Before each experiment, you will do assignments to help you prepare for and understand the experiment. During the experiment, you will collect data, write down settings of the equipment, make notes, etc. All this information should be clearly organized in a single document, your lab journal. If you have used your lab journal considerately, another researcher should be able to finish the experiment you started. Another researcher should also be able to assess your work using your lab journal as well. Keeping up a lab journal is thus an important part of scientific research and lab work. As we value it so high, as it is vital to establish the reliability and validity of a study, we only grade your report when your lab journal is handed in through Vocareum.
Figure 1:A scan of a lab journal from a first year physics student.
Function¶
Your lab journal is an archive for ideas, considerations, methods, measurements, analyses etc. Everything that is or could be important for the study should be written down in the lab journal. Unpublished experiments and materials can be published after two years on the basis of your lab journal.
Keeping track of your work in a clear, well-structured manner, making your code and analysis available and readable for others, is not easy. The following structure might help you in keeping track of your work. However, not all fields can be applied to each and every experiment. There might be fields missing as well. You can and may change the lab journal structures to better meet your demands.
Structure¶
The structure of the lab journal is very similar to that of a scientific report. It covers the following issues:
General
| Heading | What to include |
|---|---|
| Title of the experiment | Write down a concise, comprehensive title. |
| Start date | Write the starting date of your experiment. |
| Expected end date | Write down the expected end date of the experiment. |
| Partner | If applicable, write the name of your partner. |
| Goal | Write down the aim of the experiment. |
| Research question | If applicable, write down the research question. If a prescribed experiment does not have a concrete research question, write a more elaborate goal. |
| Expectations | Write down the expected outcome. |
| Desired accuracy | How accurate do you want the outcome of the experiment to be, e.g. difference between result and literature value. |
Preparation
| Heading | What to include |
|---|---|
| Task | Write down the tasks involved in the prescribed experiment. |
| Theory | Write down the theory that is required to understand and carry out the experiment, in a few very short sentences. |
| Method | Write down, in general terms, what the experiment is like. A more precise description of the single steps is noted in the procedure. |
| Independent variable | The variable you change. |
| Dependent variable | The variable that you want to measure. |
| Controlled variable | Variables that might influence the outcomes of the experiment and thus have to be kept constant (as possible). |
| Instruments & settings | The instruments used in the experiment, and their settings. These settings may change throughout the experiment. Note the accompanied accuracy of the instruments for those particular settings in this section. |
| Procedure | Describe the steps that have to be carried out, or have been carried out, to do the experiment. |
| Set up | An image, drawing or reference to the experimental setup. |
| Comments | Any comments about things that require specific attention. |
| Accuracy | Room for calculations addressing accuracy, measurement uncertainty and error propagation. |
Execution
| Heading | What to include |
|---|---|
| Table | Write down all measurements in a labeled table. Values that do not change should not be inside a table. |
| Observations | Observations that are not quantitative in nature the light bulb started to glow, producing visible light for the first time. |
| Comments | Further comments that might be important for the collection of data. |
Processing
| Heading | What to include |
|---|---|
| Graphs | The graphs following from the data collection and processing (described in the method section). |
| Trend | The general trend that can be seen in the data, similarities with expectations following from e.g. theoretical models. |
| Analysis | A further analysis of the data |
| Calculations | Calculations of your final answers. Additional calculations with regard to measurement uncertainty. |
| Comments | Further comments addressing the processing of data, e.g. removing data points. |
Evaluation
| Heading | What to include |
|---|---|
| Discussion | Discussing your results when the description does not fit within the processing. |
| Conclusion | The final conclusion, the scientific claim you draw which can be justified by your data. |
Jupyter Notebook¶
We have made a Jupyter Notebook template available, you can download it at the top of this page. Jupyter Notebook uses various online languages (Python, LaTeX, HTML, Markdown). Often used codes can be found here. You are required to hand in your lab journal along with your report.