Laboratory Notebook

1. Obtain a string-bound notebook for recording laboratory experiments and results. Bring this notebook to all lab meetings.

2. Notebook organization

a. Prelab flowsheet: prior to each lab session it is your responsibility to outline procedures for that day's lab in the form of a flow sheet. The flow sheet should outline materials and procedures but without excessive detail. Leave space to the left or right of the flow sheet to make adjustments; experiments do not always go as smoothly as planned and changes to some protocols are expected. These will be initialed by instructor prior to each lab.

b. Record all observations. Before the next lab, write up your results. Your notebook should be a detailed account of all experiments. You should be able to refer to your notebook ten years from now and understand the experiment you conducted.

c. Use the following format to write up experiments

Purpose (Aim): One sentence describing the purpose of the lab

Experimental Setup: This section describes the specific procedures for each individual experiment within the study. State exactly what you did in setting up and conducting the experiment.

Observations and results: This section is a careful record of everything you do and observe during the course of the study. Remember that these are notes. They need not be in complete sentences, but they should be extremely precise and clear. This is your data, the most important part of you work. Hypothesis and conclusions can be wrong; data must stand the test of time.

Summary of Results: Briefly summarize the results of the experiment. Record results in charts, tables, graphs, and drawings that are properly labeled. Remember that this section is fact - it is a summarization of everything your experiment has told you.

Conclusion: Briefly state what was learned from the experiment and summarize conclusions drawn from the results. List possible sources of error for experiments that did not go as planned.

Questions: Answer all questions from the results and discussion section of each lab in the laboratory manual.

d. Other guidelines to follow:
-Label all figures, graphs, and charts
-Be neat
-Date all entries
-Keep a Table of Contents
-Put original data in lab notebook, no "practice" notebooks
-Use 3rd person, past tense or passive voice for the Experiment and Summary section

e. Suggested readings or references:

Sambrook, Fritsch, and Maniatis. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

Lewin. Genes III, IV, or V. Oxford University Press

3. Laboratory Coat. Please purchase a disposable lab coat and keep in your locker. The lab coat must be worn during all laboratory exercises. Lab coats can be purchased at the bookstore.