Improving hands-on lab skills

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MaenadsDance

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This semester I'll be taking to science courses with labs (ecology/evolution and gen chem I) and I want to do well in the lab portions. I know from past history that I'm easily an A student in lecture, based in part on my ability to memorize large amounts of material quickly and retain it until test day (one of the advantages of having been involved in theater since you were thirteen is that you learn how to memorize your lines!). However, in labs I don't do quite so well. From experience I know I'll do fine on lab quizzes - I can read a lab manual and understand it - but that I am a B or C level student when it comes to the hands-on skills.

I find it very difficult to read about how to perform a procedure, listen to the lab instructor lecture on how to perform a procedure (perhaps watching her do it) and then go and do it myself well enough to get usable data for the lab report. If I am given a chance to practice a skill I can get pretty good at it, but that hasn't been my experience in the lab portion of science courses - it seems like you learn a "skill" for each particular lab class, and that skill isn't built upon in subsequent labs necessarily.

A professor I spoke to about this suggested that I audit other lab sections, so that even if I can't participate in the other labs, I can at least watch more demonstrations by the lab instructor/watch other students. And that perhaps when sections thin out over the course of the semester, there'll be room for me actually to practice.

Anyone else have tips? I've always been more book-smart than hands on, and I'd like to make up for it at least a little.

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Just constantly harass your TA for help

Stay after class--come before class---from my experience the manuals were horribly written and we just had to bother the TA to show us what to do.

Best of luck OP.
 
Just constantly harass your TA for help

Stay after class--come before class---from my experience the manuals were horribly written and we just had to bother the TA to show us what to do.

Best of luck OP.

Pretty much this. We didn't have a TA in organic so I just constantly harassed the professor. She didn't seem to mind though, after all I am still getting a LOR from her. :D
 
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This semester I'll be taking to science courses with labs (ecology/evolution and gen chem I) and I want to do well in the lab portions. I know from past history that I'm easily an A student in lecture, based in part on my ability to memorize large amounts of material quickly and retain it until test day (one of the advantages of having been involved in theater since you were thirteen is that you learn how to memorize your lines!). However, in labs I don't do quite so well. From experience I know I'll do fine on lab quizzes - I can read a lab manual and understand it - but that I am a B or C level student when it comes to the hands-on skills.

I find it very difficult to read about how to perform a procedure, listen to the lab instructor lecture on how to perform a procedure (perhaps watching her do it) and then go and do it myself well enough to get usable data for the lab report. If I am given a chance to practice a skill I can get pretty good at it, but that hasn't been my experience in the lab portion of science courses - it seems like you learn a "skill" for each particular lab class, and that skill isn't built upon in subsequent labs necessarily.

A professor I spoke to about this suggested that I audit other lab sections, so that even if I can't participate in the other labs, I can at least watch more demonstrations by the lab instructor/watch other students. And that perhaps when sections thin out over the course of the semester, there'll be room for me actually to practice.

Anyone else have tips? I've always been more book-smart than hands on, and I'd like to make up for it at least a little.


What kind Of skills are we talking about here? Cause all I remember in terms of "skills" for lab involved pouring stuff from one place to another. And there is always YouTube, it amazing what you can find videos of on there, especially when it pertains to lab techniques.

If you are talking about manual dexterity play more video games to strengthen those finger muscles and then learn to knit to get the finesse down and you will be set.
 
What kind Of skills are we talking about here? Cause all I remember in terms of "skills" for lab involved pouring stuff from one place to another. And there is always YouTube, it amazing what you can find videos of on there, especially when it pertains to lab techniques.

If you are talking about manual dexterity play more video games to strengthen those finger muscles and then learn to knit to get the finesse down and you will be set.

Let's just say I've mangled my fair share of fetal pigs and squid in my day. I've done better in microbio, but I haven't done chemistry in a loooonnngggg time.

I was also the kid in high school chemistry who spilled the hydrochloric acid on her shoes, but I am less clumsy than I was at fifteen, thank God.
 
Let's just say I've mangled my fair share of fetal pigs and squid in my day. I've done better in microbio, but I haven't done chemistry in a loooonnngggg time.

