LabArchives
The on-campus 7.003 course uses the LabArchives platform to maintain electronic laboratory notebooks. Students each create individual accounts on MIT LabArchives, and submit their pre-lab and post-lab assignments there.
Pre-Lab Notebook Entry Guidelines
(The Pre-Lab is due on LabArchives by 1:00 PM the day of that lab)
Aims:
- What you will be doing.
- How you will be doing it.
- Why you are doing it.
Note: If your entire daily Aims is longer than ~3–5 sentences, you’re probably including more detail than you need!
Post-Lab Notebook Entry Guidelines
(The Post-Lab is due on LabArchives by 1:00 PM the following lab day)
Data and Observations:
- Indicate if any major deviations from the protocol were made.
- Indicate any unique strains/reagents/etc. used by your group that are not specified in the lab manual.
- Include any results/raw data/observations/counts/calculations/etc. (including those asked for in the lab manual).
- Gels: Include the actual gel photo and label all lanes and all ladder band sizes.
- Bacteria/yeast plates: Include all colony counts and/or observations for all plates (note: “Zero colonies” is still a result and should be recorded!). If applicable, include any plate photos, properly labelled.
- All images and annotations should be legible.
- For best results, import your original image into Powerpoint or similar program in order to label your images. Save the annotated image slide as a .png file. Then insert the .png file into your LabArchives notebook entry.
Summary and Conclusions:
- Expected vs observed results:
- Indicate the expected (or “ideal”) specific results for each sample, including both experimental samples and control samples (note: you only need to include this on the day when you obtain the actual results for your samples, not on the day when you just set up the samples).
- Briefly discuss if your observed group results were consistent with or different from the expected results for each sample. What is the significance if your observed results either matched or didn’t match the expected results for each sample?
- If there were any differences between your observed results and the expected results, suggest a potential reason for the difference and briefly comment on any implications.
- Additional tips for discussing gel results and bacteria/yeast plate results:
- Comment on each lane of the gel and on each plate!
- For gels, band size is just as important as whether or not you see the band on a gel. What are the approximate sizes of all the bands you observe on your gel? What does each different-sized band represent? Do they match the sizes you would expect to see for each lane?
- To save space/time, if multiple different samples have an overall similar purpose/result, you may discuss the samples together as a group (e.g. if Sample A and B had similar purposes and results, you can talk about Samples A and B together, instead of discussing first Sample A separately, and then Sample B separately).
- If applicable, briefly discuss the overall significance of any results/data and any conclusions that can be made based on your experiments. (Hint: Think back to the “Why are you doing it” part of your Aims section—what was the purpose of doing the experiment in the first place? Was your experiment successful in fulfilling that purpose? What did you learn from your experimental results in connection to your original experimental Aims?) Be sure to include answers to any questions explicitly asked for in the lab manual. (Note: Even if your overall experiment didn’t “work” properly, you should still try to make what conclusions you can, even if you may not be 100% sure—just be sure to include any qualifications.)
Note: While it is perfectly acceptable to use phrases like “expected results” or “my experiment worked/was successful, etc.” in your lab notebook entries (which are a more informal scientific record of your experiments), please keep in mind that such subjective terminology should not be used when writing a formal scientific manuscript.
