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Math 122 - Calculus for Biology II
Fall Semester, 2010
Computer Lab Guidelines |
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© 1999, All Rights Reserved, SDSU & Joseph M. Mahaffy
San Diego State University -- This page last updated 02-Sep-10
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Laboratory Guidelines
This page has been created to provide you with guidelines for what
is expected in your laboratory write-ups. The computer labs are
designed to advance your educational experience in several ways. The
primary purpose of the labs is to use the computer to connect the
mathematical concepts of Calculus and dynamical systems to biological
problems. The computer allows you to work more complicated problems
that are based on real biological situations.
One secondary purpose of the labs is given by the educational goals stated by
both the California State University administration and the College of
Sciences at SDSU. They include the need of students to work on
interdisciplinary problems in a team setting. Thus, my labs are meant
to be worked together, so you will need to learn how to work with a
stranger much as you might on a project in the "real world" of
employment. The ability to work with others has not been something that
Universities have done much in the past, but it is crucial to the
advancement of science for the future. (This experience is often much
more difficult to negotiate than students imagine, but it can be very
rewarding.)
The Computer Labs are accessed through WeBWork. Many of the
numerical values and formulae are answered directly into WeBWork. These
answers will need to be accurate (0.1% relative error for most
answers), but you will have multiple attempts to solve them. The WeBWork
answers will be approximately 60% of the grade on your lab. The
remaining 40% is written in a Lab report and includes graphs and
paragraphs answering essay questions. The WeBWork questions should
state clearly what is expected to be answered in the Lab report.
A major goal of these lab reports is the improvement of your
technical writing skills. You are expected to write clear succinct
answers to the laboratory questions and develop professional looking
work in your presentations. These skills are important in any career
that you may choose. (Learning how to write well and presenting
material in a professional manner is one of the most important skills
that you will take from your college education. The teamwork helps to
develop good working relationships for sharing knowledge, which is
invaluable in future employment and scientific learning.) You will
find that if you take a little more time early in the semester to
develop good habits and use the proper tools, then it will save you
time (and points) in the long run over the semester. Above anything
else, do not be afraid to ask questions of me or the other
students. Cooperative learning is part of the lab experience.
Below I want to highlight some of my expectations of your lab
write-up.
- Several parts of the WeBWork questions will state that you are to
write a description or discussion in your Lab report. Answer each of
these questions using clear, grammatically correct, and complete
sentences.
- You may want to copy the parts of the questions that require a
written response, but it is also sufficient to simply label your answer
something like 2. e. (if you are answering Question 2. e.).
- Follow any specific instructions posted on the Help sheet for
each lab, and answer all questions fully. Most deductions in the past
have come from incomplete answers. You will be graded on grammar and
spelling along with the quality of your argument.
- Take advantage of special features, such as Equation Editor in
Word, to improve the appearance of your lab report.
- Start your labs early and ask questions either in class or
by email to make sure you do not waste time on some problem that is
easily resolvable. (Occasionally, errors are made on the labs questions
and information or hints will be posted as soon as possible on the
web.)
A major part of the lab is using the computer to produce quality
graphs. The primary graphing tool that we will be using this semester
is Excel. Excel was designed to make it very easy to produce good
looking graphs for business materials. (This does create some
problems for scientific studies.) It is easy to edit the graphs and
produce very professional looking results. Below are some comments
about graphing with Excel.
- Your graphs should be a minimum of 3 inches in height and 4
inches in width (the actual graphs, not the window), i.e., do not
use the default size in Excel. The graphs should be clear and readable
to demonstrate the results being exhibited in the problem.
- You will almost always need to adjust the interval of the domain
on your graph. When an interval is specified for a particular graph,
then adjust the axes to match the requested interval. For example, when
I ask for x in the interval
[-5,5], then Excel will usually default to either [-6,6] or [-10,10].
You will have to override the default by scaling the x -axis to [-5,5]. (Double clicking on
either axis gives you lots of options for editing, with which you
should become familiar.)
- Always use points or markers (diamonds, circles, triangles, etc.) to
represent actual data. (If points alone are insufficiently clear, then
you can use points connected by lines.) For theoretical curves and
standard graphs of functions, you should only use lines (with only a
few exceptions such as discrete dynamical systems, which we will be
studying).
- When graphing a function, you should use about 50 points from the
spreadsheet. (This will automatically occur if you take advantage of
the graphing template.) An obvious exception is when you are graphing
straight lines.
- You should never have the label "Series 1" appear on the graph.
Either you remove the label, such as when there is only a single graph
on the sheet (which will be covered in the title), or you adjust the
labels to describe the graphs they are labeling. All graphs with
multiple entries need to have each entry labeled using either the
legend or a title next to the appropiate graph.
- Label your axes and give your graph a title. Be sure that the
labels match the variables and descriptions of the problem.
- Grid your graphs with both horizontal and vertical grids, so that
you have good references with which to compare.
- When using the Trendline function, you will always want to use
the option of putting the equation on the chart, but we do not want to
see the R2 value for this course. Most of the time you will
need to edit the equation after Excel has put it on your graph. Most of
the time you will need to convert the coefficients in front of the
variables to scientific notation with 4-5 decimal places of accuracy.
(Excel likes to round off the most significant digits found for the
mathematical models.) In addition, you will want to change the default
x and y to the variables that are in your problem.
- If you are uncertain of what is being requested, then be sure to
ask! One guideline of how your graphs should appear is for you to try
to get them to look like the ones in my lecture notes.
Hopefully, the list above will make it clear what is expected of
your laboratory reports. I believe that the skills you develop in the
lab will be the most important ones that you will take with you from
this course.