How do I do well in labs?

[smuwillobrien]

I find that the class component is probably the most easiest in all classes I've taken that had both the class and a laboratory component.

Why? Well I tend to get involved with partners, and we slack off. We'll fungle our experiment, make up results and then we're left trying to conclude on *****ic data.

What tips do you all have for this? I want to do serious experiments, and I want to be well prepared for our laboratory sessions?

Should I just read through the experiment, underline important points, etc? How can I minimize all the slacking off in an experiment if I'm with a partner who doesn't want to work?

Any hints or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys and gals.

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[superk0725]

copy someone's lab notes

 

[LP1CW]

I have mixed feelings about labs. The have the expressed purpose of preparing us to do real research, so fudging numbers is wrong for many reasons. However, your grade counts and I would find it difficult to turn in faulty or bad data.

In some labs, you know the data that you should be getting. I had a friend that was a year a head of me, so he gave me his old reports and lab books and I had an idea of where I was heading with every experiment. That helped because I walked into every lab knowing what to do based on his results and conclusions.

Do prep work before you get to lab. Make sure you understand the design and purpose of the experiment.

 

[carrigallen]

my $0.02: intro labs are supposed to be relaxing, mildly interesting, not something to be stressed.

personally, i never paid much attention in intro labs. orgo lab, u just sit around talking watching your pot boil, when its done u throw it away. gen chem lab (ie color changes, physical chem) can be fun, but no need to read ahead..usually they are an ox/red reaction of a transition metal. Intro bio lab was usually common sense (ie green pigments from chlorophyll r actually yellows, blues, etc). Physics labs were fun, but mainly because of the toys u get to play with.

More advanced biology/chemistry labs become much more interesting! Karyotyping your own DNA, bomb calorimetry, electrically stimulating sketetal and cardiac muscles...these are fun. At some point in lab, u start to value the process as much as the goal/product, which is good because most research u do will need to be repeated often.

 

[Sweet Tea]

agreeing with carriegallen.

i was just ugly in lab. i was prepared, i did the lab (it's hard to call them experiments when you know what's going to happen in the end), but either i would knock over my final product, or my TA would (he was a bit of a klutz) and we'd sit and watch my lovely product crystallize on the lab bench. and i'd get a 0.003% yield every time. but i found that as long as i knew what was supposed to happen, and that i could explain the lab in the lab report, i could say that my low % yield was due to human error and then go on to explain what should have happened and why. i did well in lab-- much better than in lecture.

physics labs and upper-level bio labs are way more fun than the general chem and basic orgo labs.

 

[smuwillobrien]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

 

[UCLAstudent]

In my experience, labs are often much worse than the class itself. I've never really liked going to lab. I don't really have any advice except to just do your best and remember that EVERYONE has to suffer through lab.

 

[SpiritiualDuck]

"my $0.02: intro labs are supposed to be relaxing, mildly interesting, not something to be stressed."


Wow, that's not the exprience that I had with intro labs. I had some real penis head instructors who used it as a way to express their disappointment for having to teach a lab. Some were jerks. They would walk around hoping to catch someone screwing up so they could make a note of that to deduct points.

I copied a lab one week from an old lab that I had from a friend that went through a year before me. He had gotten 100% on it. Same instructor, same write up, and I improved it a bit too. I got an 85%. I couldn't say, "Hey, I have Joe's lab from last year and I copied it and you gave him a higher grade."

I had one instructor that would take points away for cracked beakers, loss product, missing date on lab report, spelling error....his objective was to search out mistakes. I did well in his course, but I was warned. I knew what to expect. Nevertheless, he tried to stress us out. I hate labs. And I've worked in a lab for years. It's not like that in the real world.

 

[ebaydove]

This isnt easy, but doing well in labs, i think, is 30% knowledge, 30% hard work, and 40% Public relations with the instructor, the lab mates, and the rest of the class in general....
my .02cents...