I was also the kid in high school chemistry who spilled the hydrochloric acid on her shoes, but I am less clumsy than I was at fifteen, thank God.

Oh, i totally forgot about anatomy-like lab since i didn't do that during undergrad, but with that you need manual dexterity and finesse definitely learn to knit, even if you are a dude, and none of that crochet crap either, knitting with the needles you cannot bring onto airplanes.

Yeah, spilling stuff in high school chem lab. Our chem lab in high school was at 7am, there are a few moments where people fell asleep doing something kinda dangerous, its a miracle no one got hurt that year.
 
I actually witnessed someone get maimed for life during my high school chemistry final. It was a great wake-up call about lab safety. One of my lab partners (four to a bench) tried to jam a glass stopper into a flask with a long neck, and ended up shattering the flask and severing a couple of tendons in his hand. He ended up with pretty severe nerve damage, and it ended his career as a lacrosse player, which was a big deal since he was angling for a sports scholarship.

As re: knitting, I took it up once, because all of my friends were and my mother too (yes, I'm a chick), but I just ended up knitting a rectangle, realizing it was lumpy and gross because I'd dropped stitches, unraveling it, and trying again.

Honestly the only thing I do well with my hands is cook, and that's less a matter of physical dexterity and more a matter of having a good intuitive sense of which ingredients to combine. I'm always ludicrously proud of myself when I do basic mechanical tasks correctly, like fix something on my bike or build an IKEA dresser.

Thank you for the tips, though. My uncle, who's a lab scientist and does tricky things to stem cells under microscopes, says he practices calligraphy, which I've always liked looking at, maybe I'll try taking that up again!
 
I actually witnessed someone get maimed for life during my high school chemistry final. It was a great wake-up call about lab safety. One of my lab partners (four to a bench) tried to jam a glass stopper into a flask with a long neck, and ended up shattering the flask and severing a couple of tendons in his hand. He ended up with pretty severe nerve damage, and it ended his career as a lacrosse player, which was a big deal since he was angling for a sports scholarship.

As re: knitting, I took it up once, because all of my friends were and my mother too (yes, I'm a chick), but I just ended up knitting a rectangle, realizing it was lumpy and gross because I'd dropped stitches, unraveling it, and trying again.

Honestly the only thing I do well with my hands is cook, and that's less a matter of physical dexterity and more a matter of having a good intuitive sense of which ingredients to combine. I'm always ludicrously proud of myself when I do basic mechanical tasks correctly, like fix something on my bike or build an IKEA dresser.

Thank you for the tips, though. My uncle, who's a lab scientist and does tricky things to stem cells under microscopes, says he practices calligraphy, which I've always liked looking at, maybe I'll try taking that up again!

Well, i'm a dude, and I got short fat fingers so i try finding ways to get better manual dexterity. I cook too but getting good at knife work takes a bit more time, and is a little bit more dangerous than knitting (had a buddy in med school almost slice the end of his thumb off; like transversely through the nail.)

And fixing a bike and ikea furniture is alright but once its done its done unless you wanna take it apart again. Last set project was probably fixing a hole in the wall, tear off all loose stuff, put up new drywall, paint (primer plus several layers) so the colors match. Then there was replacing the sash cord in older double-hung windows, that was a interesting project as my windows were definitely non-standard. And nope not a carpenter by any means, just a lot of reading and This Old House as a kid.
 
Just constantly harass your TA for help

Stay after class--come before class---from my experience the manuals were horribly written and we just had to bother the TA to show us what to do.

Best of luck OP.

+1 :thumbup:
I just finished freshman year and I would have to agree, lab manuals for chemistry were horribly written and most groups had to haggle the professor. Biology labs were easy as pie though!
 
I was terrible at hands-on labs when I first started doing research. I feel like it has more to do with getting used to the materials and the equipment in your lab as well as the environment of the lab. After spending 6 hours of lab time per week, I realized that all it takes is time in the lab. Study what you can study before going to lab so that you have all the knowledge down and so you only need to worry about technical stuff when you walk into the lab.
 
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