ELEC 243: Electronic Measurement Systems

ELEC 243 Laboratory: Reports, Notebook & Grading

The laboratory portion of ELEC 243 is probably the most important part of the course. In the laboratory you will practice and learn the practical skills necessary to make electrical measurements that you will need later, for example, during your senior design project. To a large extent, the class lectures and homework assignments are background to support your lab skills. There will be nine laboratories plus a four-week design project at the end of the semester.

Laboratory Notebook

Each lab team, usually two people, must keep a laboratory notebook. As you follow the laboratory instructions and take data, you should record your data, observations, notes, and answers to questions in your notebook. You should use your notebook as a general scratch pad or journal to record anything to do with laboratory or project work: useful formulas or techniques, sketches and circuit diagrams, notes, observations, references, URLs, etc. We encourage you to read the laboratory instructions before you come to class and make notes in your notebook to guide your work and indicate what data you need to collect.

Your laboratory notebook should be bound, with numbered and dated pages. While it should be legible, especially to you and your partner, extreme neatness is not necessary, or even preferable; it should be a working document filled out in real time. You do not need to make entries in ink, although that is preferable, but you should not erase anything. Just cross out mistakes, briefly note why, and go on; you might find that “bad” data wasn’t wrong after all.

Laboratory Report

A short report will be due from each team following each laboratory. We will provide a template for each report that will guide you in writing it. The report will have three parts: data, analysis and conclusions, and feedback about the lab. (Separate instructions will be provided for the final project report.)
Data
The laboratory instructions will ask you to make particular measurements. This data, originally recorded in your notebook, should be included in the report in a neater format that facilitates interpretation, with appropriate units and captions. A concise description of the purpose of measurements, along with procedures and accuracy limits as necessary, should be provided. If you do extra experiments or make additional measurements, be sure to include them with an explanation.

The instructions also have a sequence of numbered questions interspersed with the steps of the experiments, and you should answer these in the report. The questions don't always have a unique correct answer; sometimes they ask for your evaluation or comments. In either case, give some indication of why you chose the answer you did.

Analysis & Conclusions
Provide a summary of what was accomplished and how it fits into the grand plan. Remark on whether the data were what you expected and discuss any significant discrepancies. Don't just say: "We did A, B, and C, and Ohm's Law works," tie it all together. Think of yourself as a Pulitzer prize winning journalist: you've gathered the news (in the previous section), now you're telling your readers what it means: "A, B, and C represent different techniques for measuring circuit variables, each having a different range of applicability:.... Ohm's law is handy if you're stranded on a desert island without an ammeter." In addition, the report template may include additional questions or request particular conclusions or reflections on the laboratory activities.
Feedback
The report template will have a short table for you to provide us with feedback on the laboratory and the instructions. You can add any comments that you think could help us to improve the laboratory.

Grading

Reports:
Your laboratory reports will be graded by the labbies using the rubric below. Each report will have a maximum score of 10. The final laboratory design project and report will be graded by the course instructors and will have a maximum score of 20.
Notebook:
Your overall laboratory score will also include an evaluation of your notebook. The primary criteria are that you actually have one and that you use it in lab as described above. About three times during the semester a labbie will ask for your notebook, scan through it, and grade it as Excellent, Adequate, or Deficient, and return it. While neatness and organization are desirable, your notebook won't be graded as a work of art or literature. Rather, it should represent an accurate record of what happened in the lab. The labbie may write some comments in the notebook or discuss the reasons for the evaluation with you. If a labbie notices you recording data on random pieces of paper, your hand, or the side of a tissue box, she or he will make a note that your notebook is Not Available, and may ask you why. All the evaluations of your notebook will be summed and scaled to be equal to one laboratory report.

Your overall laboratory score will the sum of a maximum of 90 points for laboratory reports, plus 10 points for your notebook, plus 20 points for the final project and report.