General
- Each new experiment must start on a new page and begin with an informative title, name and the date.
- Write in pen and cross through mistakes neatly.
- Risk assessment - This may be required to be recorded in your lab-book for practicals performed in the Level 5 Lab, but it is not required for Level 4 practicals.
- Never record information or data on scraps of paper or the practical script.
- For those practicals where the lab-book is assessed (- Refer to the practical script for details on whether this will be the case) - It must be completed/submitted before 6 pm on the day of the practical; failure to do so will result in your being recorded as not having attended that lab session. Note that for those practicals where the lab-book is not assessed - If you wish to receive feedback on it, you can do so by showing it to the Lab Manager.
This is the name of the practical found at the top of the lab script. Along with this you must include the date of the practical along with your name.
For example, the following would be acceptable:
Preparation of a Nickel Nitrosyl Complex 7th October 2010 Anna Lysis Each practical must include a description of the experiment or procedure and this should be recorded in the third person past tense.
The procedure must:
- Describe the method used in a way that another chemist could perform the experiment.
- Include exact quantities used.
- Include observations made during the experiment, i.e. colour/temperature changes, precipitation, effervescence and anything else you believe might be pertinent.
- When instruments (e.g. spectrometers) are used, detail the instrument settings, but instrument operating instructions should NOT be included. If it is appropriate include brief details of how samples were prepared for use in the instrument.
The procedure can be recorded using bullet points; or any other way you wish, provided it is understandable to both yourself and other readers.
Although some of your results and measurements may be incorporated into the procedure, it is also possible that the form of the experiment will lend itself to their being recorded separately.
Results must:
- Still be intelligible at a later date, i.e. recorded neatly and if appropriate in a table.
- Include units and measurement errors (which should be estimated whilst the lab work is being performed). NOTE: THE FIRST TWO YEAR 1 SEMESTER 1 ACTIVITIES IN THE L4 LAB WILL BE PERFORMED PRIOR TO THE LECTURE COVERING "ERROR ESTIMATION", SO YOU WILL NOT BE EXPECTED TO RECORD ERROR ESTIMATES FOR THESE TWO ACTIVITIES.
- Be recorded to a consistent number of decimal places.
- Not be plagiarised, i.e. unless scheduled to work as a pair/group the data MUST be your own work. If you are working in a pair/group you must record who you were working with; what results were obtained by group work; which (if any) of the results (that you are using) were obtained by someone else in the group (and who that person was); which results are solely the product of your own work.
- Where data is saved electronically (e.g. data files from instruments), state the filename and the location where the file was first saved; you should also clearly indicate what data is contained in the file.
EXAMPLES
If the procedure detailed in the practical script was:-
Fill a 50ml burette with 1M NaOH. Add 10ml of the (named) acid sample and 2 drops of phenolphthalein indicator solution to a 25ml conical flask. Record the burette reading. Use the burette to add small amounts of NaOH to the flask, swirling after each addition. Continue until the end-point is reached. Record the final burette reading. Determine the volume of NaOH used.Then an acceptable lab-book procedure/results record would be:-
10mL acid sample #3 was titrated against NaOH (1M) using phenolphthalein as the indicator (red=basic, clear=acid). Initial Burette reading = 1.1 ± 0.05ml, Final Burette reading = 8.7 ± 0.05ml, Vol.NaOH used (titre) = 85.9 ± 0.1ml.If the procedure detailed in the practical script was:-
Add ~20ml deionised water to a 25ml conical flask. Weigh (by difference) ~2g CaO into the flask. Stopper the flask and shake well. Use a Buchner filtration apparatus to isolate the (solid) calcium hydroxide produced. Transfer the product to a watch glass and place in a desiccator overnight. Weigh the dry product.Then an acceptable lab-book procedure/results record would be:-
(Powdered white) CaO (2.022±0.0005 g) and water (20±0.4 mL) were reacted. The solid white product (Ca(OH)2) was filtered, dried & weighed.
Weight of empty watch glass = 33.850±0.0005g.
Weight of watch glass plus dry Ca(OH)2 product = 36.007±0.0005g.
Ca(OH)2 Weight = 2.157±0.001gYou are NOT required to include a conclusion in your lab-book for L4 Lab practicals.
The review questions can be used to determine how well you have taken on board the guidelines detailed above.