Physics 382

Report Guidelines
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Problem-Based Learning Reports

The reports your group will turn in represent three aspects of learning:

Your conception of the model(s) that describes the phenomena, application, or situation.
Your understanding of the physical or acoustical theory describing the model or phenomena.
Your communication of the above ideas.

Expounding upon these three,

Your conception of the model(s) that describes the phenomena, application, or situation.

You must distill the essential out of the actual.
This requires that you actively ask questions.
Often, the better the questions, the truer the answers.

Your understanding of the physical or acoustical theory describing the model or phenomena.

Once you have the elements in a more abstract form, you can get a better handle on them.
Sometimes this is a mathematical model, other times it might be quite interdisciplinary.

Your communication of the above ideas.

The results of your group's discussion should be clarified, and presented thoroughly and concisely.

The report should therefore clearly describe your understanding of the problem, the important elements involved, and how those elements interact.

Required Roles

Within your groups, individual students will find natural strengths and weaknesses. In order to produce a quality result, however, come together as teams to make sure the following roles are covered. (Different people may act in several roles at various times, of course.)

Skeptic . The role of the skeptic is to compel ideas toward clarity. We don't need a constant critic or naysayer to squelch discussion, or a silly empty-headed questioner saying "Why?" at every opportunity. The contributing skeptic has a way of zeroing in on aspects of the discussion or the drafts that just don't seem to make sense, or feel weak and ungrounded in reality.
Manager . The manager has a gift to inspire people to work at their best. They are able to encourage and gently delegate tasks, and have a touch of organizational genius to coordinate calendars and talents.
Publicist . The positive publicist knows what to say or write at just the right time to win over the audience. Emphasizing a phrase or presenting data to make the point effectively and precisely is a valuable skill.
Proofreader . Every group member should also be an editor -- both for their own individual contribution, as well as the product of collaborative effort.

Evaluation

Each group member will have an opportunity to evaluate the report produced by their own group, and the contributions of team members. This evaluation will be confidential. In addition to self-evaluation, the instructor will read and evaluate the report using the three aspects and four roles above. For instance, if there are grammatical errors or weak claims, the feedback will note the lack of proofreading and skepticism, respectively. Or if the report clearly describes the problem with a well-conceived physical model but doesn't follow with an accurate mathematical treatment of the model, this failing will detract from the score on the report.

All group members will receive the same score from the instructors, but the confidential self-evaluations will also contribute to the total score for the project.

In some cases other groups may be asked to review and evaluate reports. This additional layer of critical thinking is really an exercise in improving self-evaluation.