Whether or not you have a high school science background, labs in university can be overwhelming and time consuming. In order to keep sane during the school year, who your lab partner is plays a crucial role. This is especially true when it comes to courses that you don’t necessarily like and have to take for credits. So, how exactly can you make sure that you don’t end up with a gnarly lab partner and know how to successfully write a lab report?
1. Introduce Yourself
If you’re a first year, it’s safe to say that everybody in your year is just as freaked out as you are about starting university. The most successful way I made friends in first year was turning to the person beside me at the beginning of the lecture and introducing myself and asking for their Facebook if they seemed nice. This is how I got a good 75% of my lab partners. It’s so easy to meet people when you just introduce yourself. Everyone’s in the same boat as you are and will most definitely want to make friends.
2. First Impressions CountIf you end up being partnered with someone, it is pretty much luck that you like and get along with him or her. But here’s a little something that will most likely guarantee they’ll like you: be nice. Politely introduce yourself and say hi. First impressions really do make a difference when you’ll be seeing them for three hours every two weeks! If you come across as a genuine person, odds are they will treat you with respect, too. You never know, they might even become a good friend after that.
3. Be BoldYou can always introduce yourself to people while you’re outside or getting ready for your lab. If you find someone who has a particularly warm or inviting persona, it might be wise to say hello and ask them if they have a partner or not. Remember not to be afraid of doing bold choices in first year like walking up to complete strangers, they’re most likely looking for a friend, too!
4. Lab and Wine Sessions
After using your skills to successfully complete the lab, the most difficult part is probably writing it up. You know what never hurts? Lab and wine sessions! It’s a great idea to get together with friends to write up your lab report (whether it’s your lab partner, friends you’ve already met, or both). This way, if you’re confused about something, odds are is that one of your friends can help you out. Not to mention, it’s always an amazing idea to get social outings under your belt to add to the good old memory bank.
5. PrioritizeWork on your time management skills. Nothing is more important in university than to prioritize your assignments and study schedule. Now, I’m not telling you to not write up your lab; but if you have an organic chemistry midterm and a lab due tomorrow, it would be wise to cast your energy on the item worth the most of your grade. Something that always helped me was to calculate how much each lab was worth out of the whole class. If each write-up ends up being a whole whopping 1.4% of your final mark, it’s safe to say that you shouldn’t be breaking your back to achieve perfectionism over it.
6. Look over your prelab preparationsLast but not least, actually look at your prelab preparations. I’ll even admit that I’m super guilty at not looking at my lab manual until about five minutes before the experiment. So that being said, don’t make bad decisions like me! Utilize your time wisely because it really only takes ten to fifteen minutes to get familiar with what you will be doing in the lab. Having some background information will also help you formulate how you might write up your lab report.
Labs aren’t the worst thing to happen to first year science students. Even though biology labs can be nitpicky, chemistry labs can be long, and geology labs can be… very frequent, if you follow my advice, I can guarantee that labs will be the least of your worries. Now, make sure to sit back with a coffee or tea and finish that discussion of yours! Oh… and don’t forget your observations.
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