how to do well in Labs

[deleted421268]

Lecture is pretty straightforward but for those of you who routinely get A's in science labs what you guys do that makes you successful at labs?

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[sharpstickie]

I read the lab a couple days ahead of time. Rereading it the day of helps so that during the lab you're not caught off guard by anything. Practice practice practice.

 

[Lost in Translation]

Know a good chunk of what you're supposed to be doing beforehand. This means at least knowing what chemicals/materials you'll be working with, and at what times. You don't need to memorize quantities.

Set up your lab notebook beforehand so you're not wasting time making tables/charts.

Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Make sure your lab reports are detailed. Show all calculations.

 

[eteshoe]

Also use youtube. For the love of God use youtube when you prep for lab in addition to reading and setting up your notebook. When I used to TA undergrad gen/ochem/physics labs I also had the students take a short quiz prior to coming into lab so that there was less time wasted.

 

[Dr. Death]

Find a good lab partner.

 

[Lost in Translation]

Find a good lab partner.

>tfw I was the "good lab partner"

 

[NidDAlouette]

Read the entire lab thoroughly beforehand. Sometimes I would summarize the procedure in my own words to make sure I was really paying attention to what I would be doing. If the lab involved any equipment or techniques that I was not familiar with, I'd look up a youtube video of someone performing a similar experiment.

 

[JustAPhD]

Read through the procedure before you come to lab and try to understand why you're doing each step and what each step accomplishes.

 

[aldol16]

So as a graduate student who has had to TA labs for several introductory chemistry courses, I'll say that nothing annoys me more than a student who comes to lab just to get it done and get out. That's annoying because the point of the lab is to teach and that's what we as the teaching staff also want to do. And if we don't like you, well, we aren't going to do you any favors. The key to doing well in lab is to think about what you're doing and why you're doing it. Does your procedure say "put it on the rotovap and wait for 10 minutes"? Well, why are you putting it on the rotovap? Does it say "vacuum filter overnight"? Well, why are you filtering? I can't count how many times students have thrown away the wrong part of the filtering step (i.e. the filtrate instead of the solid material and vice versa). Think about what you're doing and don't just mindlessly follow instructions.