Guidelines for
Laboratory Notebooks
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Pre-lab Plan Guidelines
Jump to In-lab Journal Guidelines
Experience in carrying out standard
organic lab procedures is essential to the development
of good organic chemistry laboratory skills.
However, learning how to properly document
experimental results is also very important.
Documentation of results requires the keeping of a
detailed laboratory research notebook. It is generally
accepted that such a research notebook is necessary for
the documentation of any scientist's work. For example,
an industrial research notebook is the legal basis for
defending and obtaining patents. A research notebook
should be a permanent, original, and honest scientific
record of all observations made and data obtained while
working in the lab.
General Instructions.
- A bound (not spiral!) composition
notebook (available in the bookstore) is required. You
may also use a laboratory notebook with carbonless
duplicate pages, if you have one left over from
another chemistry course.
- At the appropriate times for pre-labs
and in-lab notes (see below) you need submit a digital
facsimile of your notes (e.g. photos snapped with your
phone and converted to pdf format) to the "assignment"
created for this purpose in the course D2L site.
- The digital facsimiles (pdf
files) need to be turned into the instructor at the
required times:
- Pre-lab Plan = before the start
of the lab period the lab is being done.
- In-lab Journal = within three
hours of leaving the lab at the the end of every
lab period.
Important Do's and Don'ts
- Do use ink. The lab record should be
permanent and pencil is, thus, unacceptable.
- If you make a mistake cross it out
with one or two lines and proceed (the original entry
should remain legible).
- Don't record data on a loose sheet of
paper first with the plan of copying it into the
notebook later.
- Don't waste time being overly neat.
- Don't tear out any pages.
- Do label the notebook completely
with all information pertinent to the course on the
table of contents page.
- Do keep the table of contents up to
date.
- Do make sure that every page is dated
and identified with your name, course information, and
the experiment title and number.
Format.
The notebook entries for each experiment
should be divided into two sections, (1) the "Pre-lab
Plan" and (2) the "In-lab Journal".
Each of these parts should be done on its
own separate page(s). Do not start the in-lab journal on
the same page as which the pre-lab plan ends.
"The Plan"- To
be completed before the start of each new experiment and
turned in (yellow sheets) at the beginning of the lab
period during which the experiment will be started. Each
student must prepare their own individual pre-lab plan
in their own lab notebook.
The Plan consists of the following
sections in the order given
below:
- Experiment Number, Title, Date and
Course & Section Number
- Balanced Chemical Equation: If
the experiment involves a chemical reaction, then the
balanced chemical equation should be given and
should show the structures of the reactants to be used
and the major product expected. Do not include
equations for side reactions or reactions used during
work up. Do not include the full mechanism of the
reaction being carried out.
- Purpose: In two or three
sentences describe the experiment in more detail than
the title conveys. Tell exactly what will be done and
how the results will be evaluated.
- Table of Chemicals (TOC):
Include structures, molecular weights, relevant
physical constants, (i.e., densities of liquids to be
measured by volume, bps of liquids, mps of solids),
and amounts to be used of each reactant (in moles as
well as in the units in which it will be measured).
Make sure to do any needed calculations of amounts to
be used before lab. Indicate whether each reactant is
a solid or liquid at room temperature and whether any
special safety precautions need to be taken with it.
Even though they are not formally reactants or
products, solvents and catalysts should also be
included in this table. Also include the molecular
weight, relevant physical constants, and theoretical
yield of the major product(s) expected.
- Safety Precautions: Include all
special safety precautions associated with the
specific experiment to be performed. Identify any
particularly hazardous materials to be handled and any
specific precautions to be taken with it. (Standard
lab precautions such as wearing eye protection at all
times should not be included here.) Find the SDS for
each chemical (if available) and either add it to your
Favorites list or save it on your computer in a folder
you can find easily during the lab. We want the SDS
info to be easily accessible during the lab when you
are working with the chemicals just in case any
questions arise.
- Planned Procedures:This should
be a relatively brief outline (preferably in the form
of a flow-chart or step-by-step list) extracted from
the procedure given in the lab text and/or handout.
Your planned procedures should be complete enough to
allow you to be able to do the experiment while
referring to your notebook only. Include sketches of
any glassware apparatuses you will have to assemble.
In addition, the sequence in the carrying out of
important steps should be emphasized. Try to
anticipate any time lags that may exist and plan a
productive way to use this time.
- References: Give the title,
author, and page numbers of all reference materials
used.
The Journal
- To be completed during the lab and turned in to
the instructor before leaving the lab. Make sure you
start a new page for every new day in the lab. The date
at the top of the page should be the actual date when
all of the writing on that page was done! Each team
keeps and submits only one in-lab journal with a
designated team member being primarily responsible for
writing it, as shown in the team assignments table on
the lab grading policies page.
Observations and Data go in the
right-hand column of the notebook page.
Observations
- All observations should be carefully
noted - make sure you use enough words to adequately
describe what you observe.
- Observations should always include the
appearances of all starting materials and products.
- Observations of color changes, odors,
phase separations, heat evolution, gas evolution, or
any other unusual or unanticipated results are
particularly important.
- Labeled sketches of glassware setups
used are good to include here.
- Also record your initial observations
on any spectra obtained, e.g., number of peaks, key
peak positions, etc.
- With the advent of cell phones it has
become customary to snap photos in lieu of writing
careful observations and I do encourage that you take
photos to include in your lab report. However, this
does not remove the requirement that observations also
be carefully noted in words.
- Do always snap a picture of any
obtained final products and include these in the
figures section of your lab report.
Data
- Make the data entries easy to find by
underlining them or placing in a table..
- Never record data or observations
first on a loose sheet of paper with the intention of
copying it into your notebook later.
- The data that is recorded should
include (if applicable):
- tare masses (always subtract tare
masses and record the mass of substance in the
notebook)
- amounts of reactants actually used
(as measured)
- weight of product obtained and %
yield calculation
- any physical constants that are
measured (i.e., mp, bp, refractive index, etc.)
- Also record the file name and
acquisition time for all NMR spectra.
Actual Procedures go in the
left-hand column of the notebook page.
- During the lab you should record
faithfully what you are doing while you are doing
it.
- Do not merely copy the lab manual or
handout procedure because you may actually do the work
slightly differently.
- It is customary in scientific writing
to use the past tense, passive voice:
- Bad - "I am now refluxing a solution
of 1-butanol and sulfuric acid. It has now been two
hours and I am now discontinuing the reflux."
- Better - "I refluxed a solution of
butanol and sulfuric acid for two hours...."
- Better - "Reflux a solution of
1-butanol and sulfuric acid for two hours...."
- Best - "A solution of 1-butanol and
sulfuric acid was refluxed for 2.0 h...."
Signatures: All three lab partners
should sign at the bottom of the last page of the
journal, signifying that they have read and agree with
what has been recorded.
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