1.6: Assignment Details

Pre-Lab Assignments (Your own work)

Pre-lab assignments must be your own work.  To prepare for lab, you should do the following:

Prepare by Wearing Protective Clothing and Bringing Your Protective Eyewear: Arrive dressed appropriately for a laboratory environment. You must bring your own pair of protective eyewear with you, and you must wear them the entire time you are in lab. Safety eye wear can be purchased from the Graduate Chemistry Council (GCC). If lab attire is a problem for the rest of your day, please purchase a lab coat and/or bring a change of clothing with you so that you can cover up in lab. No student should be in lab without wearing protective eyewear and appropriate protective clothing.

Completing the Pre-Lab Assignment: It is absolutely essential that each student be prepared for lab meetings by reading the appropriate module in this manual, and completing the specified pre-laboratory assignments. The pre-laboratory assignments are designed to prepare you to operate efficiently and safely during the experimental module.  You will not be allowed to participate in the lab meeting if the pre-lab assignment is not completed before your lab meeting. If there is an extenuating circumstance that prevents your preparation, please inform your instructors as soon as possible.

The pre-lab assignment must be submitted as a single pdf document on Canvas at least 25 minutes before the scheduled lab meeting. Pre-lab assignments should be typed, or at least legible. If you prefer to write out equations by hand, they must be neat and inserted as an image in the appropriate place (please note that handwritten equations are only accepted for pre-lab assignments and ELNs, but not for post-lab assignments or reports). If you need advice for how to insert equations or images into your documents, please ask for help at least 48 hours before the assignment is due; an in-person (or zoom) meeting is most appropriate for this issue.

Late pre-laboratory assignments will receive a score of zero, and may prevent you from participating in the laboratory experiences. The pre-lab assignment will be discussed in groups at the beginning of each meeting to support your understanding of the exercises. Your preparedness will be evaluated by your answers to oral questions pertaining to the laboratory from the TA and other lab instructors. The pre-lab and preparation accounts for 5 points of each experiment requiring a pre-lab.

For every experimental module there is a general pre-lab assignment and a specific pre-lab assignment.

General Pre-Lab Assignment (same for all modules)

A template file for preparing your pre-lab assignment is available (click).
Read the module in canvas and in the lab manual, follow the instructions within, then write a brief introduction to the experiment and an experimental plan using the following outline:

1. Description of the Experiment: In your own words, briefly introduce the topic, describe the theory upon which the experiment is based, and state the goals for this experiment. Keep it concise; lengthy discussions or derivations of equations are unnecessary.
   1. Background (importance/relevance): A brief description and justification of the importance of the topic, with at least two references to source material (do not use the lab manual as a reference). Describe the topic, and describe why is it interesting, important, and worth your time to learn. 
   2. Theory: A concise paragraph or more describing the general theory for the method/technique used; this section should contain a reference to the appropriate pages of the textbook, or other source material from the literature.
   3. Goals/Purpose: Brief statement of purpose, which should indicate what is analyzed and the technique used. Limit to three to five sentences.
2. Experimental Plan: a short summary of the specific things that you would need to know in order to do the experiment without having access to your lab manual, with the understanding that you will always have a TA available to teach you how to use the instrument.
   
   The best way to approach this task is to thoroughly read the procedure for the experiment. While reading, take notes on the specifics of the work. What chemicals will you use? If you have to make solutions, what solutions do you need to make and of what concentration? How will you prepare them? What instrument will you use, and what specific instrument settings will you need to input (sometimes you will find this information in the Appendices that discuss the use of the instruments)? How many runs of each sample will you do; and over what wavelength, or temperature, etc. range? You do not need to write down how to use the instrument; we will teach you that. Bottom Line: we want you to write down only that pertinent information about samples, sample preparation, instrument and instrument parameters, numbers of runs, and other things, that you will need to know in order to do your work.

Specific Pre-Lab Assignment

Each module has a pre-lab assignment on the first page of the module. In general, each pre-lab assignment requires you read the entire module and write out the specified pre-lab assignments in your notebook before starting that laboratory work.

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Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs, Group work)

Warning: Use cloud storage and backup

As you save your documents and develop systems of organizing your academic life, please learn to use a cloud server to automatically save and back up your work. Duke University supports cloud storage through Box and Microsoft tools. We will use Google tools in this course because they are the best option to use for collaboration. Proper use of these tools is expected. Please ask Dr. Haas if you need some instruction or recommendations for using these cloud-based tools to avoid loosing your work if/when computer hardware is lost or fails.

