Dr. Noel Bormann

CENG 351L Hydrology Lab

COURSE ADMINISTRATION:

This lab course requires students to work in lab groups to collect data and prepare reports on the lab exercises. Some labs are conducted outdoors and will require that students drive to the site. At least one lab will be an investigating proposed by your group and will require that you prepare a proposal.

The relative weights for the works evaluated in the class are: Attendance and participation in lab exercises 0.25 Lab reports 0.30 Engineering Reports 0.45

Late reports will not be graded except in cases of illness or emergency. Reports are due at 5:00 on the date indicated. If you do not attended a lab session with your group you can not receive the attendance portion of the grade, but you can then participate in the report preparation and receive that portion of the grade. If you put you name on the report I must assume that you shared equitably in the work.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

This course will introduce the methods of data collection, data analysis, error analysis and the design of investigations dealing with hydrologic and water resources systems. We will use statistical tools and a variety of data collection methods.

Further, a key part of the course is preparation of reports. Instances of short lab reports, letter reports and formal engineering reports will be required. Writing is hard. Writing is important. The only way to improve writing skills is to practice and obtain feedback. I also believe it is important for students to understand the nature of, and difficulty inherent in, data collection. I do not want you to simply push buttons and record numbers in the labs.

At the completion of this course, students should be able to make basic hydrologic investigations requiring data collection, analyze the data appropriately and prepare effective reports.

GENERAL COMMENTS:

Although this class is only one credit, I feel it is important. Please make sure that you give enough effort to the reports to allow you to improve your skills in writing and organizing all the efforts involved in completing an engineering investigation.

The Gonzaga University Writing Lab is open: Monday through Thursday 8-5, and Fridays 8-1, 2-5. There is a website, where you can find the following information and links: · Tutors' hours and times when the lab is reserved for classes · Sites that help with writing and grammar, including several that have online exercises and quizzes · Links to most major search engines (including metasearch engines) · MLA and APA style guides for citing online materials · Web research tutorials and website construction advice from the Yale C/AIM guide · Online dictionaries, including one site that has 800 dictionaries in150 languages http://www.gonzaga.edu/writinglab