Chemistry Lab Notebooks/Lab Reports

[swimmermom3]

I purchased this lab notebook for Sailor Dude's chemistry class and we are following the lab report format in the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, which is similar to the one on this AP Chemistry syllabus. It's syllabus 1 - I can't figure out how to attach the pdf.

 

So here is my big science question: Are the lab notebook and a lab report two separate entities? How does this process work in an AP course or a college course?

 

My thought was to have ds write up everything up to the actual experiment prior to class so I know that he has read through the procedure and is aware of any precautions that show up on the MSDS. I figure this will save time and be safer.  He can record his observations during the lab and then finish up his conclusions outside of class.

 

Typically, does the student then take what is in their lab notebook and write up an official report to turn in. I think I remember regentrude mentioning LATEX?  Or since the notebook has copies, does one copy turned in to the teacher constitute a lab report?

 

Also, we are doing more labs than would probably be done in a typical class. Should I have him do a lab report for each one, even if we do 20+ labs in the course of the year?

 

I feel like I should know the answer to these questions, but I don't have a clue. :blushing:

[regentrude]

It will vary very much by class.

For actual lab work, reserachers often keep a bound notebook with numbered pages in which everything is recorded: setup, measurements, ALL raw data, any observations. (Bound and numbered are traditionally precautions against falsifying data). The important results are then written up in form of a paper.

Student labs simulate this process in many different ways. Sometimes, introductory labs do not require the keeping of a notebook and have the students simply fill out of an electronic lab report template. Whate excactly is on that template depends on the class and institution.

 

For our home science labs we have the students keep a bound notebook. The lab report is a separate entity and is written up afterwards.

The procedure should typically be part of the writeup; we omitted this for chemistry because we had the procedure in electronic form, and cut&paste or rewriting would have served no educational goal. We used LaTex because this makes typing equations much easier and is the program of choice in large parts of the scientific community; this was a good learning opportunity.

 

Whether you require lab reports for ever lab, or simply require the keeping of a notebook, is up to you. In our extremely rigorous labs at university , we had to write all conclusions in the lab notebook and the notebook was collected and graded.

In college, your student will receive detailed instuctions from his lab instructor about the preparation of the lab report.

[Julie of KY]

In college, I kept a lab notebook very similar to what Illustrated Guide suggests. This notebook was what was graded. My chem students keep a lab notebook. If their parents what some other write up, it's up to them, but none do. My own son will keep a modified notebook with all data and conclusions. It will not be a "good" notebook since he is severely dysgraphic. I plan on him writing up a more formal report about once per semester. I don't think it would be worthwhile to learn LATEX just for this, however we plan on learning LATEX this year for writing up math proofs.

[swimmermom3]

Regentude, that was very helpful. I think we will focus on doing the lab notebook correctly and perhaps assign two-three formal lab reports during the year so that he is clear on the differences. Ds's notebook will have copies so I can use those for grading and he can still have a clean notebook (unmarked by me) for future reference if he needs it. We'll go ahead and write the conclusions in the notebook as well.

 

Thanks for your help.

[swimmermom3]

In college, I kept a lab notebook very similar to what Illustrated Guide suggests. This notebook was what was graded. My chem students keep a lab notebook. If their parents what some other write up, it's up to them, but one do. My own son will keep a modified notebook with all data and conclusions. It will not be a "good" notebook since he is severely dysgraphic. I plan on him writing up a more formal report about once per semester. I don't think it would be worthwhile to learn LATEX just for this, however we plan on learning LATEX this year for writing up math proofs.

 

What you are doing with your son sounds like a solid plan. I want my son to be able to do the written portion of chemistry correctly, but I also want to have enough time to do as many of the experiments in the Illustrated Guide as we can.

 

I think my son would probably enjoy messing with LaTEX because that is just the kind of thing he enjoys.

[Candid]

This was suggested in another thread: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-To-Survive-College-Science-Labs-374925

 

I bought it from another source where it was $12 so my link will save you $2. I carped in that other thread about the fact that it was 30 pages, but I must say it is a simple practical approach to college science labs. I've put my copy in my Evernote, ready for my oldest the summer before he goes to college.