While we are aware that there are limited computer labs on campus, you have access to computers in the P-chem lab classroom at any time. Please plan to always complete your work 48 hours in advance so that any issues with your personal devices do not interfere with timely submission of assignments.

Using the electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) template (Group work)

You will complete each experiment in a small group (~3 students), and there will be a dedicated instructor to answer questions. You will record observations using an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN). Templates for each ELN will be provided on Google Docs so that all group members can collaborate on the record keeping.  The ELN template is provided as a guide to help you understand the minimum expectation for what should be recorded during the laboratory session. The "Observations and Raw Data" should be edited during lab while your group is working together.  You should record all additional information and observations that you think is relevant.

To use the ELN template, one member of the group should create a shared version of the ELN that will be used during the laboratory period, and in which all group members can contribute to the Observations and Data section. Then, each group member should make their own "protected" copy, and then complete the post-lab assignment sections with their own work. To guard against the possibility of plagiarism, do not share an electronic copy of any ELN that contains your own work on post-lab assignments.

Group Work in Notebook Keeping (ELN's): Record all observations and primary data as a group. This should include the actual procedure, instrument used, instrument tolerance (error), instrument settings, any notable observations, and all data collected during the lab period. Each group member should collect a copy of the group data and store it in their own files. Every P-chem lab computer has internet access, and you may either email data to yourself, save it using OneDrive, Google Drive, or Box, or collect it using a usb drive. The completed ELN must be submitted for grading before the end of the lab meeting. 

The ELN should contain only the information, observations, and data collected while in the laboratory. It should not contain your evaluation the data/observations in any way (that is the post-experiment work). If data are being collected by hand (handwritten on paper) it should be in clear, easy to read format. This handwritten data should be immediately entered into a shared ELN file. For data that are collected by a computer interface to your equipment, note the specific name of the data file in case you have to retrieve the file later! Take screen shots as necessary to capture important data to insert into the ELN. Write observations for each run, including "bad" or aborted runs, in a narrative style and state where the actual data file can be found (including filename) when needed.

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Post-Experiment Assignments: (Your own work)

The Post-Lab Assignments (Post-Lab Reflections, Questions, and Reports) must be your individual work. All students will perform data analysis individually, and submit their own work for these assignments.  While you should help each other and compare and discuss your process and results within your group, and between groups, each student must complete the data processing and data analysis work for the Post-Lab assignments to earn points. The post-lab assignments are due at 1:00 PM on the day of your next laboratory meeting.

Calculations of results and uncertainties: Unless otherwise instructed all calculations of results and uncertainties should be included as part of the post-experiment work. In this course doing so will require the typing of a lot of mathematics. Please remember that you always have the option of writing your calculations out neatly on plain paper and scanning it to make a digital image that can be incorporated into an electronic notebook entry. Mathpix is recommended to help you convert equation images to Latex for insertion into typed documents (use the Free & Educational use option!).

Reflection on and Discussion of results: In this section you truly “think in writing”. Reflect on what you have done. Write this section in your own words after the observations are completed. Include charts, graphs (see below), tables or rearranged data and your rambling thoughts. Remember this is not a formal report. You want to be neat and complete, not necessarily a literary star. This section need not be long, but it should contain all pertinent information.

Graphs: Often you will generate graphs from your primary data files. They must be represented in this section of the laboratory notebook. It is not difficult to include digital copies of graphs within the electronic laboratory notebook, but you should remember that such images can easily make the file sizes large and thus difficult to work with. Below is a procedure that will work to include copies of your graphs in the notebook while minimizing the overall size of the resulting file. A reliable way to capture graphs/plots to insert into your lab notebook is to use WinSnap for PC (or screenshot on Mac). Each lab computer has WinSnap installed. You can take a screen shot by pressing SHIFT + COMMAND + S on the keyboard. This will allow you to select a region for capture and the image will be saved to the clipboard. Press CONTROL + V to paste. You can also open the WinSnap program from the desktop shortcut instead of using keyboard shortcuts. (SAVE OFTEN!)

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Reports

CHEM301L includes explicit training in how to write a scientific manuscript (Don't worry, 310L friends, you'll get this training in the second semester of P-Chem: 311L). Throughout the semester, you will practice writing individual sections (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions) as part of your post-lab assignments. These individual sections must be entirely your own work.

At the end of the course, you will apply these skills by writing one full scientific manuscript as a group. Just as professional scientists do, you and your lab partners will collaborate on writing, revising, and integrating your results into a cohesive paper. You will also participate in peer review, giving and receiving feedback to strengthen your manuscript.

Refer to the resources for writing reports here: @WritingforScience