Why learn to keep a science notebook?
There are lots of good answers to this question. One of the more thoughtful (but also humorous) webpages providing a fair number of them is Colin Purrington’s Maintaining a Laboratory Notebook. You should definitely visit his page before reading on (don’t worry, we’ll wait for you to do so)…
In addition to Purrington’s reasons, Dr. Merritt has assembled a list of his own reasons to learn to keep a science notebook. Many of these occurred to him when reading Field Notes on Science & Nature, a 2011 book edited by Harvard University biologist and lecturer, Michael Canfield. According to Canfield’s book, science notebooks provide optimum spaces in which to:
- Incubate new ideas.
- Cultivate the arts of noticing.
- Document one’s exploration(s) of the world.
- Practice the art of inventing new questions.
- Practice thinking with crosscutting scientific concepts.
- Capture both the exquisite and mundane moments of experience.
- Examine, reflect, question, link, probe, and/or connect one’s own ideas.
- Develop and hone observation skills, including writing, drawing, and sketching.
- Overlay and/or integrate one’s previous knowledge to new observations and experiences.
- Become familiar with scientific virtues such as creativity, invention, objectivity, patience, and novelty.
- Capture not only the beauty and wonder, but also the problems and dangers present in the world we inhabit.
- Become familiar with scientific values such as accuracy, generality, precision, reliability, repeatability, testability, and simplicity.
- Develop and hone an awareness of how professional scientists create scientific facts, knowledge, understanding, and truth through investigations.
- Become familiar with scientific practices such as developing and using models, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations, arguing from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.
Dr. Merritt asks all of his middle school science students to keep a well-maintained science notebook during the school year. He also requires this notebook to be backed up digitally (which he will show you how to do). The first step in keeping a well-maintained science notebook is to prepare it properly, which you will learn to do on the Preparation page.