Comments | Course Assessment | Scheduled experiments
Back to CH108 Syllabus

Lab Text: Provided by Instructor

THE FOLLOWING ARE TO BE OBSERVED DURING ALL LAB CLASSES

• You must always wear goggles in the lab. (Glasses are insufficient for organic labs).
• Absolutely no eating, drinking or smoking in the lab.
• You should consider taking the lab another time if you are pregnant.
• No shorts or short skirts in the lab.
• Always wear shoes in the lab.
• PUNCTUALITY IS A MUST. All lab instructions are given during the first few minutes of class, hence if you miss those you will either not know what to do or you will disturb your colleagues.

You will not be allowed to do the lab if any of the above are not followed.

Comments [top]

Working in the lab: Everyone is expected to be cautious and take their work seriously in the lab. There should be no pranks or running around in the lab. It is always better to look around and move, you may be safe yourself but you might hurt your neighbor.

Punctuality in the lab : Most instructions and safety precautions for the lab are given in the beginning of the lab session hence it is mandatory that everyone be punctual to the lab. Anyone late by 5 mins might consider not coming to the lab at all that day. The door of the laboratory will be closed after the first five minutes of the lab session.

Submission of Lab reports : Lab reports will be due by the next lab session. (You will be advised whether you are to submit the prelab and the post lab). Late lab reports will be accepted and certain percentage of points will be deducted depending on the number of days that it is turned in late. A zero will be given for any lab report not submitted.

Late by
1 day - 25%
2 days- 50%
3 days- 75%
4 days- no credit (week after the report was due)

Any excused lateness will be have points deducted according to the nature of the excuse.

Excused Absence : You can be excused from the lab only if a valid excuse can be presented. The validity of the excuse is totally up to the instructors discretion.

Final Exam : There is no final exam for the lab. Grade will be determined as above.

Course Assessment

• Pre Lab: there will be pre lab questions provided by the instructor or as part of the lab, which are to be completed before coming to the lab.
• Reports: lab reports are part of the labs and are due by the following lab session. There will be an additional one page report due for all experiments. In this students must write the
  • Purpose of lab
  • Results of the lab
  • Explanation of the results of the experiment
  • Any deviation from the expected results and the explanation of the deviation.
    (click here for more details)
• Technique: tardiness to lab, untidy work, untidy work space etc are examples of negative technique points. Students are advised to work neatly and safely in the lab.

Scheduled experiments [top]

Below are some tentative experiments scheduled for the semester. If for any unforeseen reason any of the experiments below are not carried out, there will be alternate assignment assigned during the lab, which will account for the lab report. Some of the experiments below are not in the book you bought from the bookstore, a copy of those will be provided to you in advance

Please note: Absence of three Unexcused labs sessions will lead to an F in the course. There will be absolutely no makeup labs.

Grading [top]

80% Lab reports : includes the report and post lab - where relevant

Grading Scale [top]

Three unexcused labs sessions will lead to an F in the course. There will be absolutely no makeup labs.

Writing Lab Reports [top]

This semester we will be writing a 1-2 page lab report as the post lab. This means you will not be submitting the post lab in the labs provided to you. This report should be typed and submitted along with the experiment.

The 1-2 page report you will submit is the conclusion for your experiment. This will help you understand what you have done in the lab and analyse the results rather than just computing them to come up with an answer.

You will include the following in your lab report:

• Title of the experiment you are writing the report about.

• Purpose of the experiment: what was the goal of the experiment. Write one or two sentences here.

• Results: what kind of results and observations did you obtain. Don’t write your entire data table here, but try to interpret your results. Do you think your observations were correct? Do you think your results are correct – qualitatively and quantitatively? This will be the bulk of your report.

• Conclusions: your conclusions should be derived from your purpose. Did you succeed in doing what you were supposed to? Does your data and observations support your purpose? What could you have done to improve the results? Would you change anything in the experiment to make it work better? This should be 1-2 paragraph.

The format for science reports is typically: 1” margin all around (not 1.5” as Microsoft sets for you!), size 12 Times Roman Font and double spaced.

Please see me if you have any questions.
 

Good Luck and Have a Safe Lab Experience!!!!

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