Sarah Eno, S07
Guidelines for Rubric. Actual Rubric may be need to be altered for each individual experiment. (For example, labs that do not need much error analysis will have few points assigned to that section, etc.)
A typical lab report will be about 10 pages long, including tables and figures. The actual length will, of course, vary from experiment to experiments.
1. General (5 points)
1.1. Is the lab report well-written? Is the English grammatically correct? Is it concise yet complete? Does it seem like something that is meant to be easy to read? Or is it just a spreadsheet pasted into word? (5 points)
2. Abstract and Introduction (5 points)
2.1. Is the student’s name, SID, lab number, lab partner, and date on the lab report? (1 point)
2.2. Is there an abstract? ( 1 points)
2.3. Is there an introduction that correctly describes the questions the laboratory is probing using both equations and qualitative description in a concise manner? Are the variables in the equations defined with text? Could a person who is a physics student but has not done the lab, and who is not your instructor, understand the purpose and importance of the lab from the introduction? (3 points)
3. Equipment and procedure (10 points)
3.1. Is the equipment that was used described? (1 points)
3.2. Is it described in enough correct detail to understand the experiment? Are the model numbers included for any device used to take a measurement? Are any calibration constants included? (2 points)
3.3. Are there appropriate, correct figures showing the experimental apparatus? (2 points)
3.4. Are the experimental procedures that were used correctly described in language appropriate for a publication? (3 points)
3.5. Are they described in enough detail to understand the experiment? (2 points)
4. Data (35 points)
4.1. Are all the portions of the data needed to understand the analysis in the laboratory report as well as in the spreadsheet? If they are in tables, do the tables have captions? Are the captions complete? Is there at least one sentence in the text that refers to the table by number? Do all numbers that appear in the lab report have text that describes what the number is? (9 points) (Note: all raw data must be in the spreadsheet which is turned in at the end of the class period)
4.2. Was the data taken carefully and accurately? (5 points)
4.3. Are there errors associated with every measured number that is used in data analysis? Are the errors labeled as stat and/or syst? +- x (stat) +- x (syst) (2 points)
4.4. Are the data quoted to the correct number of significant figures, given the error? Are the errors appropriately rounded so that they do not have more than 2 significant digits? Do all numbers have units? (1 point)
4.5. Is the method used for obtaining the random and systematic error described? Is it described completely? (6 points)
4.6. Are any required error propagations done? Are the equations that were used to do this given in the text? (6 point)
4.7. Was the resulting error determined correctly, taking into account both random and systematic sources of error? (6 points)
5. Data Analysis (20 points)
5.1. Is the data compared with theoretical calculations, and are any comparisons between data and theory that are requested in the lab manual done? Are the results discussed, with correct conclusions drawn? Are all the comparisons requested in the lab manual done? (15 points)
5.2. Is it compared using an appropriate numeric test, like a chi squared test? Are the results of the numeric test discussed and appropriately used to reach a conclusion about physics? (5 points)
6. Figures (11 points)
6.1. Are there appropriate figures illustrating both the data and the data analysis? (4 points)
6.2. Are the figures clear, with appropriately chosen axes? Are the minimum and maximum values of x and y chosen so that the features on the plot can be clearly seen? Are the axes labeled and do they have units? (4 points)
6.3. Do all the figures have figure captions? Are the captions complete? Is there at least 1 full sentence in the text that refers to the figure by figure number? (3 point)
7. Conclusions (14 points)
7.1. Is there a conclusions section? (2 points)
7.2. Does it carefully discuss the results of the data analysis? If there are discrepancies between the data and the expected results, are these discussed in a correct and scientific manner? (9 points)
7.3. Does the discussion correctly include both numerical information and qualitative information? (3 points)