Open Labs

for

Physical Science Laboratory Courses

There is a lot to read on this page.... am I responsible for reading and understanding it?

YES!

What is an Open Lab?

An Open Lab science laboratory course is a lab class where students can work on their lab exercise on any day and time of the week according to their own schedule. There is no set time at which students have to come.

When can I come?

The physical science lab is open from Monday to Thursday from 2pm until 6pm. It is strongly recommended that students come before 4pm in order to complete data gathering.

Where is the Open Lab?

KOKIO 209 - second floor. Refer to the Campus map.

Do I need a book?

No. All the experiment write-ups are (or will be) posted on this website. Do not print out ALL the lab write-ups at the beginning of the semesters; they are continuously updated. Wait for your instructor to contact you via email to let you know when it is time to read them and print them out. Upon receiving this email, students are required to:

• Read the lab write-up prior to coming to the lab
• Print out the lab write-up prior to coming to the lab (there is no printer available in Mamane103).

Is there Lab the first week of class?

No.

How is the lab conducted?

Every week, your instructor will send students an email with information about the experiment to be performed on the following week. Students download the lab write-up for that specific week, print it out and read it. Students can come to Mamane102 at their convenience during the week and are required to complete the experiment that week. In cases where experiments will take two weeks to be completed, each part must be completed within the given time frame. Equipment used in the first week will not be available for use in the second week. It is not possible to complete a two week experiment in one week! Students are able to come more than once a week; however, data gathering should be completed at one time since all setups will be dismantled at the end of every day. Students are expected to allocate, on average, 3 hours for each experiment each week. Students are required to do each experiment. The amount of time spent in the lab will be verified by the login system (see below).

Where is my instructor?

In Mamane, wandering happily and enjoying life as it is. Sometimes he/she will be in Mamane102 to help students. Instructors will inform the students via the syllabus or email of the specific day/time of their availability.

How do I contact the instructor?

You can contact your instructor via email or by phone. Information of the email address and office phone number of your instructor will be in the syllabus. You are required to check your @hawaii.edu email to receive information and instruction concerning the experiments.

How many experiments do I have to do?

One per week unless specified by the instructor (via email).

Once I have completed my data acquisition, then what?

Students are expected to either:

• complete the write-ups.
• write a full lab report.

to be submitted to the instructor a week following the experiment. Example:

Week2: first experiment

Week3: second experiment

End of Week3: report/write-up for the first experiment is due

Week4: third experiment

End of Week4: report/write-up for the second experiment is due

Etc... the write-up is always due a week after the experiment is performed. Since students have almost two weeks to complete them, late submission is unacceptable (see your instructor's syllabus for exact details on this issue).

Reports are usually due every Friday by 3pm unless specified by the instructor. Students need to refer to their syllabus for late penalty.

Where / how should I submit my lab report/write-up?

Mamane102; in the Wooden box next to the blackboard. The mailbox is emptied every Friday at 3pm.

Who is there to help me?

If the instructor is not present at the time students decide to come, other instructors will be present. Student Mentors will be there to provide the equipment, support students and help them complete their experiments. Peer Mentors (or instructors) will not do the experiments for you! They will only help or debug problems.

Am I by myself to perform the experiments?

Students are strongly encouraged to talk to other students taking the lecture linked to the lab, setup meeting time and come in groups. Lab groups cannot be more than 3 students. Students who are not taking the lecture should contact their instructor and/or other students via email to announce the day/time at which they plan to come so that other students in similar situation can plan accordingly.

Is there any test?

Please refer to the syllabus for this issue.

Is the waiver form required?

Oh yes, so if you are hurt while performing an experiment, nobody else is liable (hopefully it will not happen). Make sure to print the waiver form. Fill out the form, sign it, and print out your name below your signature. Submit it to your instructor or the peer mentors present or put it in the wooden box near the blackboard by Week2. Otherwise, you will not be allowed to perform any experiment.

There is a laptop at the entrance of Mamane102 and I'm not sure why it is there

It's for decoration. It's also used to log IN and OUT. The Logs are checked every week by the instructors to make sure students actually came to the lab and completed the experiments. Students should not forget to sign IN and OUT or it might jeopardize their grade. Failure to do so will cause submitted lab write-ups not to be accepted by the instructors and will result to an automatic failing grade for the experiment.

There are lots of people in this lab...

Yes... expect to find students in the lab working on other related or less related experiments every afternoon in Mamane102. All physics laboratory courses share the same room and are subjected to the same Open Lab policy. You will also find students involved in undergraduate STEM research in Kokio209 or Kokio202.

What is the Resource link? I'm rather curious....

Good good good because you might need to refer to this page a lot during the semester when encountering technological problems or questions on how to use laptops and softwares needed to complete your write-ups. You are responsible for reading the content of the Resource page, which you will most likely need for many experiments. If you have any questions about its content, make sure to ask the instructor.

I'm still confused, and I need to talk to someone

Contact your instructor and/or check your @hawaii.edu email.

Can I copy report from other students and claim it as mine?

No. Expect a zero for the report, possibly a zero for the whole semester, and possibly legal action taken by your instructor to the administration. Plagiarism is not tolerated.

Since you will be working in groups, it is expected that the data is common to several students' report. Even though students are encouraged to work together, discuss, and exchange ideas, all computations as well as analysis questions must be written, and finalized individually.

Updated on 12/12/2007