Physics Laboratory Checklist Essays - Laboratories, Microsoft Excel

Physics Laboratory Checklist - Mrs. Gordon International Academyrighttop Laboratory experiences are important parts of the International Academy's physics courses. Some of these experiences will be hands on labs using the materials in the physics lab kit and everyday household items, some will be virtual labs, using specially written labs intended to model as much as possible a real life experiment. In either case, you will be conducting the laboratory experiment following a set of instructions, collecting data, analyzing your results and reporting your conclusions. Sometimes just the amount of resources, materials, and data can get overwhelming. It is important in science to make conclusions based on the data so it is equally important for you to include your data when you report your results and conclusions. Often we are simply confirming a known physics concept, but in a lab (or home) environment we rarely see what we expect. There are many reasons for that, but most importantly is the idea of experimental uncertainty and error. We will study the effec ts of these throughout our courses. This checklist (found on last page) is meant to help organize your lab data and analysis so that you get the most from the experiment and of course the highest grade possible on your lab report. We do not use traditional lab reports but instead simply ask you to answer a few questions about your lab. Because each student will have their own data, each student's answers may be very different. That does not mean anyone is necessarily right or wrong, but it does mean that it is critically important that you include your data to support your answers. You are always right if your answers are supported in this way. You are doing a lot of work so you want to get full credit for it! Explanation of Checklist Download all needed files for the lab. You can find these either in the Lesson Resources, the links within the Lab lesson slides or in the Unit resources (scroll down to the lab). Lab Instructions (only use those posted in the lesson content or the lab materials folder) Student guide Laboratory Guidelines/Safety Graded Assignment or Lab Report for Discussion (LRD) (only use those posted in the lesson content or the lab materials folder) Study Lab Lesson Slides Attend live or watch recorded Classconnect for the lab if available. Prepare Data Tables: These include all data that has been collected during the lab. You are provided data tables in your instructions. Your choices to complete them include: Type directly, then copy and paste into the lab report or lab discussion post. OrUse Excel (you can still copy and paste the tables so you have the format and columns headers). Save and attach Excel file as additional file with your lab report or discussion. OrPrint out the instructions, handwrite in the data tables, then scan (pdf or jpg), copy and paste or attach as separate file. Set up lab and conduct experiment following instructions closely. Make Graphs required in the instructions or for the lab report. Recommended that you use MS Excel or other graphing/spreadsheet program (see graphing tutorial). All graph components such as title, axes labels and units, trendline with equation, etc must be included. Use Add trendline feature, then show equation for slope calculations. Copy and paste into lab report/discussion or attached as separate file. OrMake hand drawn graphs, including all required components. There is graph paper you can print out to use in the lab resources. Draw a best fit line. Show your data points (x1,y1), (x2, y2) and work for any slope calculations. Scan, copy paste or attach as separate file. Complete Calculations required in the instructions or lab report. Show work including equations for required calculations. This can be handwritten (scanned, copy/paste, or attached as separate file). OrUse equation editor in MS Word or other program OrSome students also use "ink" tools that they may have in their word processing program or a separate program. If repeated calculations, you only need to show the work for a "sample" calculation. This must include your starting equation before any substitutions, then at least one example including any necessary metric conversions and proper units. Complete Lab Report (Graded Assignment) or Lab Report for Discussion (LRD) Answer questions using your data, graphs