Your Laboratory Notebook

General:
Spiral and three-ring binders are inappropriate for lab notebooks. All your entries must be made directly in your laboratory notebook in ink. The use of scraps of paper for any records is unacceptable because these are easily lost; the practice will probably be strictly forbidden in your lab.  All notebok information is handwritten directly into the notebook.

Rules:
*Do not write in pencil or felt tip marker.
*Never scribble out data or writing.  Simply place a single line through the error so that the original material is still visible.
*Decimal values contain a leading 0.  For example .2 is correctly written as 0.2.
* All pages should be dated.

The notebook should begin with a table of contents (leave a page or two for this); the following pages should be numbered sequentially.

Some flexibility in format and style is allowed, but proper records of your experimental results must answer certain questions.

When did you do the work?
What are you trying to accomplish in the experiment?
How did you do the experiment?
What did you observe?
How do you explain your observations?
Your notebook must be written with accuracy and completeness. It must be organized and legible but does not need to be a work of art.

A lab record needs to be written in three steps:
pre-lab
lab
postlab.

It should contain the following categories for each experiment you do.


To Be Done before You Come to the Laboratory - The Prelab

This notebook entry is designed to help you prepare for an experiment in an effective and safe fashion.
It includes:

the date on which the prelab is written and on which the experiment will take place
the title of the experiment1
the balanced chemical reaction if a reaction will take place2
a statement of purpose3
a table of reagents and solvents with appropriate physical properties4
a description of or set up for the way you will calculate your percent yield or other calculations if appropriate
any calculations required for preparation of solutions
an outline of the procedure to be used5
answers to any pre-lab questions6
citations7


1Title: Use a title that clearly identifies what you are doing in this experiment.
2Purpose Statement: Write a brief statement of purpose for the synthesis or analysis, with a few words on major analytical or conceptual approaches.
3Reaction:  If a chemical reaction will take place the chemical structures are needed - mere formulas are not necessarily acceptable except for inorganic redox reactions.  You must also include any mechanisms (applicable to organic and biochemistry laboratories only)
4Table: Include all reagents and solvents used in the experiment. Include amounts of compounds used in the experiment in the table.  You need only list relevant physical properties.  For example if you are going to boil a solvent the boiling point is relevant and should be listed.  If you will calculate the moles of a compound its molecular mass must be known and should be listed.  If you aren't going to boil a compound you don't need its boiling point, etc.  Some values that may be needed are molecular weights, the number of moles and grams of reagents used, densities of the liquids used, boiling points of compounds that are liquids are room temperature and melting points of all organic solids, and pertinent hazard warnings. In some cases, special properties such as specific rotation or index of refraction are also listed where relevant..
5Procedure:  Write an experiment outline in sufficient detail so that the experiment could be done without reference to your lab textbook.  You may use an outline form, a flow chart, or any other method that makes sense to you and is organized.  You do not need to use complete sentences.  You also do not need to repeat procedures that have been previously described in your notebook.  For example, if you standardized a pH meter in experiment 4 and then again in experiment 6 you could merely add a reference to your experiment 4 procedure in experiment 6.
6Prelab Questions:  Answer any prelaboratory questions in complete sentences in your prelab in your notebook.  The answers must be written as a complete thought (so as to include the question along with the answer)
7Cite any work that was used in the preparation of your prelab

Please make sure that the prelaboratory is organized and complete.  It is 30% of your laboratory grade!


To Be Done during the Laboratory Session(s) - The Lab

Recording observations during the experiment is a crucial part of your lab notebook. If your observations are not complete, you will be unable to interpret the results of your experiment; once you have left the laboratory, it is difficult, if not impossible, to reconstruct them.  Absolutely, postively, without a doubt - no recording of data on a scrap of paper, a lab separate etc. for later entry into a notebook.  All members of a laboratory group must write down all data in the notebook BEFORE leaving the laboratory.  That way you always have a backup copy.

Observations: Observations must be recorded in your notebook in ink while you are doing an experiment. The actual quantities of all reagents must be recorded as they are used, as well as the amounts of crude and purified products that you obtained. Mention which measurements (temperature, time, melting point, etc.) and spectra if any are taken.

The recording of your observations may be done in a variety of ways. They may be written on right-hand pages across from the corresponding section of the experimental outline. It is a good idea to cross-index your observations to specific steps in the procedure that you wrote out as part of your pre-lab preparation.   You may fill in "blanks" left when you wrote your procedure either in text or in tables.  The orgainzational style is up to you as long as the experiment is organized and can be followed by an observer.

The laboratory data carbon copies must be handed in attached to the laboratory report.


To Be Done after the Experimental Work Has Been Completed - The Postlab

In this section of your notebook you evaluate and interpret your experimental results.
Entries include:

calculation of the percent yields and other data
interpretation of physical and spectral data where applicable
a summary or conclusion conclusions8
and answers to any post-lab questions9
list of citations used in preparing the laboratory report10


8Conclusions and Summary:  Include a succinct discussion of your results. It is important that you write up a summary of your work as soon as possible after finishing an experiment, drawing conclusions consistent with your observations and results.  This information will be repeated in a more formal manner in your laboratory report.
9Post-lab questions should be included. Answer any postlaboratory questions in complete sentences in your postlab in your notebook.  The answers must be written as a complete thought (so as to include the question along with the answer)
10You should also cite any journal articles, books, and other reference sources that you have used.

You must hand in the carbon copies of your laboratory and postlaboratory sections of your notebook with your laboratory report.  These will be graded as part of the laboratory report.

 ALL LABORATORY WORK SHOULD BE COMPLETED IN YOUR NOTEBOOK!  YOUR REPORT IS A FORMALIZATION OF THE WORK IN YOUR NOTEBOOK

So what do I hand in when?

prelab - at the BEGINNING of the laboratory period your complete prelab is due

in lab and post lab - these pages are attached to your typed laboratory report. The laboratory report is due at the beginning of the period specified.  Usually 2 weeks after completion of any laboratory portion of the experiment.

Grading:
Separate pre, in and post labs are required for each member of the laboratory team.  If a report is a group report one grade will be given for the report but separate grades will be assigned for the pre and post labs.

The total  grade for any lab is the sum of the prelab (usualy 30%), the report (usually 60%) and the post lab (usually 10%).