Laboratory 101
BY EVA CHAN, MACINSIDERS
Labs? What are they? How will I be marked? What if I made a mistake, will I get zero? Here is an article I wrote just for students with their first university lab coming up. It can be overwhelming to realize that aside from your 3 hours of classes, there is another two to five hour slot on your timetable just for a lab section. What are labs really like in university compared to highschool? Will it really take that long? How do you prepare for it?
Depending on the class you have, you will either have labs every other week (EOW) or every week. You will learn more about when labs start on your first day of classes or by checking your course outline. The first week of laboratory is usually a basic introduction to the lab, the equipment, and safety procedures.
So how do you prepare for your labs? Every week prior to your lab time, the professors/coordinator will post the lab package online for you via WebCT /Learnlink/ website. The laboratory package will include a background information on the lab, prelab assignment, materials used (sometimes), step-by-step procedure of the lab, and follow-up lab questions.
First of all, please read through the lab manual at least the day or two before your assigned lab day. This way, you will have enough time to ask questions to your professors or friends that might have already had the lab. Afterwards, work on the prelab assignment. It can be easy to forget working on them, but it would be easy marks gone down the drain if you don’t. They are simply general questions to make sure you understand the lab concepts. Afterwards, make sure you understand what you will be bringing to your lab. For example, goggles, lab coat, lab notebook, etc. If you go early to your lab, spend some time reviewing the procedure to ensure that you truly understand everything and it will be more efficient when it starts. I generally like highlighting one colour for time limits and solutions amounts and another to highlight when I need to take down a certain number or note in the notebook. This way, when I look at my paper, everything important can be highlighted to my attention. This may or may not work for you, but I found it helpful for myself.
When you go to your lab class, your TA will go through briefly what is going on in the lab that day. Sometimes they will provide hints on how to complete the lab faster and more accurately. They may also tell you about common mistakes or changes in the lab procedure.
In your lab, you may be either working by yourself or with a partner. If you are working on yourself and are unsure about something, always ask the TA or someone around you. That’s what the TA is for and you should all be helping each other out. Your TA is there to help you aside from marking your reports and performance. If you have a partner, remember to try and divide up the work evenly so everyone can get a chance to learn the specific skills and concepts for that lab.
What if you make a mistake in your lab? Its alright, we all make mistakes. I am positive I can tell you that I have messed up many times in my chemistry lab and I had to use my neighbor’s results to write my report. If it is a small mistake, you can try and correct it quickly yourself and continue on. However, if your mistake cannot be fixed and you can’t restart again because you ran out of time, then you should tell your TA. The TA will assess the situation and might tell you to borrow someone else’s results. You can use their results and just comment that it was from someone else’s experiment. You will generally not lose marks for that, as we are all learning. Nevertheless, the marking scheme is all very dependent on your TA.
After your have finished your lab, you might be required to work on a lab report on the spot before you leave or to bring home to work on. You may only get one night to work on the lab report, so make sure that your notes in the lab are organized and detailed. This will be very beneficial especially if you do not have a good memory and not remember very step that was performed in the lab and the changes you made. Make sure after every change you make in the procedure, it is documented immediately. It is very easy to forget the next second the amount of solution you mixed in. If your report has to be completed on the spot before you leave the time, make sure you are aware of that at the beginning of the lab and work with your time accordantly. Don’t finish late and go over time, the TA will not want to stay overtime to wait for you to finish.
For those students taking the Biology courses, make sure you spend some time copying down all the important information in your lab notebook for the lab notebook test at the end of the year. This open notebook test will require a very detailed and organized lab notebook. It can be very tedious to write down all the details, but they will ask for very particular details. Make sure you include all the materials and catalog number down for Biology labs.
Your labs should be something that will help increase your mark at the end of the year. Labs can account for 10-20% of your final mark. So make sure you do spend some time preparing for them and do well. Also keep in mind that you can be tested on the lab material on your test and exams, so make sure you review them beforehand. Preparation and time management is the key! Good luck with all your labs this year!
