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300-Level Physico-Chemistry Lab (Writing-Intensive)
WRITING TO LEARN AND COMMUNICATE IN CHEMISTRY
Communication is the most important
thing. You could do Nobel Prize-winning work, and if you can't
communicate it you aren't going to get the prize. [Students] realize
that scientists have to be able to communicate. That's as important as
doing the experiment "properly."--Professor Ray McDonald
The formal typewritten reports helped
me to formulate my thinking and present my experiment in a
professional manner.--Student
I learned how to write a scientific
paper correctly. This is very helpful because I want to be a
scientist.--Student
| COURSE GOALS
The goal of the course is for
students to learn how to do ten physical chemistry experiments and
then, in the words of Professor McDonald,
to write clearly and concisely
what they set out to do, what they did, and what results they
got--and what they think (the results) mean in terms of the
theory that they talked about at the beginning. The idea is that
the experiment is always testing some theory. They have to be
able to interpret the experimental results and tell me what they
got--not just interpret it in their own minds, but be able to
explain it to me.
WRITING ACTIVITIES
1. FORMAL REPORTS
Students are required to do two
formal, typewritten reports. They receive an outline and a model
report, then read a chapter on report writing. At least half of
the first class is devoted to writing a report. The first
experiment requires a formal report, graded by the professor.
Students do the experiment, record relevant observations and data,
then analyze the data using statistical techniques. They discuss
results with their teaching assistants or professor, and may
submit report drafts for review. They are given two weeks to turn
in the first report, twice as long as the time for their other
reports.
Their write-up covers the purpose
of the experiment, the theory it tests, equipment and methods,
data and observations, and representative calculations; it
includes results in graphical or tabular form, comparison of
experimental results to literature values, error analysis, and
discussion and summary sections. References to literature other
than textbook and lab materials are footnoted and listed in
appropriate style at the end of the experiment.
Though many students submit only a
final report, Dr. McDonald's grading system provides fine-grained,
written feedback that is useful for subsequent papers. An ideal
score is assigned for each of the eight parts of the laboratory
report. A student knows what a grade of 10/20 means for the
CALCULATIONS section, and knows how much that section is weighted
out of a total of 85 points. The following example from a student
paper illustrates the rubric for evaluation
of a final report: |
Hopefully this
course will have prepared me for the writing of scientific
articles. Writing formal reports gave the experience of presenting
a chemical experiment...[and] helped me to formulate my thinking
and present my experiment in a professional manner. I learned how
to write a scientific paper correctly. This is very helpful
because I want to be a scientist.--Student |
| ABSTRACT:
5/5
FORMAT: 5/5
INTRO/THEORY: 17/20
EXPERIMENT: 5/5
RESULTS: 3/5
ERROR: 18/20
DISCUSSION: 20/20
REFERENCES: 5/5
________
78/85
Dr. McDonald and his teaching
assistant provide commentary on what is well done and could be
done better. Comments such as "First talk about IDEAL and
then about NON-IDEAL and why they are not ideal" and
"Illustrations will help to show what you are saying"
point to categories of errors and omissions that can be addressed
in future reports. In the excerpt that follows, the teaching
assistant adds her comments to a student's final report:
Sam, I received a copy of your
rough draft from Dr. McDonald so I would know what he had
advised you. I just wanted to say I'm impressed with the amount
of effort and time you put into this. It really shows!
Good job!
Marginal comments sometimes
are illustrations that convey more effectively than words the
teaching assistant's reactions to sections of a student's report.
Below is an excerpt from a student's report with the TA's marginal
comments: |
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. . . the
point is that there were impurities in the cyclohexane. Both
of these are consistent with the measured boiling point.
Also, error is associated with anything in which numbers
must be read. These parallax errors and the accuracy of
the thermometer have reared their ugly heads in the
determination of the azeotropic boiling point. The mole
fraction of the azeotropic boiling point discrepancy is not
as easy to determine. The calculated mole fractions of
cyclohexane and isopropyl alcohol were .6 and .4
respectively. The value is .67 for cyclohexane and .33 for
isopropyl alcohol. . . . |
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| Commentary that is both
positive and corrective in combination with a component-based
numerical grading system enables students to evaluate text and
place value on written communication. Even those who do not take
advantage of Dr. McDonald's accessibility are able to improve
their future reports.
