In order to truly understand lab and to be able to draw appropriate conclusions, a person must first carefully consider the how, what and why of a lab exercise. Research has shown that students who have a written preparation for lab are safer, more efficient and have a better understanding of how the lab connects to theory.
Your lab notebook is intended to be a journal that reflects the work that you did in the lab and the analysis of that work. When scientists do research the lab notebook becomes the legal record of that work and is considered the property of the institution or business paying for the research. A reminder that while you are likely to always have lab partners, the work in your lab notebook is your own. If you use an outside source, properly cite the source. If you share ideas and work together on calculations, make sure you are writing your own ideas and doing the calculations for yourself. Plagiarism is serious. It is your job to make sure that you do not plagiarize. Most importantly, if you take this work seriously you will develop skills that will help you to access lab experiences at the college level and beyond.
A note to Honors Students: Due to the loss of the Lab Block, Honors Chemistry will not be using lab notebooks. That said, we will still be working on Lab writing and all of the aspects of lab writing that are supported in these pages. Although you may not have many written Pre-Lab assignments, you will still learn to write titles, introductions, procedures and data tables.