lab 6 Writing Workshop and lab report template (1)

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Northwestern University *

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136

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Physics

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Apr 3, 2024

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Lab 6: Writing Workshop The purpose of this week is to support the writing of your first full lab report. After this workshop, you should be able to describe features of good and bad lab reports and apply the general lab rubric to the lab that you are documenting. Introduction In this writing workshop, you will learn the criterion of a good lab report and also look in detail at how the general lab report rubric will apply to the particular lab you are documenting. In the end, you will write a formal lab report based on [lab 4: Snell’s law] individually . What makes a good and bad lab report? 1.1 (5 points): (Peer discussion) What are elements or characteristics of the best lab report you can imagine? Use this space for recording your individual thoughts, interesting ideas from your lab partner, or notes about the class discussion of this question. 1.2 (5 points): (peer discussion) What are elements or characteristics of the worst lab report you can imagine? Use this space for recording your individual thoughts, interesting ideas from your lab partner, or notes about the class discussion of this question. Page | 1 A great lab report is characterized by clear and cogent writing that effectively communicates the underlying scientific principles. It would have a well-organized structure that guides the reader through the experiment and its outcomes. The report acknowledges all sources of information, ensuring appropriate citations are included. Figures should be clearly labeled and referenced form the text. The writing style should be concise and precise, eliminating unnecessary jargon and focusing on the essential details. The report maintains a logical flow, providing clarity on the context and the processes used in the experiment. Lastly, the results are well-documented, with significant figures correctly used, ensuring the data’s accuracy and reliability. This combination of elements contributes to a comprehensive and insightful lab report. A good sign of this would be if someone who reads the lab report can follow it and repeat the experiment. A subpar lab report is characterized by unclear writing that does not effectively communicate the scientific principles at play. It lacks a coherent structure and logical flow, making it difficult for the reader to follow the method used. The report may contain plagiarized content and lack proper citations, undermining its credibility. The writing is often verbose, with extensive explanations that are not concise and include extraneous information. The report does not adhere to a consistent standard of significant figures, compromising the accuracy of the data presented. Furthermore, there is a lack of clarity about the experimental process, leaving the reader unsure about the methodologies employed. These shortcomings result in a lab report that falls short of academic standards.

How to apply the rubric 2.1 (5 points): (Peer discussion) Review the general lab report rubric (you can download it from Canvas). The rubric is written generally so that it applies to all of the labs that you will later turn into lab reports both in this and future quarters. How will these general guidelines and requirements apply to the specific lab that you are documenting? Use the space below for recording your individual thoughts, interesting ideas from your lab partner, or notes about the class discussion of this question. Plagiarism and citation style When you present someone else’s work as your own, you are plagiarizing their work. Plagiarism is a serious case of academic dishonesty. Matters of academic dishonesty are referred to Weinberg College’s Assistant Dean for Academic Integrity for investigation. To avoid being dishonest in this way, you should properly credit (cite) the original author of the work. One big challenge with plagiarism in an academic context is that different fields have different standards about what content needs to be credited and how to credit that previous work. Here’s what those standards are in the context of this physics lab. What should be cited: You should provide credit for work that someone else created and specific facts that aren’t common knowledge. This includes material from lab reports (which were created by your instructional team) but does not include laws of physics such as energy conservation and Newton’s 2 nd Law (which are considered common knowledge). How you should cite: There are many styles of citation: MLA, APA, Chicago, and IEEE to name the most common. If you are comfortable with one of those, you may use it. If you are unfamiliar with all styles of citation, we recommend providing information about the source of the material in a parenthetical as in the example below. For these lab reports, it is perfectly appropriate to cite encyclopedic sources such as Wikipedia as well as your physics textbook. Example reference 1: Crown glass, for example, has an index of refraction of 1.52 (OpenStax University Physics, Volume 3, Section 1.1). Page | 2 The Introduction should include some background information about Snell’s Law, explaining any variables and equations present across the Lab report (In this case n, c, v, and the definition of refraction and TIR). It should also include a purpose statement about the intent behind conducting this lab and this specific experiment (here: how we could practically use Snell’s Law to determine the properties of materials). The report should outline the apparatus used, how it was setup and how the experiment was carried out in terms of data collection and analysis, types and methods used . This should be clear to allow someone to recreate the experiment accurately. Results: explain why using the results analysis methods we used was the right way to go about it, and describe the results and experimental process, with some sort of conclusion that aligns with the purpose of the experiment.

Example reference 2: Figure 3 shows a photo of our experimental setup (Northwestern University PHYS 136-3, Lab 7: Atomic Spectra worksheet). 3.1 (5 points): (Peer discussion) With your lab partner, come up with one example of a situation where you think you would need a citation and one example of a situation where you think you would not need a citation. Record your two examples (as well as whether or not those situations require a citation) in the box below. (You may ask your TA if you are not sure.) Lab Report Title Introduction The purpose of the introduction is to orient and provide context to your reader, so you don’t just throw them into the deep end of a lab report. This section should be relatively short (somewhere between one to three paragraphs) and include the following three items: some context for the physics or experiment being studied, a clear statement of the purpose, and an extremely concise statement describing the experimental setup that you will use to study the physics. You may introduce important equations in this section if you wish. Always be sure to define the variables that you use. The context component is the most challenging part of this section. Some common ways to do this are listed below, with examples.  Describe some historical context related to the experiment. o “The Scientific Revolution saw many firsts, among them the first measurements of the speed of sound. Pierre Gassendi made the first measurement of the speed of sound as 448 m/s in the 1600s. In 1738, a group from the Academy of Sciences in Paris took an expedition with the sole purpose of making a precise measurement of the speed of sound and measured it as 340.9 m/s (Greenslade). The current accepted value for the speed of sound in air is 331 m/s at 0 degrees Celsius (Ling).” Page | 3 Needs a citation: Suppose we were to compare our results to another source of information for the purposes of finding similarities, the other source would have to be cited to ensure academic integrity. Doesn’t need a citation: The speed of light does not need to be cited, it is considered common knowledge and is well established.

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