Who does what which way?

[cjsmith]

Lab notebooks:
Have a separate lab notebook or make drawings and notes all over the manual?
Carbon-copied prenumbered pages or a spiral-bound notebook?
Take them home to do the writeup, or leave them locked up in the lab?
Do your work elsewhere and copy it in, or print it out and staple it in, or record every piece of data by hand directly into the notebook at the time the measurement was taken?
Strike through a mistake or recopy the page?

On every one of these questions, each of my professors insists that the ways the others do things are wrong. It's almost funny to watch them put value judgments on these answers, all the while conflicting massively with each other. At least, it would be funny if the whole mess didn't have consequences for me personally. As a student, I don't get to be self-righteous and snooty; I get to OBEY. It's dizzying trying to memorize three different protocols. Perhaps the bookstore should hand out laminated cards showing the answer key for each professor. Not the answers to the homework or quiz problems, no; the answers to their particular brand of This Is The Way Everyone Should Do Things.

As the quarter wears on, of course, we're supposed to do all these things as second nature. It's like learning to touch-type when every day you get a new keyboard layout.

Homework:
Bother to do the problems or just write enough to show you know how you WOULD do it?
Turn it in during lab, during lecture, or not at all?
Are crossouts or white-out acceptable inside a pile of calculations (because We're Learning Here) or not acceptable (because This Is College-Level Work)?

Etc., etc., etc.
Round a 5 up no matter what, or round to the evens?
Work in groups in lab (because That's The Right Way To Learn), or work alone (because That's The Right Way To Learn)?

In France, when I lived there (1989), there were three different keyboard layouts in common use. In all the computer programming offices I saw, I met not a single touch-typist. My own rapid typing branded me as a bit of a freak.

Comments

[jcgbigler.livejournal.com]

Here are my preferred answers, based on having worked in a lab in industry and on trying to teach high school juniors to do something that is a high-school equivalent.

Lab notebooks:
Have a separate lab notebook or make drawings and notes all over the manual?

Separate lab notebook.

Carbon-copied prenumbered pages or a spiral-bound notebook?

Not a spiral-bound notebook--too easy to tear pages out, and you should never remove pages from a lab notebook. I have my kids use a 75-cent composition notebook. If the pages aren't numbered, they have to hand-number them.

Pre-numbered lab notebooks are nice, mind you, though I don't find the carbons terribly useful.

Take them home to do the writeup, or leave them locked up in the lab?

In a school situation, take them home. In a real-life lab where you're expected to spend some of your work time doing analysis, keep them in the building.

Do your work elsewhere and copy it in, or print it out and staple it in, or record every piece of data by hand directly into the notebook at the time the measurement was taken?

Definitely record directly into the notebook. Original data shouldn't be copied--it introduces the possibility of copying errors. One of my students last year wrote his data on his hand. I made him photocopy his hand, tape the photocopy into the notebook, and sign his name across each piece of tape so that the signature extended onto both the photocopy and the notebook page. (This is what I had to do in industry when I taped an instrument read-out into a lab notebook.)

Strike through a mistake or recopy the page?

Strike through. A lab notebook is supposed to be your diary of your experiments. Neatness doesn't matter (though readability and the ability to follow what you did is important).

The real point of a lab notebook is to have something that would stand up as evidence in court if you ever had to prove that you invented something. The "rules" for taking data are intended to prevent things that would create doubt in court as to whether you actually did the experiments as documented. This is why changing any data in the notebook is so bad--it creates doubt about everything else in the notebook.

Homework:
Bother to do the problems or just write enough to show you know how you WOULD do it?

If it's collected, bother. If it's not collected, just make damn sure you could do it entirely through on an exam.

Turn it in during lab, during lecture, or not at all?

Depends on the prof's rules.

Are crossouts or white-out acceptable inside a pile of calculations (because We're Learning Here) or not acceptable (because This Is College-Level Work)?

I don't see a problem with crossouts. No white-out in lab notebooks, but I don't see a problem with it on homework.

Etc., etc., etc.
Round a 5 up no matter what, or round to the evens?

Ask the prof. Some profs don't teach rounding to the evens. I tried to teach it once to my high school kids a few years back, and it confused them terribly.

Work in groups in lab (because That's The Right Way To Learn), or work alone (because That's The Right Way To Learn)?

Ultimately, you need to be able to do both. Decide which one you suck most at, and practice that one more often.

[jcgbigler.livejournal.com]

I should also mention that one of the first things I tell my students is that everyone has different rules and formats for lab notebooks. There's no one right way to do it (no matter what their future professors may say). My rules are based on things that are common in research labs and industry, and that appear to me to be consistent with what I believe are the goals of keeping the lab notebook.

It's amazing how many profs in college still have their students copy the entire procedure into the lab notebook before doing the experiment. In a real research situation, you'd be making up the procedure as you go along and writing it down as you do it, so this is what I have my students do from day one, even in a high school lab.

[sharya.livejournal.com]

These are the identical answers to what I was going to type, based on my (and my husband's since he's a chemist!) experience as well.

The lab notebook becomes especially crucial in a forensic toxicology situation.

[jcgbigler.livejournal.com]

Glad to see that I'm being consistent with the views of others who work in the field. I think high schools and colleges have far too many "lifers" who don't have the perspective that comes from non-academic real-world experience.

I think a lot of the stupid rules about lab notebooks come from teachers and professors who are trying to do what they think is the "right thing" without ever having actually experienced the "right thing" themselves.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

One of my students last year wrote his data on his hand. I made him photocopy his hand, tape the photocopy into the notebook, and sign his name across each piece of tape so that the signature extended onto both the photocopy and the notebook page. (This is what I had to do in industry when I taped an instrument read-out into a lab notebook.)

That is AWESOME. I've heard of the tape-and-signature method, but it turns out none of my teachers this quarter uses that one! :-)

[jcgbigler.livejournal.com]

I had thought briefly about telling him that it needed to be a notarized copy, but I didn't want to bother the one overworked secretary whom I know to be a notary.