I’ve never taken a Physics class with lab before, and I’m not good at Physics. So I’m feeling very nervous about it.
Is it mostly lectures? Or do you have to find a partner to do lab work with?
What kind of lab work does it usually involve?
Can anyone please share their experiences?
Thanks.
It depends on where you go to college and the structure of the course, but for the physics series I took, we had lecture twice a week and lab 4 times a week. Most of our learning came from lab work, with the concepts learned in lab emphasized during our biweekly lectures. In lab, there are about 5-6 students per group per table, and we do activities from our lab book.
For my general physics course, we had two class periods and one lab period each week. Our lab groups were assigned randomly by the TA.
The lecture is where we learned the concepts and equations related to physics and we were graded on homework, quizzes, and exams.
Lab is mostly hands-on application of the formulas and concepts learned in lecture. We actually worked with different devices we talked about in lecture. We had weekly assessments/lab reports we were required to submit for a grade.
My physics I class had 3 lectures per week (for a total of 4 hours) and one lab per week (2 hours total).
The lecture and lab covered the same topics, but the two did not complement each other. We’d learm about kinematics and forces and energy and whatnot in both, but not at the same time. So sometimes I’d walk into lab ans understand the concept we were going over because I’d learned it in lecture; other times I’d go to lecture and know what was going on because I’d already done a lab on it.
My lab professor didn’t let us use partners, but most did. Usually the professor/TA assigned lab partners but some allowed you to choose your own. Sometimes you were with the same person all semester, sometimes it changed every week. This will really depend on your TA. Finding a partner is no big deal though, most people in the class don’t know anyone and it’s easy to just pair up with someone sitting near you.
We would spend about 20 minutes at the beginning of the lab going over the procedure and any pertinent safety info. Then we’d actually collect our data. Once most people finished that, the professor would quickly go over some equations and statistics we’d find useful to incorporate in our lab report. Most of the time we would finish before the 2 hour time slot was over. Then we’d have a couple days to write a report (it wasn’t too bad, just had to include the data you collected, sample calculations, and a short conclusion).
Lecture was like any other class, where the professor talks and you take notes, do the homework, and take tests.
My freshman physics courses had lecture twice a week, and a separate 4 hour lab period. Labs were usually done in groups of 4 or so. The groups generally consisted of basically whoever was sitting around you. We generally stuck with the same lab group for the whole semester, but they got mixed up a bit at times.
Three lectures a week and a 3 hour lab once a week. For lecture, the class is divided into permanent teams of 5 that tackle problems as a group during class time as well as get time to do group work during exams. It really builds your skills if you understand the material well but have to explain it to your group mates. A learning assistant is in charge of every 3 groups and facilitates the group work.
Labs you generally stick to a group of 3 people and it’s a lot of data collection and calculations w/ error analysis to see if the data verifies the theories learned in class. Sometimes you might have to determine an unknown mass, calculate how far to place a target to shoot a projectile to hit it, and use things such as motion/force sensors.
In the next physics course, you get to build lovely circuits and map out an electric field 