Laboratory Notebook Description
Experimental work must be recorded; failures and successes must be tracked. The laboratory notebook is the scientists record. Through your notebook others can view your work through your eyes. This is the medium that documents your experimental scientific history.
A good laboratory notebook must provide enough information to enable another person to repeat the experiment in its entirety. There is no single style that is used by all scientists, but all of the different organizational approaches meet the following criteria:
1. Legible – The notebook will not be perfectly neat, but it must be neat enough to be read by someone other than the author. This also includes creating a table of contents.
2. Permanent – The notebook itself, should be a bound text. All writing should be in pen and even crossed out items should be legible.
3. Complete – All chemicals, equipment, units, diagrams, procedures, computer programs, references , etc. should be included.
4. Narrative – The notebook should tell a story. Why are you doing this experiment? What are you doing? What happened? What are your conclusions? What is your explanation? This so-called "story" should be factual but not "flowery". The purpose of the narrative is to allow others to repeat the experiment.
Throughout your academic experience you may be exposed to several laboratory notebook methodologies. In time, you will develop a style that works well for you.
Specific Requirements, in addition to the four guidelines above:
Number all pages of the lab notebook, do not number the back of each page, and include a table of contents in the front. While you are playing the role of the scientist, the lab notebook is the ONLY place you should write anything down. Use the front of each page as your official notebook and the back of each page for quick notes or things you wish to look into.
All sections up through and including the “Purpose” should be completed before the start of lab. (If you do not know who your partner will be, leave that area blank.)
An instructor must initial the lab notebook before you leave the lab. Do not attempt to get an initial until you clean up your work area.
Lab notebooks should include the following sections:
Experiment Title
Date
Partner Name(s)
Introduction
This section should include background information. Do not copy directly from your lab instructions; instead, summarize and include the information you believe is significant. This is a good place to include information from a variety of sources. (Include your sources in the reference section described below.)
Purpose
State the goal and reason for completing the experiment. What are you trying to accomplish?
Procedure & Data Collection
This should include a step-by-step description of what you did and what data you collected along the way. Include a diagram of the apparatus used in the experiment as well as any computer file names of data sets.
Data Analysis
Included here would be all calculations, explanation of calculations (if not included in the introduction), spreadsheets, graphs, tables, etc. Attach, with tape along all edges, the computer-generated materials to your lab notebook. (If a portion of the page sticks out, that is okay.) Be sure to include computer file names for any graph, table, spreadsheet, etc.
Questions
If a given lab experiment contains questions, include both the question and your answer. There are two reasons for this section in a lab write-up. First, it requires that you sift through experimental data to find specific information and present it in a clear and understandable way. The second purpose is to initiate the thinking process about what you did and to possibly find additional outside information pertaining to the experiment.
Conclusion
Describe your final results. How do your results compare to published values? Was the lab successful? Did you run into any issues while completing the lab? What tips do you recommend if the lab were repeated? (It is your responsibility to look up the published values, if useful or needed for the experiment.)
References
List any and all references with enough detail so that the information you used could be located by another individual. (The laboratory instruction sheets and your text book should be two of your listed references.)
Created by Rebecca Sunderman (sundermr@evergreen.edu) .....Last Updated on 9-20-04
