During these experiments, you will be given progressively more responsibility for deciding what to do and how to do it. With this background, you will be able to design your own project studying one of these systems in greater detail. After the first four weeks, the rest of the semester will be dedicated to two major independent projects. You will work in groups of two or three. Once the projects begin, you do not have to work during the scheduled lab hours.
Many groups prefer to schedule their work around the times that they can most easily get subjects.
The advantage of working during scheduled hours is that you know I will be there to help if you need it. I will also be available at other times to discuss your project and help you troubleshoot problems. At the end of each project, each group will write a paper and give an informal seminar to the class. There will be one required laboratory exercise between the two projects. The point of this is to introduce you to a number of other experimental systems and techniques that you could use in the second project.