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Session 1526

Supporting Lab Report Writing in an Introductory Materials Engineering Lab

Eric N. Wiebe, Thomas M. Hare, Michael Carter, Yusef Fahmy, Roger Russell, Miriam Ferzli NC State University

Abstract

This paper will describe the development and implementation of a web-based support site for helping students write and reflect on lab reports in an undergraduate Materials Science lab. This project, part of a larger NSF project to support undergraduate lab report writing, details the specific challenges of implementing lab report writing support materials for engineering labs. The lab report writing project, LabWrite, is focused on helping students better understand the process of writing lab reports. This includes help with organization of information prior to coming to lab, how to organize data collection in the lab and finally, writing, graphing, and interpretation of the results.

One of the biggest challenges was the creation of support materials that would be relevant not only to basic science courses, but also to engineering courses. This paper will focus on how lab report writing in materials engineering differs from report writing in traditional science courses, such as chemistry and biology. Also discussed is a more general implementation issue of providing on-line support for writing, graphing, and interpretation of data. Lessons learned include the importance of taking a holistic approach to the infusion of these support materials into lab-based courses by involving faculty, lab instructors, lab support personnel, and students in the development and implementation of the material.

I. Introduction

Communication skills of engineering students have long been a concern of engineering educators 1- 3 . Indeed, poor communication skills are often cited by engineering professionals as one of the primary inadequacies of entry-level engineers 4, 5. The ability to communicate effectively as engineers now has a place among the eleven curricular standards of ABET EC2000 Criterion 3. Certainly, many engineering educators would like to place the entire responsibility--and blame-- for their students’ writing and speaking on teachers in freshman composition and technical writing. But the problem lies much deeper than that. The difficulty engineering students have with

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Hare, T., & Russell, R., & Ferzli, M., & Carter, M., & Fahmy, Y., & Wiebe, E. (2001, June), Supporting Lab Report Writing In An Introductory Materials Engineering Lab Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9830