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Teaching
with InLab
Overview
The InLab provides a series
of steps that guide students in collecting, analyzing, and effectively
representing their data. Essentially, the InLab is a lab notebook, in
which students keep a detailed account of their experiment--equipment,
calibrations, procedures, and data. The InLab provides many helpful resources
students can use throughout the laboratory process. Appropriate resources
are linked throughout InLab but also may be accessed at any time from
the Resources homepage.
Guiding students
It is a good idea for you to review the InLab steps and appropriate resources
the first time you ask students to use the InLab. This will encourage
them to use it and will help them structure their lab experience. You
may use the web site or the Handout. You may also refer to the slides
that describe the InLab in the How
to Use LabWrite presentation.
Depending on the level of the course, managing data may or may not be
a major issue. For example, intro-level courses often have ready-made
tables for students to use when collecting their raw data. In such cases,
In-Lab is useful as a teaching tool for helping students become more sophisticated
about data-gathering and how to structure data. In more advanced labs,
however, students are likely to encounter complex data sets and must design
tables to record data in their own lab notebooks. In either case, students
will most likely have to enter their raw data onto a spreadsheet so that
they can represent their data in an appropriate visual format, such as
a graph or a table.
Using InLab
If you have computers set up in your laboratory, you may want students
to access and complete InLab as they are doing the lab using the Tutor
or the Self-Guide. If you don’t have computers, you may ask students
to print out the InLab Handout so that they can bring it to lab with them.
Students can make notes directly on the InLab Handout or they can use
the InLab steps as a guide for making notes in their own lab notebook
or manual. Due to the varying degrees of computer access in labs, your
laboratory set up will largely determine the way you integrate InLab into
your lab course. Below, you will find the modes of InLab as listed on
the InLab Home Page.
The InLab Modes:
Tutor: The Tutor is like
an interactive online notebook that takes students through the steps
of managing their labs. This mode is best for students who have Internet
access in their labs and prefer to take notes and enter data online
for later use in writing the report.
Self-Guide:
For use as a non-interactive online guide that serves as an online handout
for managing the lab. Best for students who have access to the Internet
in their labs but who prefer not to take notes online. A printable version
is available at this link.
InLab
Handout: For printing out and completing by hand during
the lab. This is best for students who do not have access to the Internet
in their labs but who would like to be guided step by step in managing
their labs and would like to take notes and record data in hard copy.
Grading InLab
In-Lab is not designed to be turned in to you, so in most cases you will
not be grading it. However, if you feel that it is valuable for students
to fill out the InLab sheet and hand it in, then you should consider using
a simple check, check-plus, check-minus grading scheme. Another option
is for you to check In-Lab as students are completing the lab by putting
a check, check-plus, check-minus by each student's name. Another option
is for you to collect figures—graphs and tables—as students
complete their labs. This will ensure that students are using their own
data (or group data) for making their visuals. Make sure students keep
copies for referring to and including in their lab reports.
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Teaching
with PostLab
Overview
Post-Lab is the most extensive
part of LabWrite for Students. It is designed to lead students through
a step-by-step process from raw data to a completed lab report. In most
other laboratory classes, students are given no instruction in writing
lab reports beyond a list of the parts of the report and a brief description
of each part. LabWrite, however, is based on the idea that we should provide
students with full and detailed instructional support that enables them
to take advantage of the learning opportunity that lab reports offer.
That's the task of PostLab.
The object of PostLab is to
guide students through a formal process of thinking scientifically about
their lab experience by having them reconstruct that experience visually
and verbally in the report. There is also a set of helpful hints for writing
each part of the report.
Perhaps the first thing you notice about PostLab is the order in which
it addresses the parts of the lab report. Students often assume that they
are supposed to compose their reports in the order in which they are presented
in the final version, starting with the title, then the Abstract, etc.
Any scientist will tell you that this is not the order their articles
are written. Post-Lab structures the lab report in a way that makes sense
for composing it, using what LabWrite calls the “inside-out
approach” to writing lab reports which starts with the methods
and results—the core of a lab report.
