When I taught university labs, students often asked whether they needed a paper notebook. Their typed notes looked neater. Why can’t they just use a Google Doc?
I prefer a bound paper notebook for bench work because it keeps sketches, measurements, and corrections together. Digital notes can also support careful observation and learning. What matters is recording promptly, distinguishing observation from interpretation, and preserving a clear revision history.
I’ve written about why in a longer essay (the Lab Notes series). This guide focuses on the practical habits: choosing a notebook, setting it up, and making useful entries. Follow your course's requirements for paper or digital records.
The notebook itself
For a paper notebook, I recommend a bound book with numbered pages. Spiral-bound is fine. Composition books are fine. Leather-bound “lab journals” from a science supply company are fine but unnecessary. Pages that stay together help preserve the sequence of your work. If your course uses loose sheets or digital entries, follow its filing and revision requirements.
A notebook should let a reader follow what happened and when. Numbered pages, dated entries, and visible corrections support that record. Digital records need the same care, including retained earlier versions rather than silently overwritten entries.
A standard composition notebook (around $3) is enough for most A&P courses. If you want lined pages on one side and blank pages on the other, useful for sketches opposite text, the “dot grid” or “Cornell-style” notebooks at most office supply stores work well. Don’t spend more than $15.
Setting it up in week one
On the first page, write the following:
BIOL XXX · Anatomy & Physiology Laboratory Term: Fall 2026 Section: ___ Instructor: ___ TA: ___ Started: Aug 26, 2026 Owner: [your name] · [your email] Property of [your name]; if found, please return.
On the second page, leave a blank table of contents. Number the entries 1, 2, 3, 4... down the left side. As you fill each lab session, add an entry: “Sept 4, Tissues lab 1, pp. 5–9.” The TOC takes 30 seconds per session and helps you find a specific observation later.
Put a strip of tape across the bottom edge of the front cover with your name and email visible. This makes a notebook left at a lab bench easier to return.
The seven habits that make the notebook actually work
These are the habits I look for when I review notebooks. They inform the examples in this site's rubric system but do not replace your course's requirements. Their purpose is to help you record evidence, explain your reasoning, and prepare for later review.
Date and number every entry. In ink.
At the top of every new entry, write the date in a consistent format (I prefer Sep 4, 2026). Including the year keeps the record clear later. Below the date, write the lab session number or topic. Use ink for the written record and pencil for sketches, following your course's rules.
Pre-lab section. Before lab, not after.
The night before each lab session, open the notebook and write a short pre-lab section: what the lab is about, what materials and specimens you’ll use, what you expect to see. This is the “preview” step from the study-cycle template and gives you a purpose for the observations you will make. Note questions to ask before beginning unfamiliar work.
Record observations as they happen.
The notebook’s most important job is to capture what you saw when you saw it. Write measurements at the bench, not later from memory. Write enough detail to make each observation useful. “Stratified squamous epithelium, ~300 μm thick at the surface, fewer keratinized cells than expected”, not just “skin.” Complete sentences are useful for explanations; concise, clearly labeled measurements and notes can also serve the record.
Keep observation distinct from interpretation.
“Pulse rate 88 bpm at rest, 142 bpm after two minutes of exercise” is observation. “Cardiac output increased to meet skeletal muscle oxygen demand” is interpretation. Both belong in the notebook. They belong on different lines, or in different paragraphs, with a label for each. Keeping them separate lets you check whether your interpretation is supported by what you observed.
Sketch with conventions, not artistry.
Sketches in a lab notebook are not art class. Single contour lines (no shading), labels with leader lines touching the structure (no arrows piercing through it), magnification noted, stain noted. A clear stick-figure-quality drawing with correct labels passes; a beautifully shaded drawing with wrong labels does not. The microscopy practice rubric has the full conventions if you want them.
Cross out errors with a single line. Don’t erase. Don’t white out.
Errors are part of learning. Draw a single line through an error so the original is still legible, then write the correction next to it (or below it). Keeping the original visible lets a reader follow what you thought and how your interpretation changed.
End every session with a brief summary.
