Introduction

to Earth and Environmental Engineering Laboratory

Over the next two semesters we will run a series of lab experiments aimed at
developing your laboratory practice and improving your technical writing skills. The
labs will be administered by multiple TAs, depending on their area of study. Your
reports will be graded by the TAs and reviewed by Prof. Duby and Prof. Farrauto,
and will make up the majority of your semester grade for this course. Laboratory
participation, attendance and conduct as well as quizzes and lab notebooks will be
taken into account in the overall grade. Once the semester begins students should
send the TAs their schedules of courses in order to come up with the lab schedule
for the semester. Usually the groups will be 2 (or max. 3 students, depending on
total number of students). Lab groups will be formed according to students
availability, but students are encouraged to state their preferences on lab partners
(or if they dont want to collaborate with a specific student; this info will be
confidential.). Once the weekly meeting time is decided, you will be expected to be
in the lab each week at this time unless other arrangements are made with the TA of
the lab.

Labs typically take 3 hours and require that all students in the group are present for
the entire duration of the experiment and clean up. Normally, students will meet
weekly for a pre-lab lecture where we will discuss a brief background of that weeks
lab and go over specific safety issues pertaining to the lab.



Quizzes and Notebooks

There will be a brief quiz given prior to every experiment. Its purpose is to
demonstrate that you are prepared to perform the experiment properly and safely.
You will only need to read and understand the procedure in order to pass the quiz. If
you are not able to answer most of the quiz correctly, you will be asked to leave the
lab and momentarily to re-read the procedure.

Notebooks are required and will be regularly checked by the TAs. It is
recommended that each student have his own notebook. It will contain any pre-lab
calculations and notes as well as raw data and observations during the experiment.
A thorough and well organized notebook will be very helpful when it comes time to
write reports. Furthermore, photocopies of raw data will be expected to be
submitted with lab reports.



Lab Reports

You are required to submit one lab report for each student group for each lab. With
the exception of the first experiment, you will conduct two experiments in back-to-

back weeks and have an off week to work on both reports. It is expected that you
will submit the group reports for both labs approx. 10 days after doing the second
experiment (exact date will be announced by the TA in the beginning of the
semester).
It is highly recommended that you begin working on lab reports as early as possible
as the work can pile up. You are given a semester schedule (syllabus) with all
pertinent dates regarding this course. These lab reports are your opportunity to
develop your technical communication skills. As an engineer your main form of
communication to your employer or customer/client will be in the form of technical
papers/reports and it is imperative that you perfect these skills if you wish to have a
successful career in engineering.

That said, both the professors and the TAs expect top quality work in these reports.
You can ask help from the TAs or the professors and it is strongly recommended
that you seek for help in advance and not the night before the lab reports are due
cause at that point they wont be able to help. Late labs will only be accepted with
permission from the TAs and will be penalized at the discretion of the TAs. You are
encouraged to submit a draft version of your report to either the TAs or professors
for feedback of final draft.



Grading criteria

The following criteria are a breakdown of how points will be awarded for each
weeks lab. You are required to attach a grading sheet (labs without this will receive
deductions) to each lab you hand in, and follow this structure at your lab report as
shown below. Hard copies are required, labs submitted via email or Courseworks
are not accepted unless arrangements have been made with the TA grading the lab.
As you can see the results and discussion account for 25% of your total score which
means that you will need to put some extra effort and thought into this portion and
not just simply present the results with no analysis or discussion.

The lab reports are not meant to be too onerous; however it should take you some
time to properly analyze and interpret the data and to create a concise and
professional document that communicates your results and findings from the
experiment.



EAEE E3800: Environmental Engineering Laboratory I Spring 2015
Name:
Title:
Date submitted:

LAB REPORT GRADING PAGE

Overall Presentation and Clarity
/10
(Title page, overall neatness, proper sections, sections in correct order,
figures and tables in proper location, word processing, spell check,
grammar check, sentence/paragraph structure, proper writing style,
adequate labeling of figures and tables, adequate appendices showing
raw data and sample calculations, etc)
Abstract
/5
(Should be written last and be about 200 words)
Background and Theory
/20
(Theory behind the experiment based on adequate references-textbook,
class notes, and additional research- appropriate equations and
derivations, etc)
Experimental Design and Procedure
/10
(Include changes in written procedure, troubleshooting, etc... Brief
description of the apparatus and instruments used. Staple the original
procedure to the report)
Data Presentation
/10
(Plotting of data, error analysis to indicate accuracy of data, trends or
correlations, comparison to theoretical or literature
values whichever is more relevant)
Results and Discussion
/25
(Technical merit, presentation of data, correlation and interpretation of
data, adequate and appropriate discussion, comparison of experimental
results to published literature and standards, etc)
Post-Lab Questions (if any)
/10
Conclusion and Recommendations
/10
(Summary of results, sound engineering judgment, for the future, etc )
Total
/100