THE LABORATORY NOTEBOOK

What is a Laboratory Notebook?

A laboratory notebook is a permanent record of every experiment and observation you do. It provides ameans to organize your thoughts and retain useful information. It also allows you to identify what might havegone wrong if you do not achieve your desired result. In an educational environment, the lab notebook alsoprovides a way for evaluating your performance.

The ultimate purpose of a laboratory notebook is to provide a thorough record of all the informationnecessary for someone else to reproduce your experiment. Anyone should be able to pick up your labnotebook and be able to pick up where you left off or reproduce your results. For scientists, a laboratorynotebook may be critical to securing patents and settling disputes in a court of law. Examples of this areAlexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison. They both fought battles in court over priority of inventions andthe laboratory notebooks were deciding factors in many of those cases. Two excellent examples oflaboratory notebooks for us to look at are those of Michael Faraday and Thomas Edison.

Keeping clear, thorough records is a vital part of any laboratory process, and it is a critical skill for any STEMstudent and working scientist. These records provide evidence that your work meets many college anduniversity science department's standards.

Things to Remember:

Always use blue or black permanent ink that does not bleed through the paper. Pencils and erasableinks are not allowed.

One exception: Colored pencils may be used to make drawings of your observations.Colored pencils are favored over colored markers as they allow for more precise details andshading of colors.

Always write legibly! Use manuscript or block letters instead of cursive. Never erase or use Whiteout! If you make an error, draw one line through the mistake so that the

original entry is still legible. Date and initial the strikethrough and, if necessary, include a brief noteexplaining the reason for the error.

Do not leave any white space in your notebook. When you complete an experiment, cross out thewhite space that remains at the bottom of the final page. Put a X across any blank pages.

Never rip out pages! Use each page chronologically and do not skip any pages. Never leave the lab without completing the lab notebook record for that lab. Always record your

observations as you make them. It is considered scientific misconduct to try to recreate what you didlater or try to remember your results and enter them after the fact. Do not trust your memory!

Setting up a Laboratory Notebook:

The laboratory notebook should be a permanently bound book. Looseleaf, spiral, and loose papers are notacceptable. Binding should be sewn and the covers should be hard. The pages should not be perforated.Notebooks such as 100-page Mead hardbound composition books work well. Composition books withquad-ruled sheets make excellent lab notebooks: tables, graphs, and diagrams can be laid out neatly.

Print your full name on the front cover of the notebook as well as the date you started using thenotebook and its volume number (if applicable).

On the inside cover, include contact information should your notebook ever gets lost. Include yourname, email, mailing address, home phone number, instructor's name, and any other pertinentinformation.

Reserve the first 4 pages for a Table of Contents. Title the 1st page, Table of Contents. Starting on the 5th page, number every page in the notebook. Place the page number in the top

outer corner. Each experiment or observation begins on a new page. Use the right hand page for recording information. Use the left hand page for additional notes,

observations, errors, and last minute procedural changes. The left side is your scratch paper. With each lab, update the Table of Contents. Include the page number and title of the lab. Leave a few pages at the end of your notebook for Reference notes. Write universal constants,

equations, and other useful information you may need.

Lab Format:

Introduction: This can be written before you do the experiment.

Date format: Month day, year (i.e. February 3, 2014) or day month year (i.e. 3 February 2014)

Title A brief, concise, yet descriptive title or the title from the lab manual. If using a lab manual,also give the source of the experiment (i.e. Experiences in Biology pp 5).

Purpose One to two sentences describing the goal of the experiment.

Hypothesis What do you think will happen and why? Make sure the statement is testable; an if-then statement is suitable to illustrate what criteria will support your hypothesis.

Participants Who is doing what and when.

Materials Used Make a list of ALL items used in the lab. Include any chemical formulas, physicalproperties (i.e. boiling/melting points, density, etc.), hazards, safety measures, etc. For organisms,include their binomial name, type, etc.

Planned Procedures The procedures you expect the follow as you have created or as outlined inyour lab manual/textbook.

Data: This is written as you actually do the experiment! Write every little thing down! It's all in the details!Even the most trivial or obvious of things may be of critical importance later!

Procedure Step-by-step explanation of what you are doing. Note any deviation from your plannedprocedures and the reasons. Anyone should be able to read your procedure and repeat theexperiment.

Data All data/observations as you are doing the experiment. This should be in-line with yourprocedure entries. If working with a lab partner, include only data and observations that youpersonally observe. Include any mistakes made and what was planned or sone to correct the errors.As you collect data, date everything. Personal thoughts (Success at last! Third time lucky!) areencouraged! This notebook is yours!

Calculations

Sketches & Images Label all sketches and images with significant features. Indicatemagnification used, any special staining protocols, etc.

Tables & Graphs Add if needed to organize data or show relationships between variables.Using preprinted forms for standard reactions can save time! All tables and graphs shouldbe labeled appropriately.

Conclusion:

Results This is a one to two paragraph summary. Do you accept or reject the hypotheses?Explain why using the data from the lab. Include data such as averages, highest, lowest, etc to helpthe reader understand your results. Do not COPY your data; summarize and give KEY information.Discuss possible errors that could have occurred in the collection of the data.

Answer questions as needed If your lab manual or textbook asks questions, answer them here.You may reference the question instead of writing the questions again yourself.