The Laboratory Notebook

 

 

Experimental work must be recorded.  Failures and successes must be tracked.  The laboratory notebook is the journal of a scientist.  It is through this notebook that others can obtain a glimpse of 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 one style that is used by all scientists, but all of the different organizational approaches meet the following criteria.

 

·                    Legible – The notebook will not be perfectly neat, but it must be neat enough so it can be read by someone other than the author.  This

            also includes creating a table of contents.

 

·                    Permanent – The notebook its self should be a bound text.  All writing should be in pen and even crossed out items should be legible. 

 

·                    Complete – chemicals, equipment, units, diagrams, procedures, computer programs, references, etc.

 

·                    Narrative – The notebook should tell a story.  Why are you doing this experiment? What are you doing?  What happened?  What are the

conclusions? What is the explanation?

 

Throughout your academic experience you will 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, for INS lab notebooks

 

The lab notebook should have all of its pages numbered (Do not number the back of each page.) and include a table of contents in the front.  The lab notebook is the ONLY place you should be writing 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 beginning the experiment.  (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, summarize and include the information you believe to be significant. This is a good place to include information regarding specific chemical hazards, CRC data on a compound, etc.

           

            Purpose

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, the data collected along the way and a diagram of the apparatus used in the experiment. Be sure to include 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 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. Another important thing to look out for here is significant digits.

                       

            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 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/needed for the experiment.)

 

                        References

                                    Any and all references should be listed.

 


Updated on 12-19-03 by Rebecca Sunderman