WRITING ASSIGNMENTS 
A goal of BISC 207 is to teach proper scientific writing. Although this varies among scientific journals, we will be rather conservative in our approach. You will be given (or will have access to) rubrics to guide you in your writing; the same rubrics will be used by TA's to grade reports. Three brief and four longer reports will be required. Brief reports will simply be a presentation of the data. Raw data should be summarized and charted, showing trends, etc (guidelines will be found in the worksheet on Chart and Table construction); however, raw data should not be included in these brief reports, unless you are told otherwise.  The longer reports will include a brief Introduction including a hypothesis (more than one hypothesis is permitted) and brief justification for the hypothesis, a Results section, including both verbal and appropriate visual depictions of results, and Discussion, which includes an interpretation of results, their relevance to science, error sources and ideas for further investigations. The rubrics and worksheets should help you in writing both the brief and long reports. These include:  "Chart & Table Construction" and "Writing Conventions" and rubrics for brief and extended reports.  This link explains when things are due.

Needless to say, to receive as much credit as possible, these writing assignments must be handed in ON TIME. Lateness will result in at least a 10% deduction (the more delay there is in handing in a report, the more credit deducted).

LAB EXAM
The exam given on the last lab meeting will be a lab practical. This means that you will be responsible for understanding and demonstrating procedures, interpreting results that are given to you, and understanding the theory behind each lab. This should be an incentive for everyone to participate fully in all aspects of each lab, because the lab practical will be taken as individuals, not as groups. For example, even if someone else was in charge of monitoring data collection on the  computer, each of you will have to be able to read raw data from the computer program. So although you may be tempted to divide up chores in lab, you will be responsible for all them for the lab practical. This exam will include all labs that you did.. You will not be tested on laboratory content during lecture exams, nor will lecture content be included in the lab practical.
 
FLOW CHARTS/ QUIZZES
Flow charts (work plans) are summaries of procedures that must be following during a lab. Writing a flow chart should enable you to execute lab protocols efficiently without having to constantly consult the lab manual. They should be detailed enough so that you can glance at them and know what to do, but not so detailed that they are as cumbersome as the lab manual. Writing a flow chart will ensure that you enter lab well prepared for that day's experiment. You should make two copies of each flow chart - one for you to use in lab, and one to hand in as soon as you arrive in lab (this one will be checked and graded). There are three  flow charts due.  The only quiz will be administered in lab 1.

SHARING LAB DATA
Each group of two or three people at a work station will collect data together. These data will be shared among group members, and occasionally data may be shared among all class members. You may not bring in memory sticks or CD's for use in the laboratory desktop computers. Therefore data must either be shared before you leave lab, or may be stored on WebCT. Your lab instructor will explain how you can share data. Although you will share data with your group, each student is responsible for writing his/her own lab report. This includes constructing charts and/or tables. With the exception of what you might do in laboratory as a group, you are not to work on chart or table construction as a group when doing your lab reports. You need to learn how to do these independently.

ATTENDANCE
Laboratory attendance is mandatory. The only excuses for which you may miss your lab are: Documented illness, documented family tragedy, and attendance at a UD-sponsored event for which you are an official representative (letter from your group's coach/advisor is required for this). In each of those cases, you must still make up the lab at a different time in the same week. The first step is to notify Prof. Dion as soon as you know about the need for absence. Other emergencies are not grounds for missing a lab, but will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please also read the lab manual about attendance policies.