Module title: FC312 Physics

Name of experiment: Expansion Coefficient of Water experiment

The lab report usually contains 1500-2000 words, excluding references.

Lab Report – (80% of assessment score)

How will this part be marked?

Overall structure and quality of presentation (10%)

· Attractive, clear layout with title page, headings, sub-headings

· Neat, well laid-out tables with column headings

· Neat graphs with titles, labelled axes and well-spaced, numbered scales

· Correctly formatted chemical and mathematical equations

· Calculations that are well laid out and easy to follow

· References correctly formatted and attributed

· Correct use of academic English:

o Good English sentence structure

o Correct English spelling

o 3 rd person passive voice used correctly

Academic integrity (5%)

· Information from sources is appropriately paraphrased/summarised rather than relying on quotes

· Any direct and indirect quotations are clearly marked and acknowledged with correct citations

· References match the citations and are correctly formatted

· Data/facts presented are genuine and accurate

Useful materials:

Reports should be written in the third person and the passive voice. In other words, never use ‘I’ or ‘we’ in technical writing. Most of the time, the past tense is used when giving details of what was done. Occasionally, the present tense is used when giving details of the background to the work or inferring general relationships from the results.

It is good practice to use simple words and short sentences. Use of informal/conversational expressions (e.g. “I bet you’re surprised that the results are so accurate lol”) must be avoided. Make sure that you write in complete sentences, and use lists only when neceessary.

Use justified text (ctrl+J on windows Microsoft Word), with no indent at the start of the paragraph and a line space between paragraphs. Use normal margins to leave room for feedback (and for binding of a hard-copy of the report), do not let figures or tables spill over into the margins.

Remember to check your spelling and grammar! Microsoft Word can do this for you, and you can also find many online tools to help you.

Addition submission information – check you have done the following:

Introduction: 300-500 words

How will this part be marked?

Experimental Procedure and Plan of experiment (10%)

· Clearly defined aim of experiment

· Appropriate theoretical context

· Hypothesis with reasons

· List of equipment and consideration of safety procedures

· Clear explanation of method

· Clearly labelled diagram showing the equipment set-up

· Methodical practical skills (instructions followed correctly)

· Appropriate safety precautions

Discussion and Conclusion (30%)

This will mainly be found in the Introduction, Discussion and Conclusion sections.

· Clear explanation of the science underlying your observations

· Interpretation of results and graphs

· Explanation of all results

· Well-explained links to theory with equations

· Confirmation (or otherwise) of hypothesis and/or aims

Useful materials:

The introduction sets the foundation for the rest of your report.  It gives the background to the experiment or study, explaining why it was important to do it. You need to write this part as clearly as possible; someone who has no idea of physics should be able to understand everything you are doing in this experiment.

(Let’s say your experiment is about simple harmonic motion (SHM), and you measure how does the oscillation period change with spring strength and load mass using a stopwatch. You need to explain what is the oscillation period, what is a spring and how is its strength defined, what is a load, how does pressing the buttons on a stopwatch lead to the oscillation period etc.. I should not have to go to another source to search for the meaning or purpose of anything in the report.)

The objectives of the report should be clearly stated here, but do not discuss your results – leave the good bits in the “results” section. In a proper technical paper, you would use the introduction section to review and summarise previous relevant work.

The introduction is the part where the references will be used most, because all the information you will provide here should be taken from another source, so you have to paraphrase it and give your reference in the text. You have to use at least 5 references in the whole lab report. There is a document showing how to add in-text citations on VLE. Remember if you use any sentence that you did not invent or create, it needs to be cited. Even if you say gravitational acceleration is 9.81 m/s², you need to cite it because that is not your own idea, you learned it from somewhere else. You should use scientific sources such as books, articles, journals, and university sources, but NOT Wikipedia.

Aim: 20 - 50 words

How will this part be marked?

Experimental Procedure and Plan of experiment (10%)

· Clearly defined aim of experiment

· Appropriate theoretical context

· Hypothesis with reasons

· List of equipment and consideration of safety procedures

· Clear explanation of method

· Clearly labelled diagram showing the equipment set-up

· Methodical practical skills (instructions followed correctly)

· Appropriate safety precautions

Useful materials:

Write down the purposes/aims of your experiment. What are you trying to find?

Materials and methods: 300 words

How will this part be marked?

