Reports are brief, with an emphasis on describing procedure and presenting conclusions. This course will include one short writing assignment, due about two-thirds of the way through the semester. This roughly two-page paper will be a report on laboratory work in a format loosely appropriate for a scientific journal. It must be word-processed, including embedded equations and figures. This paper is the only nontrivial piece of writing required in this course.
Students record the results of their laboratory work in a notebook.
Work on this notebook takes place both in lab and later. Students are encouraged to explain their work in a clear and logical way, but the writing is not held to the same standard that would apply for a paper. Students will write a 5-10 page research paper on a contemporary physics topic of their choice. In addition, they must complete fourteen experiments, each of which must be written up in their lab notebooks. This course has no writing assignments.