Notebook format

[robert zellmer]

As I was going through the labs this week I noticed problems with
notebooks and some people not really being prepared.  I saw data
scattered all over the notebook, as did some TAs who relayed this
info  to me.  Some people didn't have essentially the report sheet
copied to your notebook but instead had data scattered around.
Having the report sheet, at the very least the data which has to be
taken, and room for extra data as might be described in the procedure,
would make things much better in terms of recording your data and
keeping it more organized. Whenever possible having data in a
table is the easiest and best way to keep track of it and make it
presentable and easily found.  If a TA can't easily read your notebook
or find your data they will deduct points.  This includes handwriting.

Your notebook should be in an outline form and in your own words and
not essentially copied from what's in the manual.  I have examples for
exps 6 and 14 on the last page of the syllabus.  That's what your notebook
should look like.  While some people have problems with the use of the
word "cookbook" to describe it that's what it should almost look like, nice
concise steps.  It will make it easier for you to follow in lab and not 
get lost,
make mistakes and therefore not finish or get poor results.  You will not
necessarily need all the blanks from the report sheet (some are calculated
values which in this case you don't necessarily have to do in lab, although
in a real lab you would). However, it's not a bad idea to have them in the
notebook and you do need somewhere to record them any way as you do
your calculations (unless you use Excel of course).  You will need some
space for data not on the report sheet.  In particular, you needed space
for temp and time data for all three parts in exp 6 and this is not on the
report sheet.

I saw far too many people reading the manual, fumbling around and just
not prepared for the exp.  You need to be prepared.  Writing the procedure
in your own words similar to the example I have will force you to read the
exp and understand it better.  I don't expect you to be able to do it from
memory but you really shouldn't need your manual during lab and you don't
want to always be fumbling around to see what you have to do next. If
you don't follow the notebook guidelines for how to write it up you will 
lose
points.  We will require you to use ONLY the notebook for exp 12.

Finally, this past week for exp 6 I saw many people who recorded the 
temperatures
but not the associated times.  Even though the manual stated to take 
readings
every 30 secs you shouldn't assume someone would know that.  You should
have recorded the times even if you were recording the temp every 30 secs.
Someone w/o knowledge of the experiment should be able to look at the
notebook and figure out what was done or repeat what you did.  How could 
they
without all the data being recorded?

Dr. Zellmer