MA 226 Section A1: Lab 1 Instructions

Your first lab assignment for the semester is Lab 1.5, Modeling Oil Production on page 149 of the text.

Rules and requirements:

• Labs are due at the start of class on Friday, 2 Feb. Late work will be penalized.
• You may work in groups of up to 4 students per group.
• Each group should turn in 1 lab write up.
• There is a strict limit to the length of the lab write ups. There should be 1 cover sheet containing the title and names and ID numbers of the group members. Absolutely no more than four additional pages may be handed in--this includes tables, graphs, etc..
• Lab reports must be typed on 1 side of 8.5 x 11 paper and stapled in the upper left corner..
• Lab reports should be written in "prose" style. There should be an introductory paragraph. The body of the write up should address the questions asked in the lab, but do not number your paragraphs. You need not consider the questions in order--they are really just guidelines for what information you should include. Your lab should end with a concluding paragraph.
• There should be a minimal amount of formulas and no long sections of computation. (You can state results of computations, but do not show intermediate algebra steps.)

Suggestions for a good lab write up:

• Plan for your computer to break and that you will run out of ink on the morning of Feb. 2.
• Neatness counts. Run the spell checker and the grammar checker and then check it yourself. Use 12 point type, have reasonable margin sizes. Cramming 6 pages of material into 4 will not be appreciated.
• Don't try to be cute. For example, don't start the lab with "While I was driving to class this morning in my Hummer, I started wondering when the world's gasoline will run out...". Be professional.
• Avoid introductory and concluding sentences that are too vague or state what is obvious.
• Write the introduction and conclusion last...particularly the conclusion. Say what you think, not what you think I want you to say.
• Tables of data are pretty boring. Figures are interesting as long as they are well labled, not too busy and large enough to read.