1 00:00:05,257 --> 00:00:06,840 JANET CONRAD: So the students are also 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:09,870 expected to write papers. 3 00:00:09,870 --> 00:00:14,160 The papers are in the format of Physical Review Letters, which 4 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,290 I think is a really valuable thing for a couple of reasons. 5 00:00:17,290 --> 00:00:19,350 First of all, they actually learn 6 00:00:19,350 --> 00:00:21,750 what's called LaTeX which is the system of laying out 7 00:00:21,750 --> 00:00:23,160 the papers. 8 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:25,380 Also, they discover how incredibly hard 9 00:00:25,380 --> 00:00:28,020 it is to fit what you have done into four pages. 10 00:00:28,020 --> 00:00:31,600 And I'm pretty strict, they have to follow the PRL guidelines. 11 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:34,900 They're not allowed to go over on their papers. 12 00:00:34,900 --> 00:00:39,400 But they also learn a lot about what the elements of a paper 13 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:39,900 are. 14 00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:41,858 Like for example, how do you write an abstract? 15 00:00:41,858 --> 00:00:44,010 A lot of people have trouble writing an abstract. 16 00:00:44,010 --> 00:00:46,320 They don't want to give the answer away early, 17 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:49,200 and the abstract has the answer in it. 18 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:54,060 So they are-- so they're really bothered by doing that. 19 00:00:54,060 --> 00:00:57,270 They also tend to write these more like you 20 00:00:57,270 --> 00:00:58,560 would write a book report. 21 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:00,240 So they have a whole history section 22 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,060 at the beginning, which is not what a paper is about. 23 00:01:03,060 --> 00:01:05,880 And so I think it's really a very valuable experience 24 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,870 for them to learn to write. 25 00:01:08,870 --> 00:01:12,460 I really like teaching writing. 26 00:01:12,460 --> 00:01:14,850 I actually teach a writing course here 27 00:01:14,850 --> 00:01:18,030 that's a communications intensive in the major. 28 00:01:18,030 --> 00:01:19,710 So I'm a little bit unusual this way. 29 00:01:19,710 --> 00:01:23,760 I don't mind grading all of the papers, which 30 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:26,755 I think that a lot of people don't want to teach Junior 31 00:01:26,755 --> 00:01:28,380 Lab because they don't want to be faced 32 00:01:28,380 --> 00:01:29,850 with grading these papers. 33 00:01:29,850 --> 00:01:31,960 But I think we've got a very good way of doing it. 34 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:35,250 We have a rubric, and the rubric is 35 00:01:35,250 --> 00:01:38,580 what we use to make sure that we try to stay as even as we 36 00:01:38,580 --> 00:01:40,470 can on all of the students. 37 00:01:40,470 --> 00:01:43,050 All the students have the rubric also. 38 00:01:43,050 --> 00:01:46,826 It always makes me laugh, because I hand out the rubric. 39 00:01:46,826 --> 00:01:48,450 I say, this is what I'm grading you on, 40 00:01:48,450 --> 00:01:53,019 and then the first paper comes in for the short labs. 41 00:01:53,019 --> 00:01:54,810 And of course, they haven't read the rubric 42 00:01:54,810 --> 00:01:56,136 and check the paper against it. 43 00:01:56,136 --> 00:01:58,260 And luckily, that paper doesn't count for anything, 44 00:01:58,260 --> 00:02:00,310 because I always write across the top, 45 00:02:00,310 --> 00:02:03,480 if you read the rubric you would find out that you need this, 46 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:07,100 like a section on your errors, or things like that. 47 00:02:07,100 --> 00:02:11,320 And I think that the students really liked that aspect of it. 48 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:13,170 Another thing that I do to try to make sure 49 00:02:13,170 --> 00:02:15,420 that all the grading is even and fair 50 00:02:15,420 --> 00:02:19,410 is that I grade all of the papers and mark them up. 51 00:02:19,410 --> 00:02:23,670 And also, my TA grades all of the papers, and marks them up. 52 00:02:23,670 --> 00:02:27,150 And then we get together, and we compare notes, and make sure 53 00:02:27,150 --> 00:02:29,460 that we've seen the same things in them, 54 00:02:29,460 --> 00:02:32,396 and decide on what the grade is going to be.