PURPOSE:
The purpose of the formal reports is to teach students how to
communicate to a scientific audience what they did in an
experiment and why it is convincing evidence of the theory they
set out to test. The formal report requires students to show
mastery of scientific methodologies, rhetoric, and the writing
style employed by practicing scientists.
|
Complete theoretical treatments of
experiments as well as conclusions based on our own ideas for each
experiment [were useful]. The most useful of these activities were
the formal science reports. The library research project [gave me]
the know-how to research topics used to formulate a report.
--Student |
| 2.
LABORATORY NOTEBOOKS
Students are required to do eight
"semi-formal" reports written in lab notebook format.
These are essentially in the same format as the formal reports,
including footnotes and references, but need not be typed. If a
student makes an error, s/he is directed to draw a line through
it so it is still legible, and the correction is entered next to
it. The reports are written in ink, pages are numbered, and
every page has the names of the experimenters, the title of the
experiment, and the date. If instrumental records are included,
they are signed and dated.
PURPOSE:
The purposes of the laboratory notebook are similar to those of
the formal report. The experimental write-ups in the notebook
can be thought of as a draft of a formal report. In it, students
learn how to keep a lab notebook as they would in a research
laboratory and learn how to treat written errors and
instrumental printouts. |
| RELATED
WRITING ACTIVITIES
1. USING STUDENTS AS
"RESIDENT EXPERTS"
During each laboratory session,
ten different experiments are run because the cost of equipment
prohibits multiple setups. The two-week deadline for the first
assignment gives time for each pair of students to become
experts on one of the ten. Subsequently, student pairs work on
different experiments which are due in one week. Student pairs
become "resident experts" on the first experiment that
they did, and are expected to act as peer tutors. Other students
go to them whenever they do that experiment.
| I've got ten [experiments]
going on at once, so [students] rotate around, and each pair is
doing different things at any given time. In the lab the pair
who did it first helps the others get started. If there are any
questions, they're the resident experts. So we try to get the
students talking to one another that way. The TAs and I spend a
lot of time in the first lab with everybody getting them up to
speed, and then they begin helping each other. --Instructor |
| 2. FACILITATING
WRITING WITH COMPUTERS
The presence of computers in the
laboratory facilitates writing. Students already use the
computers to analyze data and to write their formal reports.
Professor McDonald has made arrangements to increase student
access to computers in another department, and he plans to
provide word-processing programs on the laboratory computers.
After this is done, he wants to convert all the written reports
to formal, computer-processed reports. |
They would all
be formal lab reports, because the notebook looks just like
formal lab report, except it's written in the notebook. It
really wouldn't require anything different between the two. And
I think they're finding it so much easier to use word
processors. -- Professor |
| This
change could have an impact on writing and instructor input as
students receive support from the professor, teaching assistants,
and "resident expert"
peers in an ongoing writing and revising process.
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| Professor McDonald comments on his class (excerpts from an
interview):
[Students] realize by this time that scientists have to be able
to communicate. That's as important as doing the experiment
properly. There are really two things [we want them to learn]. We
want them to learn the chemistry, the science involved, and we
emphasize that, and we also want them to learn how to communicate
it. They're really tied together and I haven't been able to
separate it.
They have to be able to communicate not to a non-scientist, but
to another scientist what they did and why they think that's
convincing evidence of what they set out to do. [I tell
them]"You've got to write up the report that your boss is
going to submit to management so that they will give you some more
money."
But they should be taking (Writing-Intensive classes) outside
of chemistry, too. We don't want them to have too many of them
here that are required for chem majors because I want them to see
other kinds of writing and ours is a particular way.
The upgrading of the chemistry laboratories with high
technology equipment has led to several beneficial outcomes. What
used to take two afternoons--now you put in an FTIR or something,
you push a button and what used to take an entire afternoon to
scan a spectrum we have in 29 seconds. It takes longer for the
thing to plot it out than it does to make a measurement. And so
it's getting so less and less time is spent at the lab bench and
more and more at the computer. This is why the writing isn't
bothering them as much. For the most part they have two lab
periods to do one experiment, and they're getting it done in half
the first one. And that gives them all this time to write it up.
They're all sitting there about writing, and what they're going to
do, and calculating their stuff. The lab is beautiful now, it has
nice desks, and they all sit in there, so it's become a club in
there. And that's the kind of atmosphere I've been hoping to have. |
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