Lab Report Information

Assignment: Team 1: Lab 3 Michael Lawson John Papp Courtney Skay Team 2: Lab 2 Olapeju Famojure Adam Versterholt Team 3: Lab 1 Jessie Partridge Katherine Schulte Team 4: Lab 1 Jordan Marton David Siegal Ariana Burdett Team 5: Lab 3 Kaoru Endo Scott Penfield Team 6: Lab 1 Andrew Gold Michelle Tsang Team 7: Lab 3 Nimit Barochia Lauren Carelli Jacqueline Clutton Team 8: Lab 1 Kaitlyn Conroy Jordan DeLiso Ian Beam Team 9: Lab 2 Michael Cummings Steve Myrthil Team 10: Lab 3 Steven Keppel Alexis Liistro Mark Pinkos Guidelines: Lab Reports are due IN CLASS on Thursday, December 5th (last day of class). Each team submits ONE report, and everyone on the team gets the same grade. The report must be typed, using 12-point font and double-space, with 1-inch margin on all sides. The report must be no longer than five (5) pages, excluding figures and references. The report must be written in a TECHNICAL PAPER format. Guidelines for a Technical Paper: Title Must be informative Include Affiliation – the institution where the work was conducted Include Author (typically yourself) and Co-Authors (your lab partners) Abstract Must be “stand alone” summary of what the paper is all about lets the reader know whether he/she should read the rest of the paper No more than ~500 words, 1 paragraph; must not include any references Include (briefly) the following: purpose of lab what you did and how it was done results & major findings Introduction Motivation Any background information that the reader needs to know – previous research, theory, etc Equations & derivations (this may be in a separate Theory section) End with a brief sentence or two about what to expect from rest of the paper Experimental Setup/Method How was the lab set up, and what steps did you take to complete the lab Explain how you took data Must be detailed enough so that the reader can repeat your experiment if necessary MUST INCLUDE FIGURE(S) of the experimental setup Results & Discussion Present raw data & findings Analyze results Present results in a way that you can prove a point about something This section may be separated into two separate sections results contain raw data discussion contains the analysis and implications Use graphs and tables to present data Conclusion Brief summary of the paper containing motivations, what you did and how it was done, and a re-statement of your findings. Include future work/suggestions Acknowledgments Recognize contributors (other than the authors), such as sources of funding or technicians who helped out with the experiment. References Site all notes/texts used in your paper Technical Paper Formats Figures must be computer-generated (Powerpoint works well for drawing figures). labeled on BOTTOM with a figure number and caption (Example: “Figure 1. Schematic of the experimental setup.”) clearly refer to the figure in your text (for example, “The experimental setup is shown in Figure 1.”) Graphs must be computer-generated follow all guidelines for Figures (see above). all graphs must have axes that are clearly labeled with title and units, and have clear legend if the graph has more than one line do not place graph titles on the top (as generated in Excel) – all figure labels go on the bottom, and you don’t need another label on the top. do not include unnecessary data if you don’t refer to it in the text – for example, if you had four temperature readings but only talk about one of them, then your graph should only show the relevant one. Tables must be computer-generated labeled on TOP with a table number (separate from a figure number) and caption (Example: “Table 1. Comparison of the thermal conductivity of cooking materials.”) if your table contains numbers, make sure you also include the units on the table. Equations must be computer-generated (MS Word comes with an Equation Editor). each equation must be placed on its own line, separate from the text (one equation per line). Exceptions apply when the equation is VERY short and simple (for example, “The area of the cylinder was calculated by 2pi×rh.”) define ALL variables used in the equation. (for example, “The Biot number is defined as Bi = hL/k, where k is the thermal conductivity, h is the convection coefficient, and L is the half-thickness of the plate.”) in the case where units are important, specify the units to be used in the equation. (for example, “The radiative heat loss is emissivity×sigma×AT^4, where the temperature T is in Kelvin.”) equations are labeled on RIGHT with an equation number Other Pointers and Comments Always spell-check!!! It is perfectly acceptable in a technical paper to repeat what you’ve said in other parts of the paper, especially in Abstract and Conclusion sections. However, do not repeat sentences word-for-word. Do not quote directly from other sources. Always paraphrase, and site the reference. Be aware of who your target audience is. For the assignment, you may assume that your audiences are college students, with a first-year understanding of heat transfer. Most people prefer to see technical papers written in past tense. If you use past tense (or any other tense), make sure that the entire paper follows the same tense. Some people avoid using first person in a technical paper; however, most papers in the press seem indifferent about this issue. If you are using first-person, use “we” instead of “I,” since research projects are rarely a single-person effort (for example, “We studied the difference in thermal conductivities between food items.”).