First of all, I would like to work in a Laboratory where I have the choice to choose my workmates, in some other jobs maybe your workmates are not that important, but in a laboratory, you better have good workmates, there has to mutual mutual trust in the team, since the work in a laboratory has to be very precise and sharp.
Experiments in a laboratory must be very cautious, to succed with an experiment you are working on, the result has to be 100% correct, in laboratories do not exist the word maybe, perhaps, I do not know, could be. There are two words, positive and negative. The process of an experiment can last months even years, first of all, the tools have to be tested with water before hand. And make sure that not a single toold has any problem that could affect the results.
As the captain of my team, my responsabilities are to be sure that befoe starting the experiment all the parameters and the general ideas of the expleriment are very clear. All my workmates have to be in the same page, where doubts are not consider.
Once the experiment has begun, me as a captain will split the team in different groups, where each group will be in charge of one single task, altough each team will repeat their task over and over with different amount of liquids, each sample would be repeated at least five times, so in case that one is wrong we can discard it.
Here is an example that happened in 2014 in a high school.
Two 10th-graders at Manhattan’s award-winning Beacon School were injured when a routine lab experiment went horribly awry, leaving one boy with serious burns.
Chemistry teacher Anna Poole had hoped to treat her students to a “fun” demonstration of the rainbow of flames that results from burning four kinds of nitrates in separate crucibles, students and law-enforcement told The Post.
But a volatile buildup of methyl alcohol fumes in the Upper West Side school’s third-floor chemistry lab ignited into a fireball that sped across a countertop and engulfed sophomore Alonzo Yanes, 16.
This is why this thing must be taken seriously since the consecuences could be dangerous, of course this is a matter of a 16 year old, but still these things can happen to anyone if we do not work in a profesional way.
One of the critical skills required for any scientist is the ability to consistently design and carry out successful experiments. There are of course many variables that can cause an experiment to fail, but there are some basic steps that, if taken routinely, can increase your chances of success every time.
These are some steps that must to be followed.
1. Define your objective. Why are you doing the experiment and what are the expected results?
2. Find the best method to get the job done. With so many protocols out there, it can be overwhelming to try and narrow it down to just one.
3. Write out the protocol. This step will help you identify all the reagents you will need for your experiment, and help you gauge the time that you will need to carry out the procedure.
4. Obtain all necessary reagents in advance, and make sure they are all in good condition.
5. Prepare a timeline. Try to realistically estimate how long each procedure will take, and if you’re not sure, double the time that you think it will take. Don’t try to cram too much into one day – you are more likely to make errors when you are rushing.
6. Do the experiment. Prepare everything you can in advance, and start EARLY. Make sure you
have booked the necessary equipment ahead of time, and avoid interruptions.
7. Record everything. Write down any deviations from the protocol, and any difficulties you experienced carrying out the experiment.
8. Analyze the results. Hopefully the experiment turned out as you expected, and the data have lead you to the next step of the project. If not, it’s not the end of the world! Go back to your notes and find out where the experiment could have faltered. Talk to people who have experience with the technique to help you troubleshoot, and don’t be afraid to ask around for advice! If things always worked the first time, they wouldn’t call it “research”.
Works cited
http://bitesizebio.com/7358/8-steps-to-more-successful-experiments/
http://nypost.com/2014/01/02/students-injured-in-high-school-science-class-blast/
Hey! Reading about laboratory work is new to me. It makes me want work in a laboratory myself. The intro was a bit too long and confusing. The example you had was really great. I felt like the list focused more on how to do good in a lab rather than the ethical part of working in a lab. You should try to be more clear on the ethics of working in a lab.
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