MSE3650J Materials Laboratory II
Lab Notebook Guide
Here’s the one-sentence version: A lab notebook is good if and only if someone who is notfamiliar
with your work can know what you did, how and why you did it, and your thoughts about the process
and outcomes after reading your notebook. Notebooks can and do sometimes contain data, but now
that we are Living in the Future, the bulk of your data storage is going to happen in the electronic form.
Standards for lab notebooks in professional usage vary widely, with some supervisors or
employers prescribing exact formats that must be followed, and others having no requirements at all.
Since there is no “industry standard” in this class you have the freedom to experiment with different
ways of organizing your notebook to find what works for you; you will be graded on content, not
structure. The lab notebook will be scored 0-5 on each of three categories: Planning, Doing, and
Reflecting; each category has equal weight unless explicitly stated otherwise in class. An excellent
notebook enables the reader/grader to reproduce your experimental work AND follow your thought
process and learn from the notes.
The content of your lab notebook may consist of any combination of multimedia
(photo/video/audio/etc.), drawings or sketches, equations, typed text, handwritten text, etc. that suits
the purpose of the notebook. However, if you choose to write/draw in a paper notebook and then
convert this content digitally, you must use high-quality scans or well-lit, readable photographs to
receive credit. There are a variety of free or inexpensive phone scanner apps, so do some research if
you go this route.
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Planning
Throughout any project, planning is an important step for organizing and anticipating what you
want to do or expect to happen at a future step in your project. At the beginning, you might focus on
what questions you want to answer, your hypotheses, and what information you will need to move
forward. Then, you will need to consider what methods you want to use to collect data, how to get
access to materials/tools/data, in what order you will carry out the project steps. Finally, as you start
to collect data, the results you obtain may cause you to want to modify or change your plans for the
next week’s lab section, so planning is a continuous process throughout your projects. The amount of
planning that you do may vary from week to week, but it is critical to have a plan before coming to
lab so you can make good use of our limited in-lab hours.
0: No explicit indication of planning.
1: Poor quality / clearly low effort - No evidence of thinking about your project’s questions,
hypotheses, plan to collect data to answer these questions, and/or future organization.
2 Does not meet expectations - Some evidence of thinking about project’s questions, hypotheses,
plan to collect data to answer these questions, and/or future organization, but not well-organized
or clearly stated.
3: Mostly meets expectations - Provides well organized and clearly stated thinking about project’s
questions, hypotheses, plan to collect data to answer these questions, and/or future organization.
Someone who reads this should be able to understand what questions you are trying to answer and
how you plan on doing it.
4: Fully meets expectations - Provides well organized and clearly stated thinking about project’s
questions, hypotheses, plan to collect data to answer these questions, and/or future organization.
Also provides evidence of thinking on what you anticipate will happen or what you think the data
may tell you.
The fifth “above and beyond” point may be earned by such content as:
• Future problems you may run into / contingency plans.
• Why your plans may need to be organised in a certain way.
• Planning beyond the experimental work, e.g., literature searching, analysis/writing, etc.
• or other content not listed here that shows engagement and thoughtfulness or simply by doing
all of the required parts at a very high level of quality!
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Doing
This content area within your notebook goes beyond recording data, with the goal of developing
reproducible methods/guidelines known as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that can be
applied again in future work. You should record your thoughts about designing and executing
effective and efficient experimental methods. There are many styles of designing an experiment, then
collecting, storing and analysing one’s data, but make sure to include the following:
a) Procedure: Record a plan of methods before data collection starts, including equipment and
procedures. Record key steps in the actual operation of equipment, and if you use standards
(ASTM, IEEE etc) then link/reference the standards. Use description, drawings, photos,
and/or videos of experiments and apparatus used; multimedia records can help to solve
mysteries that come up later. It is also useful to note down the equipment specifications to
understand if the capabilities of the equipment can influence your plans or results.
