answers without units will be marked completely wrong. In tables, you can label the units of a column at the top of the column, along with the label (for example, a column showing falling times could be labeled "Time of Fall (in seconds".)
  Reason: Remember Mars Climate Orbiter? It was lost because some folks at Lockheed forgot to show units. Besides the simple fact that showing units is part of clear communication, if you check your units throughout calculations (do they cancel correctly?), you can save yourself a lot of mistakes.
• Use Complete Sentences -- Use complete sentences in your write-ups, everywhere. Not just your final answer, but also in showing me how you got the answer. Furthermore, the sentences should reflect the question. "The answer is 4 meters," while technically a sentence is not very informative. "The distance the ball fell was 4 meters," is much more helpful.
  Reason: In addition to 'science,' we are also trying to teach you clear communications skills. These skills are at least as important in the sciences as in any other field. Additionally, it helps me in grading and it sometimes permits me to assign partial credit to an answer that might be wrong (but arrived at in a reasonable manner).
• Show All Work -- All your work should be shown. Raw answers will be given no credit at all.
  • Show all formulae -- Show all the formulae you use, before you put in numbers! This way, I know what you are trying to do. Also, if you can tell me what equation you are using, like "Kepler's Third Law" or "equation (5) in the lab manual," it lets me know where you got the equation from.
  • Show Steps in Solving Equations -- If you're solving an equation, show me the steps you used. This lab won't use much algebra, but when we do, show me what you did.
  • Show units! -- See above.

Plagiarism/Cheating

Grading

• Content, 8 points -- You will receive a raw score for content. Each question in the lab is worth 1 point. Additionally, the introduction is worth 2 points and the conclusion 5 points. So, for example, if there are 23 questions in the lab itself, and you got 18 of them correct, plus you nailed the introduction and conclusion, your raw score would be 25/30 (30 = 23+2+5 and 25 = 18+2+5).
• Style, 1 point -- Is your lab neat and ease to read? Are your answers clearly worded?
• Participation, 1 point -- During the lab, I'll be noting how much work each person in each group is doing. This will be factored into your lab grade. Additionally, I'll be assessing how well prepared you are for lab, how much you participate in the pre-lab and how well you can answer questions I ask as I move from group to group.