INFORMATION FOR DEMONSTRATORS Fall 2011

Information for Demonstrators

Lab Duties

1.1 Cards
Each student has a card which is used to keep track their progress within the lab. The student is responsible for filling in their name, student #, lab session and workstation #. The T.A.'s are responsible for filling in the rest of the card as the term progresses. Each T.A. is assigned to oversee a subset of students within the lab. Upon assignment, the T.A.'s should place their initials in the T.A. box on the corresponding set of cards. The LAB box should be filled in with the course #, section number and the GR (group) box should be filled in with the place number the student sits at with their partner. The remaining boxes are filled in as follows: DATE EXP A PL IN MARK OK The date the experiment occurs is placed in this box. Please include the year. An abbreviation of the experiment name is placed in this box. This box is used to keep track of attendance. Put a check mark () or a 0. DO NOT LEAVE THIS BLANK. Put a check mark () in PL box if the student has completed the prelab. If the prelab is not satisfying put the deduction (up to -20%) in the box. A checkmark () in the IN box indicates the report was handed in. If its late, enter the deduction (see 2.3, for general deduction rules). The marks are entered in the MARK box. Be sure to deduct any late or prelab penalties. Sign-out mark, See 1.2.

1.2 Sign-out procedure

All students must have their data signed and card checked before leaving the lab. Be sure that you initial all data and check the card. Students cannot leave before the last half hour. They are expected to work on calculations after the measurements are completed. If they have a valid reason for leaving earlier, send them to the lab coordinator. Do not have the students come to your bench. They are to call you to their station. Look at their work and initial their data in the brown book. You should look for gross errors or omissions and send them back to finish if there is something seriously wrong. Check that the apparatus has been dismantled, turned off, and neatly left in order. Warn them that you will subtract 20% from their mark if they don't comply. Check the OK box on their card.

2.1 Guidelines for demonstrators

Please read the experiment procedure before coming to the lab. Please arrive 10 minutes before the starting time to familiarize yourself with the experiment. Never argue with students even if you know that he/she is wrong, direct them to the lab coordinator or tell them I dont know, Ill look into it and come back with an answer. Some proctoring is expected outside the Lab time scheduled. The instructor will contact you personally. Please mark the within a week of reception. They have to be returned during the tutorial session. Be present at the beginning of the lab period for the talk which is given to the students.

Check cards for problems. These include missing experiments, missing marks, and experiments that are approaching two weeks late. After the talk to the class, you can take attendance, check prelabs and collect reports. You must check the IN column when you collect each report. Do not wait until all reports are collected and then check all the cards. When a student is absent, the card still must be filled in, including indicating late reports. During the lab session, please walk around the lab, answer questions, ask questions and motivate students that are a bit slow. Initialize every DATA LOG page of their report.

3.1 Marking of Lab Reports

Various sections and/or calculations of each experiment are assigned a certain number of points. Points are deducted for things that are wrong, partially wrong or missing. A mark is obtained by adding up all the points that are deducted and subtracting the sum from 100. Discussions need to receive a separate mark out of 10 (unless otherwise stated). Thus, for the rest of the lab, marks are deducted from 90 points and then a mark out of 10 for the discussion is added. A simple "adequate" discussion might receive 7 or 8 out of 10. To get 9 or 10 they must have some good insight towards sources of error. For each specific experiment, guidelines will be given for weighting of the various calculations and error analysis asked of the students. Details of the student's reports that are more universal to all labs are detailed in 3.5, these guidelines may occasionally be overruled by the marking schemes given for each specific experiment. The marks listed indicate maximum deductions. At times an early calculation may be done wrong and a mistaken value used in later calculations. If so, mark severely on the initial calculation but if further calculations follow the proper procedure (but using the errant value) then do not deduct on these calculations.

