  Instilling good laboratory working attitudes in students is a difficult but
very important task, especially in the first level courses. The introduction of
a grade, based on the observation of work practices during laboratory sessions,
can be strongly beneficial towards the acquisition of positive skills covering
not only the technical aspects, but also the acquisition of both independence
and team work. Explicit suggestions are given for basing the grade on specific
observations and a quantitative analysis is performed to guarantee that the
higher intrinsic volatility of the Performance Grade does not affect the final
laboratory grade.

Physics Education