Laboratory Notebook/Journal

The journal or laboratory notebook is:

· A place to record what you see and do

· A place to record what you think about what your experiment

· A place to ask questions about your procedures, data collection or analysis

· A place for all your data and thoughts so it is available for recall and later use

· A place to put inquiries, interpreting results or preparing for further inquiry

· Essential - it should be open and ready to record your data

· A record of your research effort

The journal or laboratory notebook is not:

· A diary

· An English paper

Characteristics of a scientists’s journal

· Is individual in nature

· Includes what works and what does not

· Includes text, data, drawings, charts, graphs

· Gives information and asks questions

· Entries are a record of thoughts at the time, and are not corrected later

· Newer ideas are added as another entry

How scientists use their journals

· Scientists record the time as well as the date

· Scientists read journals of other scientists

· Scientists only write in their own journals

· Scientists encourage investigation partners to read their journals

· Scientists record ideas they get from others - but they give credit