In this PER Interest Group's Journal Club discussion, we discussed assessments for introductory physics labs beyond the traditional formal lab report.

Some questions posed to frame our discussion:

• What are the pros and cons of traditional lab reports?
• Have you adopted or invented any unique methods for assessing what happens in lab?
• If you have tried some alternative lab assessments, what has been their impact?

References

W. Brian Lane; Letters Home as an Alternative to Lab Reports. Phys. Teach. 1 October 2014; 52 (7): 397–399. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4895351

This short Physics Teacher article gives an overview of the “letter home” assignment as one alternative to lab reports.

Tor Ole B. Odden, John Burk; Computational Essays in the Physics Classroom. Phys. Teach. 1 April 2020; 58 (4): 252–255. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5145471

This short Physics Teacher article explains what a “computational essay” is and explains how they could be used in physics education as “potentially powerful structures for scientific communication, argumentation, and programming.”  

J. R. Hoehn and H. J. Lewandowski, Framework of goals for writing in physics lab classes, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16, 010125 (2020). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.010125

This article describes a framework “for thinking about and understanding the role of writing in physics labs”; it identifies and categorizes a number of possible goals instructors might have in mind when incorporating writing in physics labs.