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Session 2559

Formal Laboratory Reports Pros and Cons: An Interim Report

Peter J. Shull Penn State University, Altoona

I. Introduction

Engineering programs have historically faced the major challenge of providing engineering students with a solid foundation in written communication skills. In response, most engineering curricula include fundamental writing courses focused on developing and improving written performance. With this emphasis in mind, the use of writing exercises in the classroom provides an opportunity for engineering students to improve other skills as well, such as becoming a vehicle to improve learning style and retention skills.

However, it is a challenge to develop written exercises that provide an effective learning experience without burdening the engineering faculty with overwhelming grading demands, especially at those undergraduate institutions where teaching assistants (graders) are unavailable and all grading is done by the faculty. The question, then, is what writing assignments would best meet the needs of improving the learning environment while still providing the engineering faculty with a manageable workload. Formal group writing laboratory reports were considered as a resolution to that major issue.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate both positive and negative aspects of using formal group writing exercises in conjunction with laboratory reports to improve learning.

II. The Formal Group Report: Building Laboratory Teaching Effectiveness

The traditional engineering laboratory course approach to writing consists of each student preparing his or her own individual report which is graded primarily on science content with little emphasis on form, structure and quality of writing. The use of these reports in the engineering laboratory is essential in the development of engineering skills. However, the shortcomings of this approach include the inability of the instructor to devote a significant amount of time to evaluation of each report.

The concept of introducing the formal group report in a laboratory course included the following: • The instructor identifies groups comprised of 3 or 4 students and provides students with a description of the laboratory project. Students generally perform 8 projects per course.

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Shull, P. J. (2000, June), Formal Laboratory Reports Pros And Cons: An Interim Report Paper presented at 2000 Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri. 10.18260/1-2--8388