“Learning by doing” in the laboratory is central to the experience of all Carleton Chemistry students, and proficiency in the laboratory (including laboratory safety) is a key emphasis in our departmental student learning outcomes. Students at all levels have the opportunity to interact with state-of-the-art equipment, working on individual and group projects that emphasize experimental planning, execution, and analysis in a variety of contexts. Many students extend these lab experiences by pursuing cutting-edge research at Carleton or elsewhere.

Departmental Lab Attendance Policy

Attendance in every scheduled laboratory period is mandatory. Students must make every effort to resolve potential conflicts with lab meetings through a schedule change. At the instructor’s discretion, make-up opportunities will be offered for students who are ill and for those who request accommodation well in advance due to a College-approved conflict with their normal lab session.

Lab Notebooks

Maintaining an accurate lab notebook is a universal practice across experimental science because notebooks serve as the permanent record of actions and observations in the laboratory or field. Learning what is necessary and important to include in your lab notebook will help you in other science classes and any future research experience. Good lab notebook practices will also help you to think deeply about what you are doing and why and make smart decisions about what observations are important in the context of your experiment; they also provide necessary information for you or others to reproduce your work. Lab notebooks may differ in some ways (e.g., electronic versus hard copy) based on the experiments you are performing, but within the Carleton Chemistry Department the following guidelines will be generally helpful:

  • Lab notebooks are not a reproduction of lab handouts.
  • Lab notebooks contain experimental information written in real-time during lab.
  • Lab notebooks might also contain information written before the experimental work starts, such as outlines and preliminary tables.
  • Further writing can occur after the lab period, such as analysis and interpretation.
  • Lab notebooks should focus on decision points and observations in the laboratory. They are not a list of every action taken in the lab
    • For example, don’t write, “I walked to the balance and used a spatula to transfer 0.805 g of sodium hydroxide to a weighing boat. Then I used a powder funnel to transfer the sodium hydroxide to a 125-mL Erlenmeyer flask.” Instead, perhaps write, “Added 0.805 g sodium hydroxide to a 125-mL Erlenmeyer flask.”
  • Some important items to include in lab notebooks are: observation of physical changes, temperature readings, masses and volumes of substances used (including masses of empty and full containers and subtraction to get mass of substance), and glassware/equipment used (including info about type and size of glassware, methods of heating or cooling, etc.)