Physics 128 Logbook Grading Policy, Winter 2017

• 20 points: Full participation in the experiment. The student needs to be an active participant rather than an observer of his/her partner's work.
  
  
• 10 points: Clear use of logbook as a record rather than an after the fact report. For example, record things as they happen. Don't insert things afterward. If you add information later on, put it on a later page and add a note in the margin of earlier pages referring to it.
  
  
• 10 points: Record sufficient detail to allow the measurement to be repeated based on your record.
  
  
• 10 points: Explanation of what you measure and how. State the equations that you use in the measurement. Include diagrams or photos and apparatus descriptions.
  
  
• 10 points: Raw data. Include tables and plots made while collecting the data. These need to be complete and clear enough that one can reconstruct what was done.
  
  
• 5 points: Distilled data, including tables and plots. You should analyze the raw data and put the resulting plots or tables in your logbook.
  
  
• 10 points: Uncertainties. State the uncertainties and explain how you estimate them and propagate them.
  
  
• 10 points: Systematics. A discussion of potential systematic biases and uncertainties. You may not be able to quantify them all, but you should list the effects that you have thought about. You also needn't measure them all, but you should comment on how you might measure them or improve the procedure in future measurements to avoid them.
  
  
• 5 points: Conclusion. This needn't be long, and you won't always conclude that everything worked well. But, the conclusions must be clear, quantitative and supported. For example: "We measured the stretch of a spring as a function of the applied force. It was observed to be linear for forces between about 1 and 5 Newtons with a slope of 5.26 ± 0.03 N/m. Non-linear behavior was observed for forces outside of this range. The dominant uncertainty in the measurement came from uncertainty in the position due to both measurement technique and residual oscillations of the spring." Then show a plot of X vs F.
  
  
• 5 points: Organization. The logbook should be sufficiently well organized to allow the thread to be followed and information easily found.
  
  
• 5 points: Completion of procedures, questions and exercises specified in the lab manual. If some of them cannot be completed, e.g., due to equipment problems, let your TA know (he may waive those parts) and note that in the logbook.

• Names of lab partners.
• Dates and times of measurements and entries.
• Everything must be legible even if it is crossed out as "wrong".
• Tables of data and plots, must be sufficiently labelled for content and context.
• Details of your data analysis, that supports your report.

Last revision, 01/08/2017, Harry Nelson