Writing is an integral part of the process of science. In the undergraduate physics curriculum, the most common place that students engage with scientific writing is in lab classes, typically through lab notebooks, reports, and proposals. There has not been much research on why and how we include writing in physics lab classes, and instructors may…

Little research exists on college students' learning goals in chemistry, let alone specifically pertaining to laboratory coursework. Because students' learning goals are linked to achievement and dependent on context, research on students' goals in the laboratory context may lead to better understanding about the efficacy of lab curricula. This…