Laboratory Notebook Suggestions

NOTEBOOK

A requirement of this course is that you maintain a complete, accurate and legible laboratory notebook.  In a research career, be it in government, industry, or an academic institution, you will discover the value of such a record--especially when you are called upon to answer questions about your work months or even years later.  This notebook is not just busy work. It is an important document that you may refer to years from now.

YOU ARE ASSUMED TO HAVE A BOUND NOTEBOOK as described in lecture.

RECORD ALL INFORMATION IN (PERMANENT) INK: A notebook in pencil is not a legal record.

KEEP ALL RECORDS IN THE NOTEBOOK:  Don't use separate scratch sheets for recording observations, data, etc.  Permanently affix all data sheets, and similar material directly in it; this includes printouts, graphs, analysis results and pictures

USE THE PROPER FORMAT AS SPECIFIED BELOW:

COVER: In the top right-hand corner, put your name, GEOCHEMISTRY 414/514 and the semester.

PAGE 1: This is the title page; repeat the information on the cover.

PAGE 3: Table of Contents page. Keep it current; if you have purchased a permanently numbered textbook this will make this task easier.

EVEN NUMBERED PAGES (LEFT-HANDED SIDE): Use this side for lecture notes, raw data, scratch paper, phone numbers or whatever. This is not the permanent record and will not be scored. To help you with your work, though, you might want to make a list on this page of all the apparatus you will need for the experiment so that you can be sure that it is available and clean when you first come to the lab. 

ODD NUMBERED (RIGHT-HAND SIDE) PAGES: This is the formal record of your laboratory work, it is the basis for your notebook score. Its layout should follow the outline below and be written in outline format.

1. DATE each entry.
2. TITLE each experiment and start each new experiment on a new page.
3. GIVE A REFERENCE to the source of the experimental procedure; it should be complete enough that a person who is not taking the course would understand it. 
4. STATE THE OBJECTIVE(S) of the experiment briefly.  An experiment may be completed in one lab period or may continue several weeks; there may be several parts, so each section could contain separate objectives, for instance:
   Objective I: To evaluate the effect of reduction on soil materials.
   Objective II: To evaluate the influence of microorganisms on Fe reduction
5.  RECORD all observations and data taken during the experiment, and include an interpretation of any data obtained.
6. WRITE A CONCLUSION for the experiment. In this, you state briefly what you found. Account for any unusual observations, and comment on what you might do differently if you did the experiment (or in this case, lab exercise) again.  

EXERCISES

These should be answered in your notebook, by gluing in the handout with work shown or by transcribing questions and answers in your notebook..

SOME DO'S AND DO NOT'S

NEVER REMOVE PAGES FROM YOUR NOTEBOOK
NEVER ATTEMPT TO ERASE ENTRIES
NEVER LEAVE BLANK RIGHT-HAND PAGES

In court, any of these could void your claim for a million dollars in patent rights or liable for environmental cleanup costs, so start building good habits now. If you make a mistake, neatly cross through it with a single line and keep going. If you accidentally leave a blank page, put a large X across it, and sign and date it.

DATE EACH EXPERIMENT
GIVE CREDIT TO YOUR LAB PARTNER

The proper form for a credit is to write "This work carried out in collaboration with Joe Lion".

The text and lab handouts may provide special information about particular experiments; follow them.

REPORT

Data from your notebook may be used to write separate reports during this semester:
 (Assigned later).

These reports should follow the style of the Journal of Environmental Quality, outlined in the syllabus for preparing the research paper, e.g.:

1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Introduction, including justification for the work and literature review
4. Materials and methods
5. Results, including tables and/or figures
6. Discussion
7. Literature cited

It may be necessary to include results from your classmates in order to draw conclusions. A data deadline will be established for each experiment so everyone will have access to all final data for reporting purposes.