After reading this page, you should know:

The materials you need to purchase for your lab kit.
How to verify your lab kit is complete.
The basics of documenting in your lab notebook in order to receive full credit.
The requirements for submitting your notebook as a PDF.

Your Chemistry Kit

When you enrolled in the course, you were mailed an At-Home Chemistry Kit.
Verify that you have the lab manual (Different from the notebook).
When you receive your kit, verify that you have all the necessary equipment and supplies (see the resources below).
While most supplies have been provided. You will need to supply a few household chemicals that can easily be found at a local grocery store. Don't wait until the last minute to get these materials. Downloadable List: At Home Chemistry Kit.docx

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🛑 If you encounter problems with your kit, contact your instructor.

Lab Notebook

Your Lab Notebook

Did you know? Lab Notebooks are considered Legal Documents, which means there are specific requirements for the notebook AND for how to take notes.

You will need to purchase a lab notebook with pages that are not easily removed. It must be a bound book, not a spiral.
The notebook can be acquired from multiple locations such as Amazon, Walmart, or the UWW bookstore.

How to Keep a Lab Notebook

You will be asked to record each experiment in your lab notebook. Here are some basics:

✅ Must be recorded in pen.

✅ Large blank spaces need to have an "✖" through them to prevent you from entering information/data at a later date. This is a critical component of keeping it a legal document.

✅ If you make a mistake, put a single line through the mistake so that others can see what the mistake was. Do not completely cover the words or numbers or use whiteout!

✅ Keep the table of contents up to date

💡 Tip: The lab manual also has guidance on keeping a laboratory notebook.

Submitting Your Notebook Work

You will need to submit pdf files of handwritten work from your notebook. There are several ways to get this written work into PDF format. You can use any method you wish, but your final product must adhere to the following rules:

It must be a PDF. You will not be able to simply upload pictures.
It must be legible. If I can't read it, I can't/won't grade it.
Your writing must be in the correct orientation - the top of the page at the top of the document.
The image must be cropped so that only the paper is in the image and it is aligned correctly on the page.
If you have multiple pages for a single assignment, they must be in a single PDF document.
A good check - ask yourself if you would want to read this document 100 times (one for each student in the class!).

There are many ways to do this, and the best way for you will depend on the technology you have and are most comfortable using. Here are some directions and resources based on your available technology Creating and Uploading a PDF.

Sample Notebook

Below are four different examples of notebook work submitted by students. These are great examples of the quality of work I'm looking for.
- Exp 1-Student_Example_#1.pdf
- Exp 1-Student_Example_#2.pdf
- Exp 2-Student_Example_#1.pdf
- Exp 2-Student_Example_#2.pdf
The video below walks you through keeping a notebook starting at 3:02.

Next Steps

Contact your instructor if any lab kit materials are missing or damaged.
Test that you can create a clean PDF image from a picture of a handwritten note.
To engage with the Lab Safety Training to prepare for the quiz, click Next.