High School Labs documentation

[Blossom'sGirl]

Next year is 9th grade biology w/ Science Shepherd. The lab manual that comes with is spiral bound and has pages which can be filled in (or copied). By the end of the manual the student is expected to write a formal lab report from scratch which obviously cannot be added to the existing spiral book. When I did high school labs it was always a big deal that they were done in a bound notebook with no erasing allowed. I think we added pages by glueing them in, although I do not remember doing any formal lab reports.

 

How do you have your students do their reporting? Can we use a 3 ring binder? What would be best in case ds needs to show it to someone?

 

I am linking a copy of a sample pdf of one of the reports just to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

http://www.scienceshepherd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/BiologyCh5LabManualOnline.pdf

[snowbeltmom]

Fwiw, I am keeping a record of all of the lab work completed at home just in case a college would like to see it. My kids use, "The Student Lab Notebook" by Hayden McNeil. Hopefully the link will work: http://www.amazon.com/Student-Lab-Notebook-Carbonless-Duplicate/dp/1429224541/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343940616&sr=1-5&keywords=student+lab+notebook+hayden+mcneil

[Jenny in Florida]

How do you have your students do their reporting? Can we use a 3 ring binder? What would be best in case ds needs to show it to someone?

 

I'm sure all of the science folks will be horrified, but here's what I'm planning for next year.

 

My son will be doing chemistry. I'm putting together my own lab manual using ideas from books I have on hand and various things I've found online. I'm typing all of it, tweaking so it will work with the supplies I'll have available, and formatting it so it is consistent in terms of instructions and such.

 

When I get it done, I'll print out the whole thing, three-hole punch the pages, and stick it in a binder.

 

Each lab has questions for him to answer, tables to complete, spaces and instructions for diagrams, etc., right on the pages of the manual (pretty much like the sample you linked). At the end of each procedure, there are additional questions and instructions about what to include in the lab report. I'm assuming he will type those and that we will print them and put them in the binder.

 

I have no idea whether this is the accepted, "right" way to do this. I did consult with my daughter about how they did things in her college science courses, and it seems this is pretty similar to that approach. I also spent lots of hours searching online for samples of lab reports and instructions for how to record things at the high school level. I never saw on any of those sites anything about using a bound manual or anything like that. Every site seemed to assume formal lab reports would be typed and turned in to the teacher.

 

I can't promise you (or my son) that my approach won't raise eyebrows at some point in the future if any college admissions officer ever asked to look at his lab records. But I seriously doubt it will ever be a problem.

[Syllieann]

In my college labs we were required to write the report right in our notebook. It was always bothersome to figure out how many pages to leave blank before switching. Out in the real world working as an R&D chemist the lab notebooks were used for a very brief intro, outline of the experiment, and recording data. Lab reports were written separately, typed into an access-like database, with nice tables and/or graphs to display the data from the notebook. Notebook numbers and pages were referenced in the report and a note at the bottom of the page in the notebook referenced the lab report#. I think the key is to make sure the actual data is recorded in pen in the notebook. A write up or discussion of the data can take place inside or outside the notebook as long as all your ducks are in a row for cross referencing.

[KAR120C]

Out in the real world working as an R&D chemist the lab notebooks were used for a very brief intro, outline of the experiment, and recording data. Lab reports were written separately, typed into an access-like database, with nice tables and/or graphs to display the data from the notebook.

DS writes his procedure in the notebook (detailed enough to work from), and data tables with results in pen, but the formal report is separate.

[regentrude]

I think the key is to make sure the actual data is recorded in pen in the notebook. A write up or discussion of the data can take place inside or outside the notebook as long as all your ducks are in a row for cross referencing.

 

:iagree:

ALL data and experimental setups belong in the lab notebook in a manner that they can not be erased or falsified (we had to use a notebook with numbered pages). It is important that the student learns to record what he does, to cross out but not erase when he thinks something is wrong (often, the wrong stuff turns out to be valuable). I tell my student that the notebook should be sufficient for an outsider to repeat the procedure and to compare the data. Analysis and formal lab report can be separate.

[Renaissance Mom]

:iagree:

ALL data and experimental setups belong in the lab notebook in a manner that they can not be erased or falsified (we had to use a notebook with numbered pages). It is important that the student learns to record what he does, to cross out but not erase when he thinks something is wrong (often, the wrong stuff turns out to be valuable). I tell my student that the notebook should be sufficient for an outsider to repeat the procedure and to compare the data. Analysis and formal lab report can be separate.

 

:iagree:

Pre-kids I worked at a company which needed to submit data to the FDA. All lab data, research data, etc was documented as described above (plus a number of other requirements not applicable to this discussion). When I teach any science course to a coop or to my own kids, I train them to do this.

 

For what it is worth, I am requiring my 9th grader to keep her lab notebook in a bound book so she gets accustomed to doing this before college. She intends to pursue a science career.

[Candid]

I think I would steer my course between what the science folks say and what is reasonable and doable for you and yours. While I am sure they are absolutely right about the skills needed for a student who will be a scientist someday, I think you can learn those later, AND I can't help remembering that in my first chemistry lab in college, my whole grade rested on a computer punch card with the answer from a titration I did. This was long before chemistry for humanities vs. majors and was a huge weed out course for premed and other grueling degrees. So if you must stray, learn to do the work first, learn to do the paperwork, second.

[Jenny in Florida]

I'm fascinated by this whole "bound notebook" thing. None of my college science courses required this back in the 1980s. And my daughter who graduated a year ago tells me it wasn't required at her college, either.

 

I'll admit that neither she nor I were science majors., but still . . .