	Proposal for Visual Physics (VP) 218/208 Lab and Tech. Writing (TW)
VP+TW Proposal (3/30/05): here (409 kB, PDF) Assessment of the VP+TW Pilot Program: Fall 2003 What the change costs: here Lab Report Format: Technical Memo (Fall 2004), changed from IEEE (Fall 2003) Recitation Quiz (Context-Rich Problem): [What is it?] [Example 1] [Example 2] VP Lab Web sites: [ PHYS 218 ] [ PHYS 208 ] Calibrated Peer Review (CPR): References	Last Update: April 20, 2005

The element of VP:
- Visual laboratory
  to provide a sequence of phenomena, measurement, modeling and analysis.
  - Students work in 3-person team (rotating their roles - leader, data taking, and data recording).
  - Each student is required to maintain his/her Lab Journal (or Logbook) for experimental works.
- Interactive learning
  - Students work in 3-person teams on context-rich problems during the recitation.
  - We propose to integrate recitation with lecture (= 4 hours contact led by professor) in a new lecture room in the right. Click here to find what would be needed to do this.
- Technical writing
  - Each report is required to be written in a certain style, called Technical Memo (TM). This is a memorandum style of 1-2 pages. This dramatically reduced the time that students spent, compared to the case of the original style (3 pages with IEEE format) used in fall 2003.
  - Templates of TM are here for general purpose and Lab 2.
  - Each report is graded based on Grading Rubric. This rubric is informed to students, so they know what we look for.
  - Here (150 kB, PDF) is an example of a student's TM for lab 4. (Unfortunately, the figures are missing.)
Technical writing (TW)
- The present technical writing course (ENGL210) will disappear next year!
- Are we providing any value of the lab reports (in the traditional lab) to PHYS 218/208 curriculum?
  - A student answered, by comparing the traditional labs with the VP labs, "the lab reports in the traditional labs are so easy, so I don't want to take VP labs." This is a typical response of students.
  - In the traditional labs, we are not providing any value of the lab reports to PHYS 218 and 208 curriculum, because
    (a) we do not teach our engineer or science students how to write up results in a logical and original way and
    (b) we do not grade those reports without any guideline.
    The class average is 90+. Students are not learning anything from the lab reports.
  - The technical writing component of VP is trying to address those two aspects.
- Does the VP TW negatively impact students?
  - Some of our colleagues expect so. We disagree.
  - Respecting our colleagues concerns, we propose to give students two options:
    (1) VP with technical writing, satisfies core curriculum requirement.
    (2) VP without technical writing, does not satisfy core requirement.
- Do students like it?
  - If you simply asked them, their majority answers are "no". Please think if you ask students "do you like physics?". Their answers will be "no". But we do not think this means we shouldn't offer the physics course.
- Do students see the grade improvements?
  - Within just one semester of PHYS 218, the change in the letter grade for an individual is small. Perhaps "C-" to "C+". Thus if you simply ask individual students about their grade, you never see the true effects.
  - We have addressed this by having two groups taught by the same instructor. The students in both groups were tested by the same exams. The two groups are a) traditional lab and b) VP+TW. We have proven the students in the VP+TW group finished with better letter grade distribution.
- Time consuming for students?
  - We have six (6) lab reports and six (6) lab reports in the semester. Each lab report is 1-2 page long.
  - This is the same as in the traditional lab.
  - The difference is that each lab report is written in a TM style (1-2 pages) - we force students to think which data is more important to show and what is the effective way to show (graph? table? text?). Surely, students have to spend more time on the report. But this is worth.
  - Here (150 kB, PDF) is an example of a student's TM for lab 4. (Unfortunately, the figures are missing.)
- Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) (references)
  - We have been using CPR as a pilot program. CPR is a web-based tool where each student (a) submits his/her lab report and (b) grades his/her peer's reports (three reports).
  - Students don't like that their reports are graded in general. But this CPR system has a potential power that each student can see how other students write the reports and he/she can make a feedback to own lab report.
  - Here (150 kB, PDF) is an example of a student's TM for lab 4. (Unfortunately, the figures are missing.)
TA training
- We also propose to implement PHYS 68X (TA training - 1 hour) course to train our grad. students
Opinions
- Prof. Toback
- Ms. Minwei Lu (PHYS 218 student in fall 2003)
VP web site - Click below for more details.
- VP 218
- VP 208
Below is a view of VP PHYS 218 web site. Each lab is given with a figure (or figures) that is (are) related to the experiment.

Week Number (starting Monday)	Rec. Quiz	Lab	Note
1	Calculus	Lab 0 Tool and techniques Error Theory (by Sante R. Scuro) for students who want to solidify your knowledge of the theory.
2	Estimate, Units, Dimensional Analysis	Lab 1 1D Motion (Chap. 2)
3	1D	No Lab
4	2D	Lab 2 2D Motion (Chap. 3)
5	Force	No Lab	Exam 1
6	Force II	Lab 3 Force and Newton's Laws (Chaps. 4, 5)
7	Work Energy Theorem	No Lab	Lab 3 report is due at the recitation this week.
8	Energy Conservation & Review	Lab 4 Energy and Momentum Conservation (Chaps. 6, 7, 8)
Spring Break	Spring Break	Spring Break	Spring Break
9 (Week of 3/21)	Momentum Conservation and Review		Exam 2 (Ch. 4-7) Dr. Schuessler's Exam 2 = Mar. 23 (Wed) Dr. Toback's Exam 2 = Mar. 24 (Thu)
10	Rotation I	Lab 5 Rotation (Chaps. 9, 10)	Lab 4 report is due at the lab meeting this week.
11	Rotation II	No Lab
12	Static Equilibrium	Lab 6 Oscillation (Chap. 13)	Lab 5 report is due at the lab meeting this week.
13 (Week of 4/18)	Gravity and Review		Exam 3 (Ch. 8-11)
14	Periodic Motion and Review	No Lab	Lab 6 report is due at the recitation this week
15	No Recitation	No Lab

Proposal for Visual Physics (VP) 218/208 Lab and Tech. Writing (TW)