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 and these will be computed according the description below. The letter grade scale will be finalized at the end of the semester, but a numerical score of 85% will lead to a grade of no less than A-, 75% no less than B– and 55% no less than C.

 

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.

 

There will be a small number of homework assignments early in the semester and your scores on these will also be folded into this portion of your course score (roughly 1% of the course for each assignment).

 

Logbook (25%)

 

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 in chronological order with date and time notations making that chronology manifest!  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 twenty-point scale that follows the rubric given in the logbook guidelines.

 

Data Management (5%)

 

As of 2010, all proposals submitted to the NSF must include a description of the project's "Data Management Plan". This requirement reflects society's demand that scientists make their data available and understandable to others. As an introduction to this important aspect of being a scientist, in December you will be required to turn in an electronic library of all data you have collected during the semester (i.e. original computer files, references to appropriate pages in your log book etc.). You must include sufficient meta-data to allow an independent person to reconstruct your analysis (in most cases, a text file giving references to the appropriate section of your log book should provide sufficient meta-data). Your grade will be determined by the completeness and clarity of your library. I will be happy to look at your library and provide feedback during the semester

 

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: 

                 •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)*

   

    *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.

 

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. Note that for two of the introductory labs (EM pulses and Poisson Statistics) you do are not required to produce a formal report, but a short document that summarizes your activities and answers the questions in the lab description must be turned in. These shorter reports will be grated on effort and completeness.

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 30- point scale, with the points allocated in the following way:

 

· 5 points for effort: do you give me the impression that you have put some effort into understanding the topic and making a clear presentation.

· 5 points for clarity of message: is your take-home message clear to the audience (the first rule of thumb for a talk is to have something to say!)

· 3 points for visual effectiveness (are the figures/pictures and text easy to read, this speaks to font, color selection, use of slide space etc.)

· 4 points for completeness/correctness: is your message accurate

· 3 points: clarity of speech (can you be heard and understood).

· 10 points for overall impression, including connection with the audience.

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

P451 Modern Physics Lab