How to Keep a Scientific Lab Notebook

  • Due Jan 24 at 8:30am
  • Points 4
  • Questions 4
  • Available Jan 12 at 12am - Jan 24 at 11:59pm
  • Time Limit None
  • Allowed Attempts 3

Instructions

After reading this information and watching the video- take the following quiz. You will have 3 attempts and it is open book/open notes. 

Reasons to keep a laboratory notebook

  1. To provide yourself with a complete record of why experiments were initiated and how they were performed. 
  2. To give yourself a centralphysical place to record your data, to note statistical outcomes, and to paste graphs that show results. 
  3. To provide information to a person who is interested in continuing your research project.
  4. In many instances it serves as legal documentation of your research.

Arabidopsis Research Project

We will keep a scientific notebook to record the work we do on our Arabidopsis Light Intensity Research Project.  There are many guidelines and rules for keeping a notebook, that are designed to accomplish the following

Goal: Keep a permanent record of the research goals, protocols and data.

Guidelines for Scientific Notebook: 

  • Bound notebook: This is so that you cannot remove or add pages without it being obvious. This helps maintain the integrity of your notes. For this semester, we are going to create our own bound notebook using scrap paper and staples. Obviously, this is a poor man's substitute for a truly bound notebook, but this will help save resources and money on your part and be good enough!
  • Use pen not pencil: Again to maintain the integrity of your notes.
  • No Erasure: Never erase anything. If you wrote down the wrong thing, cross it out and write the correct information below it.
  • Never remove a page. This is to maintain the integrity of your work. 
  • Taping/Gluing: It is common to tape or glue items into your lab notebook. For example, the print out or results of an experiment. Or a photo of the plants at a particular stage of growth.
  • Table of Contents: Set aside the first page for this.
  • Page number and date: For each entry in your notebook.
  • Timing: Always write the entry during or right after your lab work.
  •  At the beginning of each new experiment record the 
    ▪ Title of experiment.
    Purpose/objectives of experiment.
    ▪ Materials used in the experiment (ex: soil type, lights, genotype of seed, etc).
    Methods/procedures used: This should be more detailed than what you would put in your scientific paper.
  • Write up a short conclusion about the experiment.

You want all the information you might possibly need when you write the paper. In particular, keep track of who did what work, and any changes or errors that occurred

Only registered, enrolled users can take graded quizzes