Abstract:
Lab reports are essential in labs where data is recorded in a report format. There are many lab reports that can be compared based on their analysis. Lab reports can be evaluated through any writing communication such as an essay or a business memo. Business memos are one of the important forms of communication in any industry. Memos are used to be direct and attempt to prove a point. Some memos can be referred as an employee update. Some memos can be an evaluation. In this memo, it will be comparing two lab reports within a business memo format.
Memorandum
To: Professor Michael Coopola
From: Melson Heo
Date: 3/4/2020
Subject: Comparison of Two Lab Reports
The two engineering lab reports that will be discussed are on “Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science” by Barry Fagin and Laurence Merkle and “Computer Lab Work on Theory” by Emma Enström and Viggo Kann. These two engineering lab reports discuss how classes could potentially be taught to students for a better understanding but they have their different approaches in how students should be taught.
There are similarities between these two lab reports. An example from “Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science” states that, “But while educators interested in robotics have developed important prototype systems and reported on their deployment in the classroom, very little is known about their effect on learning”. This brings up an interesting point because in society, robotics is used as a commodity or in school clubs. However, there are other alternatives to use robots such as enhancing students’ learning experiences in schools. An example from “Computer Lab Work on Theory” states that, “Computer lab assignments in computer science education are a common and successful way to get students to train their ability to solve programming problems…”. This evidence spawns a new idea of how students could learn from computer lab assignments. These assignments tend to make students think more and ask questions more frequently. With these examples, it indicates that these two lab reports having other strategies based on their introduction on how they are able to allow students to have a better understanding in classes. However, they have their own identities regarding student’s experiences on getting a better understanding.
One of the lab reports, “Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science “ by Barry Fagin and Laurence Merkle, indicates how robots can be used in a learning environment. It states that, “We want to measure the effect of being in a Robotics section on performance. Our analysis considers the effect on both raw exam scores and on residuals after the effect of student GPA is removed via linear regression….”. From their data, it indicates some form of correlation between the student’s interaction with robots in classes. However from the data, it did not produce the results that they desired. It states that, “Our hope was that the learning advantages of robots would outweigh the disadvantages of a restricted feedback loop for programming. Our results do not support this hypothesis…”. Due to the ideas of robotics ideals are expanding in society, they attempted to apply robots in schools. However with the results that they have compiled, they could not support their hypothesis. With that in mind, they will continue and advance their research to apply robotics to enhance students’ capabilities and understanding. In the other lab report, “Computer Lab Work on Theory” by Emma Enström and Viggo Kann states that doing labs relating to the topic helps students understand better. It states that, “The design of the new exercise was motivated by the wish to give the students tools for evaluating their solutions and get some feedback before presenting their solutions to the teacher…”. As the experiment went on, it had a correlation between the students and the implementation of new lab assignments. It states that, “The results were observed more attentively in 2007, and the Internet evaluation was more extensive that year. The main difference between the different years is that a larger group of students claimed that they learned from the assignment in 2008 and 2009. The way the students behaved and the type of questions they often asked were similar…”. From this evidence, it indicates that students had more of an interest with the new implications of assignments in comparison to previous years. This brings up an interesting point that these two lab reports indicated the flaws of the education system but desired to improve students’ performance in class based on their new hypothesis.
The two lab reports have similar structures on how they approach their hypothesis. However, they have different relevance. The lab report, “Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science”, has more of an educational standpoint. They indicate how they want to implement robots in classrooms and how it will affect them. The lab report, “Computer Lab Work on Theory”, indicates more of a reality standpoint. It often compares the analysis of the data to the situation of society and how it further proves the students and other people. While they both agree on one topic, they both focus on different aspects.
Overall, these two lab reports wanted to indicate how students enhance their learning experiences. However, one of the experiments failed due to extraneous variables such as instructors or students’ motivation. With this in mind, I do enjoy how two lab reports attempt to reach out to the students’ demographic because they are the future generation that will sustain the future. It is really interesting how these days that students can get a better understanding based on instructors or technology.
References:
Enström, Emma, et al. “Computer Lab Work on Theory.” Computer Lab Work on Theory | Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, 1 June 2010, dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/1822090.1822118.
Fagin, Barry, et al. “Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science.” Measuring the Effectiveness of Robots in Teaching Computer Science | Proceedings of the 34th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 1 Jan. 2003, dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/611892.611994.