3.2 Late reports

The guideline for late lab reports is: 1 week late 2 weeks late More than 2 weeks late -20% -30% 0%

3.3 Exceptions in Marking

There will be reports that do not fall into this marking scheme and must be handled differently. Incomplete Reports A report is incomplete if there are sections or major calculations missing. In these cases the report should first be marked normally, including a deduction of points for the missing material, and a mark calculated. If the mark is > 50% change it to 50%. Minor omissions just get a deduction. If you have one of these or are uncertain what to do, see the lab supervisor. Very Bad Reports A report may get a passing mark based on the marking scheme but have the analysis so messed up that it is clear the writer had no idea how to analyze the experiment. Adequate theory, procedure etc. is not enough when the graph is nonsense and the rest of the analysis is no better. In these cases, drop the mark to 50% and show the report to the lab coordinator to confirm. Really Not That Bad Reports A report may have made errors that warranted several large deductions by the marking scheme, bringing it below 50%. If it appears however that the student has honestly attempted all sections then it is allowable to bring the mark up to a 50%. Dont forget to write the original mark as well so that you dont confuse students. Again see the lab coordinator if it is unclear how to proceed. Plagiarism It is best to discuss all cases with the Lab coordinator. We expect and accept a large amount of overlap between partners in the calculations. However the line is drawn in the discussion which must be an individual effort. Another form of plagiarism comes from copying from previous years labs, if we have proof, such as apparatus listed that is no longer used, we will penalize the students. For copying between partners we will often split their mark for first offences, otherwise a mark of zero is given for plagiarized reports.

3.4 Individual Marking Schemes

Marking schemes for individual experiments will be distributed. These templates are intended to list specific points that must have been addressed in the student's report. Obvious errors that are not covered in these templates should nevertheless be penalized depending on how serious they are. If you feel that there are important points not covered in the templates please make the lab supervisor aware of them. The templates also include a list of possible systematic errors involved with each experiment and an attempt to rank them in importance and/or insight needed. These are as a guide for any possible bonus marks in the Error Reduction and Recognition category.

3.5 General Guidelines for Marking Lab Reports

3.5.1 Sections
Purpose A brief statement of the object of the experiment. It should not be word for word out of the manual. It is part of the PRELAB and must be written beforehand. The penalty for failing to complete these PRELAB sections is up to 20% depending on how bad it is. This penalty is marked on their attendance cards so you can later work in the deduction. Theory Should contain a summary of the theory from the manual. It is not necessary to derive the equations, but the final equation used should be shown. The theory should not be copied from the manual. It should be written beforehand as it is part of the PRELAB together with the Purpose and can make up to 20% of the final mark if missing or inappropriate. Apparatus (5%) This section requires a diagram of the experiment with a label of each part. Individual marking schemes might require more (e.g. electronic circuits). Calculations (Including Error Analysis) All different calculations must be shown. Only one example of repeated calculations needs to be given. The equation used should be shown, including any mathematics needed if it is not taken directly from the lab manual. Deduction values for specific calculations for each experiment will be given in the individual marking scheme handouts. Calculations must be done in a specific order. That is, calculate the quantity, then its error and then express the result. Deductions in this section depend on the quantity of calculation and are covered in individual marking schemes. Results (10%) There must be a clear statement of the result of the experiment. Results should be expressed in sentence form. The result can be a sentence referring to a table where a lot of results are presented. The final results of an experiment must be expressed with one significant figure of error unless it is a 1 or two, then two significant figures are tolerated, i.e. +/- 0.14 or +/- 0.026 are OK, whereas +/- 0.87 or +/- .034 are rounded to +/- 0.9 and +/- 0.03 respectively. Discussion (10%) The students are directed to present of list of systematic errors they feel affected the experiment. This may be in paragraph or point form. It is perhaps the most important segment of the report so please read it carefully. It is meant to be a critique of the experiment, reviewing what physics was explored, the major errors involved in the lab (both those accounted for and suggestions of systematic and/or random errors) and also suggestions for improvements. The importance of the Discussion can vary between labs. It should be quite common to take deductions for weak discussions but please give indication of what sorts of things were lacking.