Note: Recording an SOP in good detail in your notebook lets you reference it in later work
without having to re-write/re-develop it later, so this is an investment that saves time.
b) Data: The data you have collected during an experiment builds a foundation for reflecting and
planning. The purpose of data is not just to calculate the relevant variables/values, but also
to understand the causes of observed trends and abnormal/unexpected outcomes. You
should therefore record what are you trying to find from your data, dates, locations, formats,
and filename conventions for electronic data (preferably time stamped with version history,
so nothing is lost in processing) and any abnormalities. Record directly in your notebook
any data not saved on a computer and upload photos, videos, etc from accessory devices
to a single location. Since the notebook is electronic, you can link directly to data locations,
calculations/code used, etc.
c) Analysis: Describe a detailed method for your data analysis and record the key
outcomes/results (with descriptions and calculations) and the conclusions you draw from
your analysis. Make sure to connect this content back to your original hypotheses and goals.
Notes to self, reflections, and/or annotations can help with getting more out of the data when
you revisit the work later.
Note: When you’re analysing your data always try to think of the physical interpretation of
that data and how it has explanatory power.
0: No explicit recording of work performed.
1: Poor quality / clearly low effort - The methods, equipment used, data collection, storage and results
are neither well described or well organized. There is no evidence of understanding of the goals
of the experiments.
2: Does not meet expectations - Clear description of methods, equipment used, data collection,
storage and results but are not well organized. No evidence of understanding of the goals of the
experiments and the results are stated as facts.
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3: Mostly meets expectations - Clear description of methods, equipment used, data collection,
storage and results which are well organized and easy to understand and follow. The connections
between the results and the questions which the experiment is trying to address are clearly stated.
4: Fully meets expectations - Clear description and organization of methods, equipment used, data
collection, storage, and results. The goals/hypothesis of the experiments are very easy to
understand, and the steps taken have clear direction. The connection between the results and the
questions which the experiment is trying to address is clearly stated with its significance in the
physical world.
The fifth “above and beyond” point may be earned by such content as:
• Questioning and understanding the physical interpretation of the irregularities in the data
• Thinking and discussing other methods which can help answer the questions in case there are
difficulties drawing conclusions from the collected data.
• or other content not listed here that shows engagement and thoughtfulness or simply by doing
all of the required parts at a very high level of quality!
Reflecting
During or after a day of experiments, it is important to reflect and generally summarise any
meaning or implications of what you were able to (and not able to!) complete that day. This may look
like a brief “conclusions” or “next steps” section. This ultimately is a favour to your future self -
what seems intuitive at the end of one day, may not be obvious at the end of the project or even at the
beginning of the next lab. Because of variability in each week, there is no general rule for what is
“enough”. A good guide is to ask yourself if a missing group member were to read your reflection
to catch up, would they be able to follow your thinking and know the result achieved in their absence
and the general direction the group is heading for next time.
Below are some general guidelines for 0 - 5 scale.
0: No explicit indication of reflection on the work done.
1: Poor quality / clearly low effort - Others wouldn’t gain anything and might even become more
confused from your reflection.
2: Does not meet expectations - Is missing conclusions or direction for next time. Others may gather
some insights from your reflection but would not know the direction of the project or be able to
prioritize the most important outcomes from the day.
3: Mostly meets expectations - Provides some conclusions of the day and some direction for next
time but lacks clarity or intention. Others would mostly follow and be prepared for next time if
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they read your reflection.
4: Fully meets expectations - Clearly states the conclusions of the day, highlighting things such as:
thoughts on the meaning of the data, what worked well/not, any unexpected results, and anything
that was not finished. Provides a sense of direction/clear suggestions for next time.
The fifth “above and beyond” point may be earned by such content as:
• Questions that remain unanswered or have arisen during the day
• Clear notes to self for the status of work in progress and what next steps are
• Thoughtful analysis of the meaning and implication of data obtained to date
• or other content not listed here that shows engagement and thoughtfulness or simply by doing
all of the required parts at a very high level of quality!
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