Laboratory Guidelines


  1. Try out your lab account (change original password into one you can remember).
  2. Exchange contact information with your lab partner.
  3. Save your files on the desktop and keep a backup for yourself.
  4. Submit ONE report per group
  5. Each group should have at least two members and at most three members.
  6. Download the  Cover Page and Summary Page and insert them into your lab report Word document.
  7. Your lab rep should include one coverage PER group member. Each cover page should be exactly the same copy including all members information.
  8. There should only be ONE summary page per report.
  9. Date the lab report with the DUE DATE.
  10. Lab reports should be submitted the in the brown Math 121 box in room GMCS 422.
  11. Copy and paste all questions of each lab into your Word document. Insert the cover pages at the beginning and the summary page at the end.
  12. Answer each part of each problem underneath the corresponding question question with complete phrases.
  13. Graphs should be clear in all ways possible.
    1. Choose appropriate colors for background
    2. Scale axis accordingly
    3. Labels should be readable.
    4. Resize the graph once inserted into the Word doc so that they are at least 3 inches height vs. 4 inches width.
    5. When graphing a function, you should use about 50 points from the spreadsheet. (This will automatically occur if you take advantage of the graphing template.) An obvious exception is when you are graphing straight lines.
    6. Grid your graphs with both horizontal and vertical grids, so that you have good references with which to compare.
    7. When using the Trendline function, you will always want to use the option of putting the equation on the chart, but we do not want to see the R2 value for this course. Most of the time you will need to edit the equation after Excel has put it on your graph. Most of the time you will need to convert the coefficients in front of the variables to scientific notation with 2-4 decimal places of accuracy. (Excel likes to round off the most significant digits found for the mathematical models.) In addition, you will want to change the default x and y to the variables that are in your problem.
    8. If you are uncertain of what is being requested, then be sure to ask! One guideline of how your graphs should appear is for you to try to get them to look like the ones in my lecture notes. Another source is the Sample Lab or in the future you can check the solutions to lab problems after they appear on the web.

Hopefully, the list above will make it clear what is expected of your laboratory reports. I believe that the skills you develop in the lab will be the most important ones that you will take with you from this course.