3.5.2 Specific Items

Units Must be shown. Units are not needed on every line of a calculation but should be shown on the result, the error and the final summary of the calculation. As a guideline, begin with a deduction of 1% or 2% marks for each omission or error, later in the term you may increase the penalty but always keeping a maximum of 5% for this category. Missing units in the results section deserve more important penalties. Significant Figures The result of all intermediate calculations should be expressed with two significant figures in the error. Reading errors should only have one significant figure. In propagation of error calculations, they should carry at least two significant figures for intermediate steps and round off the final error to one significant figure. Allow for two significant figures if the first digit is a 1 or 2. Rounding off should only be used in final results. The number of significant figures for a value ends with the last significant figure of the error. Use the same rule as for units, 1 or 2 marks per instance, depending on severity, with a maximum total deduction of 5%. Don't be too severe until at least a couple labs have been passed back. Front page information Remove automatically 5% if T.A.s name, students name, partners name, experiment title, lab section, course #, date performed, date submitted or place # is missing. Neatness The report should be written after the analysis is completed in rough form in their lab book and so should be relatively mistake free. However, it is difficult to hand write a report and not make any mistakes. If the report is really messy and hard to read then you need to make some deductions. Look specifically at how visible are the section titles. A maximum of 5% can be deducted. Reading Errors Regardless of error analysis to be performed or the final form of error (statistical versus reading) each measurement must have an associated reading error. This is the experimentalist's estimate of the accuracy of the reading knowing the instrument used and the method employed. Reading error is usually the same for multiple readings and is shown once in the top section of tables. If Reading errors appearing too small or too large, comment. If its extreme or repeated weekly remove 1% or 2% per deduction with a maximum of 5%. Diagrams When needed diagrams should have a figure number and a title in sentence form. Artistic ability will of course vary greatly and is taken into consideration. Labels for the experiment diagrams are required. You can apply up to a 5% mark penalty. Tables In general, data and multiple calculations should be placed in a table. All tables must have a title. Table numbering should be encouraged but only make a deduction after a warning. The title should be in sentence form. Units and errors must be shown. The Lab Manual provides examples of tables for the some experiments. Students will often omit tables and simply list data with associated calculations. Missing titles deserve -2%, neatness -3%. Data not displayed in a table can lead into a 5% penalty.

3.5.3 Graphs
Graphs should follow the guidelines of the Lab Manual. Occasionally, the marking scheme given will have different suggested deductions. A maximum of 20% can be applied, for example in the case of a missing graph. Caption (3%) All graphs should have a descriptive title. A figure number is a good idea, but only give a warning the first couple occasions. Axes (2%) Should be labeled and the units shown. Scale (4%) The scale should be chosen so that the graph occupies at least half the page. The major divisions should be some sensible multiple such as 2, 5, 10, etc. Error Bars (5%) The points should be distinct and have error bars. When error bars are too small to plot a comment should be made in the caption. Watch out for made up error bars. Some students persist in showing error bars even when the errors are too small to be visible. Check at least one set of error bars using their data tables. Average Point (2%) The average point must be calculated, plotted and labeled. Triangle (5%) The triangle for the slope calculation should be large. It need not encompass every point but most of them should be included. Very small triangles lead to very inaccurate slope calculations. The reading error on the rise and the run should not significantly increase the error on the slope. Drawing the triangle may not be absolutely necessary but the point from which the slope is taken must be clearly shown. Slope (5%) The slope and intercept (if necessary) calculations may be shown on the graph, or in the Calculation sections. The mark reduction in this item is for any other problem such as wrong formula for error etc. Problems with slope calculations may also lead to further deductions in the calculations. Max and Min slope lines (5%) They must be shown unless the points form such a good straight line that drawing them would just produce a thick line. In that case, they should use the smallest possible measurable deviation from the main slope. This should correspond to the equivalent of 1 mm on their graph paper and a comment must be made about it in the report. Be sure they are reasonable in their slope and that they do not just use the worst points to define them.