How to Keep a Lab Notebook

A lab notebook is the way real scientists keep track of their work. It may seem tedious or even unnecessary to you, but it is an important part of any lab experience. The notebook should be complete enough that you could refer back to it in a few years and repeat the experiments.

General Guidelines: 

  1. The Notebook must be permanently bound: no loose-leaf or spiral notebooks.
  2. Handwriting must be legible.  Your TA will not grade materials that he or she cannot easily read.  All notes should be taken in pen with the exception of colored drawings that may be done with pencils.   Errors should be crossed through with a single line, not erased or obliterated. 
  3. All information in the notebook must be handwritten or represent actual results, such as photographs. Do not place any photocopied material into your notebook unless specifically directed to do so. 
  4. Everything you do in the laboratory should be recorded in your lab notebooks, including notes, drawings, data, speculations, etc.  Everything from your initial strategy through planning, execution and interpretation and should be in your notebook.
  5. Keep all of your lab-related notes, including lab lecture notes, in one notebook.  Keep a separate binder for the lab manual and lab handouts. 
  6. Keep in mind that reports and presentations will be prepared from the notebook.  You should have much more information recorded in your notebook than you can or should put on a poster or into a presentation.

The notebook should include:

  1. The first two pages reserved for a table of contents.
  2. Notes from lab lectures, discussions and your own research.
  3. Answers to assigned questions.
  4. Prelab Section for experiments:
    ·      Title of experiment and date.
·      The Objective(s) of the lab: what you are trying to do and why you are trying to do it.
·      The Procedure in flow chart or outline form.  This should not be an exact copy of the lab manual instructions, but reworked in a manner easy for you to follow.
  1. Any deviations from your written procedure.  This includes changes both intentional and accidental.
  2. Observations: everything that happens during your experiment that may have a bearing on the outcome or interpretation of the experiment (this includes color, precipitate, time, temperature, etc). 
  3. Data: raw and calculated.  Use complete sentences, tables and graphs where appropriate.  Show sample calculations with steps and units.
  4. Discussion: Interpret your results.  Refer back to your predictions.  Draw conclusions about experiment.  Make suggestions for further experiments or refinements to the procedure.