This syllabus is meant to describe what you'll be doing in an individual
lab section. Overall course policies are in the lab announcement handout.
If you do not have a copy of this handout, please be sure to get one off
the World Wide Web (see URL above) or from your TA. It contains important information not found in this syllabus.
- Structure of the Lab
- The laboratory sections last 2 hours. Each lab is more or less
self-paced. There will usually be a brief 5-minute introduction to the material
at the beginning of each section. The student notes in the lab manual
provide detailed instructions on exactly what is expected from each
lab, so read and follow them carefully!
There are two parts to each lab (the essay is described in detail below).
The first part consists of the experiment or exercise. Here you will
be required to answer the questions in the student notes. Follow along in
the student notes and ask your Lab TA for help, if necessary.
- Teamwork
- Although 2 or 3 students may work together during the lab session,
it is required that each student contribute to the work. Each student
must write his or her own lab report and his or her own essay.
Those students
who are unwilling to do a fair share of the work of their group will
not receive credit for the lab exercise and will need to schedule a
make-up lab. It is up to the Lab TA to determine whether or not students
are not doing their fair share of the work.
"Cheating" is defined as verbatim (or mostly verbatim,
in the judgement of the Lab TA) copying of any part of another student's
lab exercise or essay.
Any student who cheats will not receive credit for the lab exercise
and is subject to disciplinary action by the university. Copying data
or lab reports from students in other labs is also considered cheating.
In all instances of cheating, a letter detailing the incident
will be automatically sent to the Dean of Campus Life and placed in
the student's permanent file.
Policies and procedures regarding your rights as well as responsibilities are published in the TCU Student Handbook, available on line at http://www.studentaffairs.tcu.edu/handbook/handbook.htm.
Specifically, review Section 3.4 regarding Academic misconduct, i.e. cheating, plagiarism etc.
- Students with Disabilities
- Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. If you require accommodations for a disability, please contact the Coordinator for Students with Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services, located in Sadler Hall 11. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at 817-257-7486.
Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations. Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/DISABILITY.HTM.
Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.
- Lab Reports (two parts)
- All labs should be worked on exclusively in the classroom, not as homework
before or after the lab section. There will be plenty of time during a typical lab
session for you to finish everything you need to finish.
Lab reports MUST be turned in at the end of the lab section before
you leave the classroom, even if you are attending a section other than your
usual section. You cannot "finish them later" and leave them in a TA's box.
The following elements should appear in all lab reports:
- Your name and the name of your "home" TA (who records all your grades).
- Completion of the preprinted worksheet. This structured report involves recording of data,
calculations and responses to specific questions about the experiment.
Value: 50 points
- A brief written report (approximately 1-2 written pages)
covering aspects of the experiment you have performed. Detailed
instructions about the essay will be provided in the student
notes. Value:
50 points
- The essay is to be written in clear, concise English,
using complete sentences. This portion will be graded for both content
and style. Points will be deducted for errors in grammar, spelling
or sentence construction up to a maximum of 50.
Your essay should be concise and
readable. In other words, you shouldn't repeat yourself or discuss
material that is irrelevant to the exercise. You'll lose points if you do.
Occasionally, this will
require a lot of creativity on your part. That's a large part of the
purpose of this course: to ensure you have the skills to communicate
scientific information and the results of your own research to others.
In virtually any career you eventually choose, writing reports that
analyze and summarize your own work, however trivial or complex, is
certain to be crucial. Lab TA's have been instructed to grade essays
with this in mind, so don't be surprised if a half-hearted effort
results in a low grade.
- Lab Schedule
- #1 Week of Mon Jan 26 - Size Scales
- #2 Week of Mon Feb 2 - Spectroscopy
- #3 Week of Mon Feb 9 - (Computer) Spring Sky
- #4 Week of Mon Feb 16 - (Computer) The Pleiades
- #5 Week of Mon Feb 23 - The Palomar Sky Survey
- #6 Week of Mon Mar 2 - The Crab Nebula
- #7 Week of Mon Mar 9 - Cepheid Variables
- #8 Week of Mon Mar 23 - (Computer) The Milky Way
- #9 Week of Mon Mar 30 - The Hubble Constant
- #10 Week of Mon Apr 6 - Quasars
- #11 Week of Mon Apr 13 - Globular Clusters
- Make-up Tue Apr 21/Wed Apr 22 - Make-up for week 1 ice storm.