There are a few adjustments this semester in the teaching of the laboratory course with only one professor. This necessitates several additional constraints on the manner in which the laboratory is conducted so that you can gain the most out of your laboratory experience. I applied several constraints in my setting up of the lab schedule. At most, there would be no more than five presentations or proposals on a given day (except the final day); otherwise, we would all get worn-out. The laboratory should end as early in the semester as possible, to allow you to finish your other courses and to enjoy your graduation. Fortunately, we have four TAs, which will be primarily responsible for 2- 3 experimental stations each. The TA responsible for the experiment you are next to run should be consulted before you propose or run the experiment. They will also be available for final questions when you first run an experiment, during the first hour. Several other modified requirements and operating procedures for this semester are outlined below.
PREPARATION FOR LABORATORY IS CRUCIAL!
You must become familiar with the experiments and equipment before you actually enter the lab. Check out all the information on the website. Bring copies and be prepared to answer questions. Read the laboratory reports from prior groups! Find your references and read them. You will be asked questions which you need to be able to answer! Know the Equipment and the software before you first enter the Lab. Visit with the other groups in the prior session and ask questions. Ask questions in the presentations and reports of the prior group(s). Use the make-up days to ask questions of the lab techs (Les, Gary and Joe).
If you are not familiar with the experiment and/or are not prepared, you will not be allowed to perform your experiments and 10% will be deducted from your grade on that experiment for each day you fail to be prepared.
ANALYSES THROUGHOUT THE LABORATORY
You should not collect four sets of data for the four periods that you will be in the laboratory for a specific experiment and then analyze these data the night before your reports are due. You might have done this in the past, but not now! Before you come into your third period for a laboratory, you will need to have analyzed the results from your first two sessions. You will be required to show evidence of these preliminary analyses, including graphs of your data. The analyses do not need to be complete, but, they must be sufficiently detailed to determine if the experiments are running well and if you should be able to meet your stated objectives. Otherwise, we can modify the objectives and/or the experiments to be performed for the last two laboratory sessions. I will be available to discuss any potential changes during my office hours. You should take advantage of this!
If you have not analyzed the results from your first two sessions prior to your coming into your third session in the laboratory, you will not be allowed to perform your experiments and 10% will be deducted from your grade on that experiment for each day you fail to be prepared. The purpose of this requirement is to assure that you accomplish a meaningful set of objectives in your studies. These objectives can be modified due to unanticipated factors: experimental glitches or over-ambitious proposals. Ongoing analyses of the data will enable you to synthesize these into pragmatic objectives. Otherwise, you might find that you have accomplished little due to problems that occurred early-on but were not seen until the night before your final presentation.
UPDATING THE MANUALS
As last semester, I hope to maintain continuously updated manuals for each experiment that we are running. This will enable successive groups to make fewer mistakes and accomplish more in their studies. We will maintain a series of these on the website. Each group will download the manual from the website and will submit an updated version at the time of their final report. This be reviewed and incorporated into your final grade. You can assign this to one of the group members, let me know to whom.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LABORATORY TECHS ARE REQUIRED!
Fill out preparation sheets for each day in the laboratory and submit them
by
PRESENCE IN THE LABORATORY DURING ASSIGNED PERIODS.
You will have four periods in which to accomplish your studies. These start
at
SAFETY ISSUES
You must operate in the laboratory in a safe manner. You had some safety training last semester. Those of you that did not must complete the Laboratory safety and hazardous waste training immediately, before you participate in the laboratory. This is available through the UMASS web site for EH&S. You must wear your safety glasses in the laboratory or you will have to leave the laboratory. The TAs have been instructed to assure compliance with this and any other safety issues, including dangerous or inappropriate behavior in the laboratory. You are dealing with equipment that can be operated in a manner that endangers you and all the others in the laboratory and we must insure that this does not occur. In industry, you will readily lose your job if you do not observe the safety requirements while you are in the laboratory. SAFE forms are required for each experiment and need to be prepared before you first enter the laboratory.
COMMENTS ON PRESENTATIONS
The presentations will be on Powerpoint employing the computer in the conference room. These should be limited to 15 minutes + discussion. The presentations should start with an outline by which you let us know what is coming and encourage us to pay attention to certain points in your presentation. The focus will be on the new aspects of your studies, the new theory behind it and a discussion of the relations between what you intend to do (or have done) and the theory. You should end with a conclusions slide(s) where you summarize your accomplishments or the approach you will be taking. A recommendations slide will be used at the end or a report and a safety slide at the end of a proposal. Do not use too many words on each slide, abbreviate and then explain. Use variable font sizes and colors to make the slide interesting and focus our attention on the key words or concepts. A copy of your slides (4-6 slides/page) will be presented to me after your presentations.
COMMENTS ON OTHER GROUP-, SELF- AND PEER- EVALUATIONS
Group leaders must send in evaluation for others by email (to Byoung-jin Kim). I will track those other group leaders and a 5% decrease in your personal evaluation will be assessed for late reports, 10% for no reports! If you are excused (at least one day before the presentation or with a doctors note and email before) you will be responsible to designate another group member to fulfill your duties.
Self-evaluations for both the proposals and final oral presentations are due at the same time as are the final report. These should be given to me or sent to me by email . Penalties for not providing these in a timely fashion will be assessed, as above. These are personal penalties and will not affect the grade for other group members, but they can be significant. Peer evaluations are required from all group members for each experiment and are due at the time of the final report. These are to be given. Again, similar penalties apply for lateness or failure to submit these peer evaluations. I will, however, accept individual statements that Each member of the group Y(A->I) contributed significantly and equally to the conduction and report for experiment X (1->10) submitted on (date). Alternately, I would accept a statement such as, Ò The conduction and report for experiment X (1->10) submitted on (date) was primary the product of group members X, Y and Z while the contribution of Q was (significantly) less. These must be submitted with the final report or submitted by email at the same time (or before) the report is submitted.
Comparison with Prior Experiments:
All groups must be familiar with the results of prior groups for the same experiment. This is crucial as you must present these in your proposal and will compare your results to theirs in your report. You do not necessarily have to accept their results and their interpretation in total; indeed, alternate interpretations for prior results will be awarded extra credit if they are reasonable and supported by your reasoned analysis. This will not result in a re-grading of the prior reports by the earlier groups (unless you demonstrate that their results were improper).
Your are to choose and defend a proposal for your research. This differs from last semester where you were given a set of requirements. I welcome and hope (read this as you shall) you discuss your proposal with me (and others, as noted) before you present it to all of us. There will be several options and you need to propose enough to keep you busy for four lab periods but not too much. You will be productively working in the laboratory for four periods. In all cases you must relate your results to those from prior groups of which you need to be familiar before your proposed studies.