Experimental Procedure and Plan of experiment (10%)

· Clearly defined aim of experiment

· Appropriate theoretical context

· Hypothesis with reasons

· List of equipment and consideration of safety procedures

· Clear explanation of method

· Clearly labelled diagram showing the equipment set-up

· Methodical practical skills (instructions followed correctly)

· Appropriate safety precautions

Useful materials:

Describe the materials and apparatus you used in the experiment. You can use diagrams/images to make your report more colourful.

The methods part is the procedure of the experiment you did step by step. However, you should not simply copy and past your lab manual, instead you need to write the steps in your own words. You should give enough details about how the experiment was carried out, such that another person can repeat your experiment.

Results and calculations: 200 words

How will this part be marked?

Data Handling – Results (Tables, graphs, calculations) (15%)

· Good quality and accurate results with units

· Well laid out results with column headings and units specified

· Equations, structural formulae

· Correct mathematical manipulation in calculations, including units

· Graphs with title

· Good choice of axes and scales with units

· Units on graph axes and/or table headings

· Results quoted to correct precision, with consideration of errors

Useful materials:

Here you should put the tables for your processed data, and describe how are the numbers measured, or calculated using formulae. Your raw data (where units might be different), detailed calculation steps, and Excel spreadsheet (if any) should be put in the Appendix.

Read “Lab Instructions” on the VLE to find the tables and the formulae for making calculations.

Read “Handling Data and Error Analysis”, “Error Propagation” on the VLE when deciding on the precision of the calculations. Please be careful with the degree of precision.

Discussion: 500-600 words

How will this part be marked?

Discussion and Conclusion (30%)

This will mainly be found in the Introduction, Discussion and Conclusion sections.

· Clear explanation of the science underlying your observations

· Interpretation of results and graphs

· Explanation of all results

· Well-explained links to theory with equations

· Confirmation (or otherwise) of hypothesis and/or aims

Useful materials:

You need to explain what your results mean. You should link your results to the relevant theories and explain how do your results support/contradict the theory. You must use in-text citations where appropriate.

There are some “key questions” in the lab manual, you can find them on the VLE as well. Try to answer them correctly, the answers will help you discuss your results.

Errors: 200 words

How will this part be marked?

Data Handling – Results (Uncertainty & Errors) (10%)

· Recognition of outliers, repeat measurements to reduce uncertainty

· Identification of errors and discrepancies

· Analysis of impact on results

Useful materials:

Experiments are not perfect, and you should discuss about any differences between your measured values and the theoretical values. You should go over your methods one step at a time, and describe where might errors be introduced.

Group the errors by their type. Are they systematic or random? Are they caused by limitations in the original experiment design or by poor execution of the experiment steps? Are they human errors, instrument errors, or others? Mention whether the errors can be reduced/avoided, and if possible, how?

Conclusion: 100 words

Discussion and Conclusion (30%)

This will mainly be found in the Introduction, Discussion and Conclusion sections.

· Clear explanation of the science underlying your observations

· Interpretation of results and graphs

· Explanation of all results

· Well-explained links to theory with equations

· Confirmation (or otherwise) of hypothesis and/or aims

Useful materials:

Finally, briefly conclude your lab report. Have you successfully met the aims of this lab? State what has been learned from this experiment.

References:

How will this part be marked?

Overall structure and quality of presentation (10%)

· Attractive, clear layout with title page, headings, sub-headings

· Neat, well laid-out tables with column headings

· Neat graphs with titles, labelled axes and well-spaced, numbered scales

· Correctly formatted chemical and mathematical equations

· Calculations that are well laid out and easy to follow

· References correctly formatted and attributed

· Correct use of academic English:

o Good English sentence structure

o Correct English spelling

o 3 rd person passive voice used correctly

Academic integrity (5%)

· Information from sources is appropriately paraphrased/summarised rather than relying on quotes

· Any direct and indirect quotations are clearly marked and acknowledged with correct citations

· References match the citations and are correctly formatted

· Data/facts presented are genuine and accurate

Useful materials:

You should list all sources (including AI) used here, after citing them in the main body of the report. Use the Harvard citation style. for both in-text citation and the reference list.

· Stark, T. (2008) How I Became Iron Man. 0^th Edition. Place of publication: Atlantis.

· NHS (2019) Diabetes. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/diabetes/ (Accessed: 26 October 2023).

· Chemistry Lab Report Template (2023). Place of publication: Kaplan VLE FC304 Chemistry.