Grading Policy

Your grade for the course will be based on both on the quality of your laboratory technique and the final “products” of your research.  Remember that the goal of the course is not only to teach you how to conduct research in a laboratory but also how to clearly convey the results of your research to your peers.  Numerical grades are available on onCourse. 

 

Laboratory Technique:  50% of total grade

 

    The technique grade is divided into the two sections outlined below.  The goal of this part of the grade is to provide you with instant feedback on your day-to-day work in the lab.

 

Laboratory Participation (20%)

 

You are expected to attend lab every Tuesday and will receive credit for your participation in the lab.  This portion of your grade will reflect your enthusiasm and preparedness for your laboratory work in addition to how you conduct yourself in the lab.  During the course of the lab I will be continuously monitoring your progress on the experiments.  In evaluating your grade for that lab session I ask myself:

•Is the student maintaining a clean, neat, and safe work environment?

•Has the student done adequate advanced preparation for the experiment? Does the student clearly understand the goals of the experiment?

•Is the student utilizing available resources in the lab?

•Is the student utilizing the laboratory time efficiently?

•Does the student understand the functions of the equipment associated with the experiment?  Does the student possess some intuition for the apparatus?  Have simple checks been done to be sure the equipment is functioning as expected?

    Unless you clearly demonstrate that I cannot affirmatively answer all of these questions, you will likely receive full credit for that particular laboratory session.

 

Logbook (30%)

 

Maintaining a good laboratory logbook is a crucial skill in order to be a successful researcher.  (See rules and hints here.)  After each experiment I will evaluate your logbook.  The logbook should contain not only your work in lab but any additional data analysis that you do outside of class.  All results should be documented in the logbook.  Logbook grades for the four intro experiments are worth 3% each while grades for the three core experiments are worth 6% each.  When grading the logbook, I’ll use a ten-point scale with the following rubric:

•Describe the overall goal of the experiment and the basic approach (2 points)

•Record the experimental setup (equipment make and model; diagram of connections; etc.) (4 points)

•Record date and time (1 point)

•Record the goal of each step (2 points)

•Record data and observations (4 points)

•Data analysis (plotting data; calculation to derive the parameter intended to measure; etc.) (5 points)

•Summary, conclusions, extensions, next steps (2 points)

 

Research Results:  50% of total grade

 

    This portion of your grade will evaluate not only the quality of your experimental results, but, just as important, how clearly and accurately you can convey these results in written and oral form.

 

Research Reports (40%)

 

Students will be required to write a research report for each lab that is completed.  These research reports are due in class the week after the lab is completed.  (See guidelines and advice here.)  The reports for each the three core experiments will be worth twice as much (8% ea.)  as the reports or exercises for the four introductory experiments (4% ea.).  The following rubric will be applied in grading the reports.  Introductory experiments that do not require a report will be graded on a twenty-point scale.

•Abstract (2 points)

•Introduction, motivation, and background (2 points)

•Description of the experimental procedure, and approach (3 points)

•Presentation of the data (plot, table) (3 points)

•Data analysis (4 points)

•Error analysis (1 point)

•Discussion and conclusions (4 points)

•Reference list (1 point)

•Creative extensions that go far beyond the prescribed task in the writeup (up to 2 extra points)*

    Even though this is a physics course, the use of proper English grammar and good spelling should not be neglected!  Reading a paper with poor grammar, punctuation, or spelling is distracting and often detracts from the scientific results.

    *For each lab students will need to clearly define the goals of the lab, decide which measurements are relevant, and determine how to measure quantities and their uncertainties.  This will be roughly outlined in the laboratory writeup.  Students may receive bonus points for exceptionally creative methods or extensions of the prescribed laboratory task.

 

Final Presentation (10%)

 

This presentation should be an oral presentation of one of the core labs that you did throughout the semester. I'd like to know in advance what you plan to present it on. The outline of the presentation should cover what is in the paper. You should motivate why the experiment is interesting, discuss the procedure, show the data analysis, and provide discussion of the results. The target audience for this presentation is your peers -- pretend you are presenting to someone who doesn't know anything about the technical details of the experiment. The total length of the presentation, including time for questions must not exceed 15 minutes. A good target is 10-12 minutes to allow some Q&A time.

 

Because you are presenting data, you will likely want to use something like PowerPoint or Keynote. The room we will use has a projector with a VGA cable. If you plan to use your own laptop, it would be a good idea to verify that it works beforehand. See me about this. If you would like to use my laptop, that is fine, but convert your talk to PDF before sending it to me and send it in advance so that I can verify that all equations are readable.

 

The final presentation will be worth 10% of your grade, comparable to a core lab report. I'll grade on a 10 point scale, with the points allocated in the following way:

 

•4 points for content:  does the presentation contain all of the relevant information? This includes motivation, discussion of setup, data analysis, discussion of results, and conclusion.

•4 points for presentation:  are the slides neatly organized and easy to read? does the talk flow logically from one point to the next? does the presenter do a good job explaining the material?

•2 points for Q&A: 1 point for asking some thoughtful question of one of your colleagues presentations and 1 point for responding well to questions yourself

 

Please contact me if you have any questions about this grading policy.

P451 Modern Physics Lab