Guiding
students
If you have introduced students
to LabWrite and to lab reports using the materials on Introducing students
to LabWrite, then you should only have to remind students to use the PostLab
to write their lab reports. If you have not done a formal introduction
to the LabWrite site, you may want to review the PostLab with your students
at this point primarily to address the major issues related to the structure
of the lab report. If students continue to have questions about the structure
of report, remind them that they can review this material with the “How
to Use LabWrite” tutorial on the Main Home Page.
Using PostLab
Unless you are assigning lab reports during lab time, students will use
the mode of PostLab most convenient for them. You may want to review these
modes with them, so that students are clear about their options. The PostLab
Modes are listed below as found on the PostLab Home Page.
The PostLab Modes:
Tutor: For writing lab reports
online using an interactive mode that leads students step by step through
each section of the lab report (Methods, Results, etc.). This mode is
best for students who are new to LabWrite, for students who want access
to the most help in writing their reports, and for students who like
to write their reports in smaller and more manageable units.
Brief Tutor: For writing
lab reports online using an interactive mode that leads students through
all the sections of the lab report one full section at a time (Materials
and Methods, Results, etc.) not in the smaller steps of the basic Tutor.
Best for students who have already used the Tutor for writing reports
and don't feel the need for the step-by-step approach.
Self-Guide: For using as
an online reference while writing lab reports in a non-interactive mode.
Best for students who prefer to write their reports independently in
their own word processing software. A printable version is available
at this link.
Guide to Writing Partial Lab Reports:
For writing one or more sections of a lab report. Used when you have
assigned to write only one or more sections of the report. For example,
writing only the Results, or writing the Results and Discussion.
Grading PostLab
You will be grading the the students' lab reports. For help, go to Grading
Lab Reports.
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Teaching
with LabCheck
Overview
LabCheck has two parts that reflect its two main purposes:
- The first purpose is to
provide students with a guide for revising their lab reports before
turning them in. Students can click to find the LabChecklist, which
leads them through a list of the most important features of the parts
of the report. There are two main uses for the LabChecklist. One is
for each student to revise his or her reports. The other is for peer
evaluation, having students trade their reports with other students
(in pairs or in groups, formally or informally) and critique the reports
following the LabChecklist.
- The second purpose is to
provide students with the criteria you will be using to grade their
lab reports. As students receive their graded lab reports, they can
immediately access pertinent feedback for their graded lab reports by
clicking on the links from the Evaluation Guide in LabCheck. Each of
the criteria on the Evaluation Guide has a link for help in improving
that aspect of the report. So if a student is graded poorly on certain
criteria, he or she can click on all of those criteria to find out what
can be done to improve the next report. This guide can also be used
to help students revise their papers after you give them back. Offering
students the opportunity for revision and a higher grade can be a very
good teaching tool because it motivates students to learn from their
mistakes. For more information on grading lab reports, go to Grading
lab reports
Teaching with LabCheck
This part of LabWrite requires little if any instructional intervention.
Before the first lab report is due, you may show students how to use the
LabChecklist. You may even ask that they print it out and turn in a completed
list with the final version of the report, a good way of encouraging them
to use it. And if you have some time in your schedule for peer review
of any of the reports (it need not take up much lab time, but students
need time to reflect on their peers' critiques and rewrite their drafts
accordingly), ask students to bring printed copies to the lab, or provide
them yourself. Click here for more help on the
peer review process.
After you hand back the first lab report you may demonstrate how the LabCheck
Evaluation Guide may be used to help them to understand the evaluation
and find information to improve their next reports. For further help,
they can print out the complete version of "Improving your Lab Reports"
(which collects all the advice for improvement in one document) from the
Resources.
Using
LabCheck
LabCheck is mainly for students
to use, but if you decide to modify or add criteria on the Grading Rubric,
which is the same as the Evalutation Guide to better meet the needs of
your course, you will have to explain these changes to your students and
direct them to the most appropriate use of the revised rubric. Go to Excel
Grading Rubric from the Grading Lab Reports
page to find help for modifying the grading rubric.
Grading LabCheck
There is no LabCheck assignment to grade.
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