SYMPOSIUM.on LABORATORY NOTEBOOKS, RECORDS, and REPORTS* I . I n the Secondary Sch001 WILHELM SEGERBLOM Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire
A recent investigation of the function of the laboratory and a more recent symposium on s t d e n t notebooks m e a l that about two-fifths of the teachers use a bound blank notebook for writing complete records, one-jifth use loose-leaf notebooks, about two-fifths use special kinds of notebooks, inclusion of textbook material i s not encouraged, record is usually written i n the laboratory and inspected by the teacher, and the notebook is considwed a record of the actual ex$erimental work of the student.
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UR symposium implies the two premises that (1) laboratory work is an essential part of instruction in chemistry and (2) laboratory work, to be of real value, should be recorded in some more or less permanent fom. This form, be it notebook, record, or report is the result. The record of laboratory work naturally varies with the type of school, and its exact form depends upon a number of factors, among which might be mentioned: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
the use to which the record is to be put; the time available for its preparation; working conditions in the individual schools; the textbook requirements of the school system; the train in^ and mental preferences of the teacher; and the equipment of the laboratory with respect to apparatus and chemicals.
It is evident, therefore, (1) that notebooks may vary greatly, (2) that two radically diierent types may be equally serviceable under different conditions, and (3) that it is clearly impossible and unfair to say that a certain type of notebook or record is exclusively superior to all other kinds. To clarify the situation it might be wise (1) to enumerate some of the types most in use, (2) to determine the extent to which each is used, and (3) to consider the good and bad features of each kind. In this clarifying we are helped by the results of a recent investigation along this line conducted largely, but not exclusivelv. ,. in the New Endand states.
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* Presented before the Division of Chemical Education at
Washington, D. C . , March 29, 1933.
The data were obtained from about one hundred schools, including public and private, large city and small country high schools, classical, technical, vocational, and denominational schools. This gave a good cross-section of the chemistry-teaching field. About two-fifths of the teachers require their students to use a bound blank notebook in which they write complete records of the experiments in their own words and in essay type. About one-fifth use loose-leaf notebooks or alternate blank-page manuals, usually with printed paragraph headings, the paragraphs to be written in full, though some prefer blank spaces to be filled in with very brief answers. About two-fifths .use a special kind of notebook. Kinds mentioned included: (1) composition paper punched after the record is written, (2) separate sheets for daily reports, (3) optional with the student, (4) loose-leaf with printed directions, (5) loose-leaf with directions partly printed and partly dictated, (6) looseleaf with all directions copied by the student, (7) looseleaf with mimeographed directions, and (8) loose-leaf with printed directions and with interleaved blank sheets. The majority of the teachers required a rather full and complete record of the experiment consisting of brief answers in the form of complete sentences. A formal literary production was not looked upon with favor. The type of notebook which requires only the writing in of a word, a formula, or an equation was emphatically out of favor. The inclusion of material not gained from the experiment but culled from the textbook was, in general, not encouraged. As one teacher put it, "The laboratory notebook should contain a record of what the student did in the laboratory and what he concluded therefrom." The main purpose of the report or record is, then, not to verify the statements in the text but "to have a record for further study" and "to make the pupil think clearly what he is doing, to make him crystallize his thought to help him remember what he has done, and to show him the value of a permanent, complete, and accurate record."
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When students are guided by paragraph headings, these usually include materials used, description of procedure, observations or results, and conclusion. About two-thuds of the teachers require that the report be written in the laboratory. The time of handing in the report varies from each period to once in four or six weeks, but the majority require the reports within two days of the time the experiment is performed. The report of the experiment is inspected by the head chemistry teacher or the teacher under whom the work was done, in over three-quarters of the cases. Except in those cases where the instructor inspects the notebook on the spot during the period the time required for inspecting 25 records varied from 15 to 200 minutes. In the majority of cases the students are required to make the necessary corrections and then check up to see that the corrections have been made. The reports of the experiments are discussed in class by about three-quarters of the teachers. The same proportion give a grade in the laboratory work, though this is determined in a variety of ways. This part of my paper may well be concluded with the following quotation: The teacher is often so much overwhelmed with detailed corrections of notebooks and keeping a detailed hook system of grading as to create a tendency in the student's mind to think more of grades, treating the course as a sort of checker game to get into the king row of the high grade and to hinder the vitality. inspiration, and spontaneity of the teacher. A teacher should be in fine condition for the personal touch, and the student not fearful of grades. Too much grading is often the weapon of a poor teacher. ..... The great object of the laboratory course is to train the student to think in the domain of chemistry. Simply performing an experiment is only a means to this end. The results of the experiment should be discussed to see that the student is really using his mind and learning to think and to draw correct conclusions.
In order to avoid the danger of this investigation being too much a local expression of opinion, several representative teachers in the Atlantic and Central states were asked to furnish data similar to those already discussed. Since there was no significant dis-
crepancy between the replies of the two groups, the expression of Ne.w England opinion as given above may be considered as fairly indicative of opinion from the country a t large. Although this investigation was made about nine years ago, it is of interest to note that a t the meeting of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers last December a symposium on "Student Notebooks and Records" was conducted and the opinions expressed therein were essentially identical with those obtained in the previous investigation. The personnel of the symposium was entirely different from that of the investigation so it expressed an independent point of view. One might conclude, therefore, that opinion is fairly well crystallized on the subject of notebooks and records. The symposium emphasized two points: (1) much is gained by inspecting the records at the time the experiment is done while the matter is warm in the mind of the student and (2) training students to fill in definite forms tends to make them helpless when required to make a record which shall be a serviceable tool in their further study of chemistry. Since effect follows cause, let me in closing refer briefly to the laboratory manual, of which the laboratory notebook or record may be considered the outcome. The fact that about thirty per cent. of the teachers taking part in the investigation I have referred to at some length used their own notes in preference to over a dozen printed laboratory manuals listed, shows that a large number of teachers are dissatisfied with the manuals on the market and are trying to adapt their work to the needs of their pupils. May I leave these two questions with you? (1) Will an improved type of laboratory manual bring about an improved and more generally adopted type of laboratory notebook record? (2) Is the new type of chemistry workbook which combines (a) directions for laboratory experiments, (b) questions and problems usually found a t the ends of chapters in the text, (c) drill exercises to fix in mind the points already learned, and (d) devices for helping the student correlate his ideas, destined to help solve this ever-present question of laboratory notebooks, records, and reports?
