Lab Syllabus

Syllabus:

Lab Projects

You will have labs every even week starting with week 2 and ending week 10.  For a total of 5 lab assignments. 

Each Lab takes about 3 hours. You are required to finish the lab and turn in a report for the experiment.  Your report is due one week from your scheduled lab day and should be turned in by the end of your scheduled lab time.   

Lab work is done by teams of two students. You must both be present during your scheduled lab times. You are free to choose your own partner, who must be in the same Lab section. You need only turn in one report per team. Both students are responsible for contributing equally to the lab experiments and lab report.

When you are finished with your lab, make sure your station is neat and clean, free of wire clutter.

Signature Sheets

During each lab, the progress is tracked by the number of TA signatures you and your partner will receive for doing certain parts of the experiment.  It is only when you and your partner have received all the TA signatures that are you done with the experimental portion of the lab.  TA signatures are extremely important and consist of approximately 50% or more of your lab grade. Therefore it is required that you print out the signature sheet and bring it with you to the lab. Also you will need to turn in the completed signature sheet along with your lab report to receive full credit. Failure to do so will result in a very low grade for that particular lab.
Prelabs
You will be required to bring your completed prelab to show to the lab tutor at the start of your lab session. We will check your prelab to see if it is complete and mostly correct. Failure to complete the prelab before the start of your lab section will result in a zero on that portion of that lab's total grade. Each student must turn in a prelab.  The prelab should be included in your lab report. Since some questions on both midterms and the final maybe drawn from this material, it is in your best interest to understand the pre-lab questions .
Lab Report and Preparation
Students should be thoroughly familiar with the lab and understand its purpose.  Reading through the lab will greatly help you finish your work on time and minimize errors and troubleshooting. You will know exactly what equipment and components you will need for the lab, so you can get them quickly and begin lab work. You are required to finish the lab by the end of the last open lab session.

Have both partners sign and date the lab reports after the conclusion.

Lab reports are due a week after your scheduled lab section.

A part of lab preparation includes setting up or depositing money into your ACS printing account, which allows you to print from the computers in the lab. To complete the process, please follow this link.

You will also need a USB flash drive for lab.

Lab Write-up Hints
  • Always include units and label axes
  • Graphs and charts are encouraged
  • “Describe" and “Observe" mean explain.
  • You don’t need to rewrite the question, but avoid one-sentence answers
  • Include procedures for each lab.  Bullet point format breifly describing your execution.
  • Have both partners sign and date the lab reports after the conclusion.
  • Go to the "Lab-Write up tips" tab for a complete description
Lab Grades
  • 5 Lab Projects (10 points possible each).
  • Lab questions may also be on the midterms and final and included in lecture part of grade.
Policy on Cheating The policy is the same as the lecture. Any student found guilty of cheating on a lab will be given a zero on the Lab and will be reported to his or her college dean. A typical example of cheating are copying laboratory results from another group into your lab notebook.