ATMS 360 Homework and Course Deliverables (return to main page)
[How to write lab report]
LAB 100 for instrument development students.
a). Read and thoroughly digest pages 1 through 20 in basic electricity.
b). Read and enjoy pages 1-1 through 1-4 on the history of operational amplifiers from opamps4all.
c). Read my brief introduction to operational amplifiers.
d). Advanced reading of pages 2-1 through 2-12, especially for content, and for Ohm's law discussion (from opamps4all.)
e). Read to understand how opamps work, pages 3-1 through 3-6 (from opamps4all.)
f). Advanced reading of the rest of chapter 3 on opamps (from opamps4all.)
g). Basic Circuits Laboratory for your notebook.
READ: Here is the section on series and parallel circuits and resistor, capacitor descriptions.
READ: Here is the section on semiconductors and LEDs. The section continues here.
h). Print out your schematic for the transimpedance amplifier, and the board layout. Add it to your notebook with a discussion of what it does, how it works.
Lab reports will be written the same format we use for scientific papers and for student senior, MS, and PhD theses. One goal of this class is to work on your ability as a science writer. Let me emphasize one word here. SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE!!!! So often we are obsessed with the technical details of the measurements that we don't cover the science adequately.
The following elements are needed for your lab report to be complete. Here is an example of some hints I found using a google search with the keyword "how to write a scientific paper".
Page length doesn't matter; it's all about the contents. Make it as short as possible to get the message across in a clear manner.
Title: The title should cover the science objective and maybe mention the instrument(s) used for the measurement.
Abstract: The abstract is a brief discussion of the findings of your work. It should be well written because it is often what is read as someone makes a decision to read your work (or fund your research).
Hint on writing abstracts.
Introduction: Explain the scientific goal in more detail and maybe hint at the measurement methods used.
Measurements: Discuss the measurement methods, including uncertainties.
Discuss the instrument(s) and the pertinent information needed to convey what you measured.
Observations: Display your observations and interpret them for your reader.
Make clear, legible graphs with large fonts, clear symbols, and clearly documented results.
Conclusions: The conclusion should summarize your observations and perhaps make suggestions for future work.
References: References refer to specific articles and/or books, etc, that you reference in your paper.
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