EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS IN COLLEGES OF TECHNOLOGY

Assessment of a Student's Progress. LABORATORY DIARIES (and reports, when required) are marked only by the demonstrator responsible for that experiment. Subsequently the scientific, and grammatical criticisms are discussed at a tutorial held one evening before the next laboratory class. This need occupy only a few minutes of a student's time each week, but it provides him with an opportunity, while alone with a tutor, to talk over any difficulties. The system also avoids the consequences of inconsistent standards of marking by demonstrators, provided the students attempt the same number of experiments from all the specialised laboratories, e.g. from Electronics, as from Nuclear Physics. The criticism of laboratory diaries and reports must be severe until the required habits are adopted by the students. It is very easy for a demonstrator to pass over superficial mistakes because he recognises unconsciously the intended meaning, rather than what is actually written in the report.