Field+Notebooks

**Lab Notebooks and Lab Reports**

Printable version of instructions.

Suppose you were the scientist who discovered a new alloy three times as strong as iron but not corrosive. Suddenly a fellow researcher also “discovers” it a week afterwards. How can you prove that you were actually the first to develop the material?

In any research project, recording what you do and how you do it is essential. Scientists use laboratory notebooks as official records for their work. You should use a bound composition book, or a research notebook with numbered pages designed for laboratory records. Your laboratory notebook should be a legal record of all of your work in the laboratory. Experimental work without documentation is practically useless.

All Laboratory Notebooks must:
 * Be permanently Bound
 * Have consecutively numbered pages
 * Be written in permanent ink no pencil
 * Have no blank spaces
 * Be initialed daily when experimentation occurs.

//Take the time// to write out your purpose, plan, and data tables for your experiment ahead of time. Your purpose should be a few sentences relating why you are performing the experiment, reference to any previous work you have completed on the topic, and your hypothesis(es). Related literature to the experiment can simply be cited and does not have to be summarized with more than a few sentences. Later, as you are writing your discussion your records of the thinking and reasoning behind your experiment will be very important while analyzing your results and forming conclusions.

However tempting it may seem, **//do not wait//** until after you complete your experiment to write in your laboratory notebook. Edit your procedure as circumstances change, record your mistakes and places for potential error, and record your raw data as you work. It is necessary to record what you do as you do it, so that your laboratory notebook is as accurate as possible. **//Cross out any mistakes, do not erase them!//** Never blacken out mistakes. You may find this information useful later. If you really are bothered by the messy work you may write it over on the next page but do not destroy the original data. Never tear out pages. Any erasure marks or missing pages puts the entire notebook in question. Careers have been ruined when the researcher’s peers suggested that data were changed or manipulated in some way.

Each page should be consecutively //numbered//. Do this first if your notebook is not already numbered. Include the //date// on every page that you write in, and have someone who understands your work read and //initial each page// of your notebook at the end of every day. Also, any blank space in the notebook should be //crossed out//. Some researcher record the procedures, data, and observations only on the right side page. On the left side page they may summarize a prior related experiment, record random thoughts or begin designing the next experiment based on what is being observed. This practice is optional.
 * Laboratory Notebook Setup**
 * 1) **__General Setup__**

Click on Image to enlarge:



//Figure 1. Purpose or Objective (From: A Short Guide to Writing About Chemistry__)__//

Create a table of contents on the first two pages of your notebook. List the title of each experiment, the page number, and the date of the experiment in the table of contents. Each time you start a new experiment, add it to the table of contents for easy reference in the future. As your notebook fills you may find it helpful to make tabs in order to quickly find specific information.
 * __2. Table of Contents__**

**__3. Table of Abbreviations__** You may also want to create a table of common abbreviations that you will use in the notebook. This will be useful when the notebook is read by others, or when you read the notebook yourself in the future. For researcher new to the field of study, you may also use this section as a glossary of new terms or terms having a unique definition in this field. This is an optional section.

Write down your thoughts for the experiment including: reasons for the experiment, reasons for the particular procedure or variables you are using, information on previous experiments, relative literature citations, and what you believe the experiment will show or accomplish. If you are following a standard protocol, reference it and describe any modification you are making to the protocol.
 * __4. Purpose or Objective__**

In Figure 1 above; notice the Purpose, Date, Page Number, Signature of Research Student and Advisor, and the marked out clear section. Crossed out blank sections allow the person signing off on each page confidence that nothing else will be added after they sign off on your data. This is the planned procedure for the experiment. **__Include drawings, tables, or diagrams__** when these would help illustrate the procedure more effectively. Also include any preparatory calculations for the experiment in this section. See the example in Figure 2. Click on Image to enlarge:
 * __5. Plan__**



Figure 2. Example of a Plan Section (From: //A Short Guide to Writing About Chemistry//__)__ In this space record exactly what you do as you are working. Write in first person; it shows your ownership of the experiment. Even if you are following the procedure exactly, changes and errors always occur. This is the space to record those changes and mistakes, **//while you are working//**. __Do not complete this later because you cannot remember everything.__
 * __6.__** **__Procedure__**

Include details of preparation and the sources of purchase. (For example, a clinometers might be constructed using an Office Depot plastic protractor, 6 inch long.)

Also include instrumentation used and any specifics about the instrumentation. (Example: Kestrel 1000 Pocket Wind Meter might be used to measure wind speed maximum and average over a 10 minutes sampling period).

Always keep in mind that the procedure should be complete and explained in enough detail so that another research could duplicate your work.

Record your quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (descriptions or observations) data in a separate section. Create data tables beforehand but leave space to add addition information as the experimentation progresses. Rarely does an experiment go exactly as planned the first time. Do not be tempted to draw any early conclusions from the data at this point. Simply record your data in an objective way and record observations. For example, “After being heated for 20 minutes the clear solution turned a yellow color”. Click on Image to enlarge:
 * __7. Data__**



Figure 3. Recording Data (From: __A Short Guide to Writing About Chemistry)__ Entries should include observations, brainstorming ideas, or anything thing about during the experiment that may effect the results.

If any calculations are necessary after the experiment, record them in this section for future reference. For example to calculate the height of an object measured with a clinometers “**Height= H1+H2, where: H1= B*TAN (A1) and H2= B *TAN (A2**) where A1 is the angle made between the observation line and the top of the object and A2 is the angle made between the observation line and the bottom of the object”. This is also a good example of a place where a drawing or figure showing these relationships would be absolutely essential. Finally, briefly summarize what was accomplished during the experiment. If this was a hypothesis driven project there are only three conclusions – Date support the hypothesis, data reject the hypothesis, or the data are inclusive. ONE EXPERIMENT NEVER “** PROVES ** “ the concept. Note any new information learned or exposed. This is also an appropriate place to suggest ideas for future research. Interpret and discuss the data you collected in this section of your laboratory notebook. Graphs may be useful to help you interpret what your data indicates. Were your results what you expected? Why or why not? Were there any significant errors in the experiment? How can you explain your data? These are questions you want to answer in the discussion section of your notebook.
 * __8. Calculations__**
 * __9. Conclusions__**
 * __10. Discussion__**

The Laboratory Notebook is one of the most important parts of your research. It is proof of all of your hard work. It is also the most common part of research which students neglect at first. Make your research your own and meaningful by keeping an accurate, updated, and useful Laboratory Notebook!

__Sources:__ Beall, Herbert and Trimbur, John. __A Short Guide to Writing About Chemistry.__ Copyright 1996 to Harper Collins College Publishers New York, NY. LabWrite Resource. “In-Lab: guidelines to follow during the lab for managing lab data.” Website 10/20/2005