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Course of an experiment and marking scheme
In this page you find information about
Intro-discussion
The tutor assumes that all students are prepared by reading the instructions (available online) and the literature (given in the instructions).
You als have to prepare the set-up, methods to be used, step size of measurements, schedule the parts of the experiment.
The intro-discussion (including an introduction for the set-up) will take: 60 - 120 min
| 3 points | The student well knows all important points of the manual and the experimental procedure. |
| 2 points | The student had some lack of knowledge, but during the intro-discussion this lack could be eliminated. |
| 1 point | There was significant deficit of knowledge. However, the experiment can be executed (maybe due to some additional measures e.g. reading in the library for 1-2h) |
| 0 points | There was significant deficit of knowledge without the chance of executing the experiment |
Executions of the experiment (Experimental part)
Every group makes notes during the measurement (incl. set-up with parameters and sketch, preliminary measurements)
The tutor is available during the day where the experiment is conducted.
At the end of the experiment, the tutor signs the measurement notes. Its quality and correctness has to be checked. There is a final discussion about the results and the tutor’s expectation of the protocol.
| 2 points | The experiment was conducted without considerable assistance of the tutor. |
| 1 point | At least one major intervention of the tutor was necessary to finish the experiments (that excludes broken or defective equipment). |
| 0 points | The experiment was not conducted at all or not reasonably finished. |
Protocol of the experiment
The protocol is a detailed analysis of the experiment. Every participant has the opportunity to hand in an individual protocol. If only one protocol is written, all student get the same mark.
Protocols has to send via email to the tutor latest 2 weeks after the measurement.The report shall be concise and clear. (max 20 pages for single-day/ max. 5 pages for double day experiments in paper format)
1. Aim of the measurement (approx. 1 page).
2. Conception of the set-up and measurement (sketches and figures of the set-up and measurement techniques).
3. Analysis of the measurement result with suitable plots for visualization.
4. Calculation of measurement errors.
5. Concise discussion and evaluation of the results, if applicable comparison to literature values and discussion of deviations and discrepancies.
The protocol may not include:1. Excessive theory
2. Repetition of the explanation from the instructions.
3. Redundant (not contributing to the result) information concerning set-up and execution
| 4 points | The protocol covers all important points and is written in a clear way. |
| 3 points | Protocol contains a few minor mistakes, e.g. •Imprecise explanations for a few dependencies or effects
•Minor calculation errors in an overall complete calculation
•Incomplete figures, smaller style errors in figures (e.g. labels too small) |
| 2 points | Protocol contains a lot of minor mistakes or some major mistakes e.g. •Missing explanations
•Severe calculation errors, partially missing calculation
•Severe style errors in figures (e.g. bad axis-scales), math expressions and format |
| 1 point | Protocol contains a lot of major mistakes or one important part is missing, e.g. •No calculation of the measurement error
•Missing fits, unreadable figures
•Parts of the experiments are missing |
| 0 points | •A lot of important parts are missing.
•Protocol handed in too late or not at all |
Marking Scheme
For each experiment day ED, you can get 9 points. Accordingly, you can get a maximum of 18 points for experiments stretching over two days. The lab course has been completed successfully (mark 4.0), if you achieved more than 41% of the maximum possible number of points and protocols for at least five experimental days all marked with more than zero points.
| Mark | > Points |
| 1.0 | 95 % |
| 1.3 | 90 % |
| 1.7 | 85 % |
| 2.0 | 80 % |
| 2.3 | 75 % |
| 2.7 | 71 % |
| 3.0 | 66 % |
| 3.3 | 60 % |
| 3.7 | 54 % |
| 4.0 | 41 % |
