Philosophy

The laboratory component of our courses is designed to immerse you in the practice of quantitative analysis. By engaging with methods, instrumentation, and equipment typical to this field, you will gain invaluable hands-on experience. We expect you to approach each scheduled experiment with preparation, having studied the lab manual and associated materials, and completed any prelaboratory exercises in advance. These exercises are intended to help you grasp essential aspects of each procedure, without which you cannot proceed. Prior to each experiment, you will also complete a prelaboratory quiz on Canvas to ensure your understanding of the material.

As you progress through the lab schedule, you will observe that the instructions become less prescriptive. This shift reflects our belief that you will develop the expertise and confidence to make informed procedural decisions. As a student, we encourage you to remain curious about the rationale behind each step in the instructions, as a good experimentalist constantly considers how fundamental chemical principles influence their observations, data, and results.

The course lecturer will introduce inquiry-based experiments or projects that emulate original research. You will collaborate with peers to formulate experimental questions and design experiments to explore them. Sometimes these projects are truly designed around an aspect of ongoing, cutting-edge research happening in the Chemistry department. These research-based projects are an opportunity to engage creatively with analytical science, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation for the discipline.

We view the laboratory experience as a dynamic experiment in itself and welcome your feedback and observations to improve the experience for future analytical chemists in training.

Safety

Laboratory safety rules must be followed when anyone is doing experimental work in the laboratory. This includes wearing industrial-quality eye protection that seal both along the top and bottom of your eyes. Lab coats and long pants are required when performing experiments. You must also wear close-toed shoes in the lab. Although contact lenses are not strictly prohibited, it is recommended that you do not wear contacts in the laboratory. Please let your TA know if you will be wearing contact lenses. Our full safety policy is described separately in this manual and summarized on Canvas.

Reporting results

Laboratory assignments involve a submission of a cover sheet summarizing key results along with copies of your laboratory notebook pages, which support those findings. The rubric for grading each experiment submission is posted in the Assignment Submission page. The format for reporting results will depend on the particular experiment.

Final thoughts

Laboratory notebooks are an essential tool for anyone working in science, be it in a research or an industrial setting. So take this aspect of reporting results seriously, and do your best to keep a running account of your work, rather than copying from scraps of paper or from notes taken in the lab manual after the experiment is completed. Good record keeping is a common Good Laboratory Practice (GLP). Your TA will evaluate your notebook pages for each experiment, and provide feedback on them throughout the semester. Part of each submission assessment includes points dedicated to the quality of your notebook pages. Do your best to be terse, but thorough in your descriptive detail. If you have a question about keeping a notebook, or a grade you received for the notebook pages portion of your work, please ask your TA. The specific detail on how your TA will evaluate labs can be found in the next section.