At the end of each lab session, write a 2–3 sentence summary at the bottom of the entry: what you did, what you saw, what surprised you. This takes about three minutes and helps you review the purpose and findings of the session. Summaries also make it easier to locate material when studying later.
What a typical lab session looks like in the notebook
Here’s a sample two-page spread for a cardiovascular lab on the day of the sheep heart dissection. Yours won’t look exactly like this; the structure should be the same.
LEFT PAGE RIGHT PAGE
Sep 18, 2026 - Lab 4: Sheep Heart [Sketch 1]
External heart, anterior view
Pre-lab: Labels: aorta, pulmonary
- Goal: identify external + internal trunk, R/L atria, R/L
features of heart on sheep specimen ventricles, coronary
- Mat'ls: sheep heart, dissection vessels, apex
tray, scalpel, scissors, probe Drawn from observation
- Anticipate: differences from human at bench - ~1.2x
textbook diagrams (orientation,
size of pulmonary trunk) [Sketch 2]
Internal frontal section
Bench observations (8:42 am): Labels: 4 chambers, AV +
- External: aorta clearly larger than semilunar valves,
pulmonary trunk; coronary arteries chordae tendineae,
visible on anterior surface; right papillary muscles, IVS
ventricle wall noticeably thinner Drawn from observation
than left (palpation) at bench - ~1x
Cut sequence:
1. Single coronal cut, lateral to
medial, exposing all 4 chambers
2. Chordae tendineae intact in
both ventricles
3. Tricuspid + mitral valves visible
(3 cusps vs 2)
Internal observations:
- LV wall ~3x thicker than RV wall
(consistent with systemic pressure
generation)
- Papillary muscles present in both
ventricles
- Aortic semilunar valve preserved
during cut
Surprised by:
- Pulmonary trunk diameter much
closer to aorta than I expected
- Cardiac apex pointed inferior-left,
not straight inferior
Summary:
Successful sheep heart dissection.
4 chambers, all valves, great vessels
identified. LV wall thickness vs RV
matches the pressure differential we
discussed in lecture. Coronary
distribution matched textbook
right-dominant pattern.
Time at bench: 8:30 - 9:50 am
Notice what’s in there: pre-lab planning, observations with timestamps, a clear cut sequence, observations separated from interpretations, a moment of surprise captured, a brief summary. Notice what’s not: paragraphs of background information copied from the lab manual, exhaustive labels of every structure ever named, references to materials I didn’t actually use that day. The notebook records what happened, not what could have happened.
What to do when you fall behind
If you miss a session or an entry, make the gap clear rather than trying to disguise it:
- Do not backdate an entry. If you add a later recollection or correction, label it with the date you write it and state what it is based on. Do not present it as an observation recorded during the session.
- Leave the missing day visibly missing. Skip a page or write “[no entry, missed session, retrieved make-up notes from M. Patel pp. 12–14]” in the spot it should have been. The notebook now records both what you did and what you didn’t do.
- Resume the next session normally. Follow your course's make-up policy and continue the record with the next session.
Why this matters beyond the grade
A useful notebook lets someone follow your observations, reasoning, and corrections. That includes your future self, returning to a difficult slide or an unexpected measurement. It is a record to learn from, not just an assignment to finish.
Clinical charting, research protocol documentation, patient assessment notes, equipment maintenance logs, and regulatory compliance records also depend on accurate, traceable entries. Their specific rules differ, but the habit of distinguishing what you observed from what you concluded is useful preparation.
Start in week one and use the same basic structure throughout the term. Review your entries occasionally: can you understand what happened without relying on memory? Revise your habits when the answer is no.
Companion resources on this site
- How to study A&P (the science of learning, applied)
- Why a real lab notebook beats a Google Doc, the longer essay version of the philosophy behind this guide.
- Microscopy practice rubric, for the bench-drawing conventions in habit 5.
- Practical assessment rubric system, including an example R5 lab notebook rubric.
This is supplementary teaching material. Your specific course may have its own lab notebook requirements; if so, follow those. Use these seven habits to help make your observations, reasoning, and corrections clear.