The LabWrite project: Experiences reforming lab report writing practice in undergraduate lab courses

Abstract

Laboratory reports have always been a part of the modern science and engineering curricula. However, it has also often been the least liked part of a students' (and instructors') laboratory experience. Despite research demonstrating the importance of lab reports to the undergraduate science and engineering lab experience, instructors are likely to minimize their use. Lab reports have been replaced with fill in the blank labs, reports that are worth only a token number of points towards a final grade, or excluded altogether. The Lab Write project has been developing online support materials to promote and support undergraduate lab report writing. A NSF-CCLI funded project, Lab Write is a web-based tool containing both static pages and an interactive tutor designed to support the lab report writing experience from before the student enters the lab through reviewing the graded lab report. Integral to Lab Write is a set of training materials for lab instructors, both faculty and graduate teaching assistants. Since 2000, Lab Write materials have been piloted in institutions ranging from Research I universities to community colleges. Our experiences and research have demonstrated the importance of lab reports in undergraduate education but have also pointed up the difficulties in successfully integrating lab reports back into courses.