Grading

Your grade will be based on reports or data analysis sheets that you turn in on each laboratory experiment. For five laboratories, you will turn in full laboratory reports. Each full laboratory report will be graded according to how well it communicates your results and understanding of them, including the degree to which it matches or does not match expectations. An ideal report should include a clear exposition of the methods and an analysis of the sources of error, written clearly but concisely, in good English. My impressions of your behavior and procedures in the laboratory will also be a factor in the grade assigned to a report. For the remaining laboratories, you will turn in data analysis sheets only. All reports will count equally toward your grade, regardless of the type.

You will also be asked to answer pre-lab and post-lab questions via the WebAssign on-line homework system. These will always be due at 7:00 AM on the assigned date. Pre-labs will be due the day of the laboratory, and post-labs will be assigned at a later date to assess your long-term learning.

A laboratory final exam will be given during the last regular laboratory session. (Laboratories do not meet during the final exam period.) This will consist of experimental tasks designed to see how well you have understood what we have done in the laboratory experiments.

The following table shows the weight for each category.

Missed Laboratories and Late Reports

The policy in the above document applies to all laboratory sections taught by the Physics Department.

Missing a laboratory is as serious as missing an exam, and should only happen under very special circumstances. If you know in advance that you will miss a laboratory, you must make arrangements to make it up in another section of this course - either mine or another instructor's. The laboratory must be made up during a scheduled session in the same week, and the report is due at the normal time. If you plan to make up a laboratory in another section, please make a request to the instructor of that section, so that you will be expected.

If you miss a laboratory and are unable to make it up at any session the same week, and have a valid excuse showing that you were not able to attend any session that week, then you may make up the lab during the next scheduled Makeup Week shown in the schedule below. You do not need to attend these weeks unless you have a laboratory to make up. Only one laboratory may be made up during a Makeup Week. Missed laboratories which are not made up will receive an F.

No report will be accepted if it is more than one week late. During the first week that a report is late, it will be accepted with a 10% grade penalty.