The front of every student binder. Good studying is not about more hours — it is about placing the right hours at the right distance apart. This cycle turns retrieval practice and spaced practice into a fixed weekly cadence built around the course’s two anchors: Concept Day (a new idea is taught) and Field & Lab Day (that idea is tested at the bench).

The seven-day cycle

The weekdays will shift with your schedule — what matters is the spacing, not the calendar. Write your own days into the first column.

Real field and lab work runs on checklists. Run all three sections, top to bottom, before the first specimen is logged or the rock hammer is picked up. A box left unchecked is a reason to pause, not a thing to skip.

Safety — non-negotiable

• Safety glasses on — over the eyes (not on the forehead) whenever a specimen is hammered, split, or scratched.
• Hands & hair clear — long hair tied back and sleeves clear of the swing whenever the rock hammer is in use.
• Chips contained — a cloth or tray under the specimen so fragments don’t fly when it is struck.
• Dilute-acid handling set — dilute HCl or vinegar for the carbonate test only, a drop at a time, capped and away from the eyes.
• Hand-washing planned — soap and water available; wash at the end before food or face.
• Water & first-aid known — you know where the running water, towels, and first-aid kit are before you need them.

Setup — a ready bench

• Specimens & tools ready — numbered, located, and in order.
• Tools checked — hand lens clean, streak plate unglazed and unmarked, Mohs testers (steel nail, glass plate, copper penny) at hand.
• Field notebook open — to a fresh, dated page before work begins.
• Specimens labeled — every sample tagged with its number; nothing unlabeled is ever recorded.
• Tools laid out — hand lens, streak plate, hardness kit, dilute-acid dropper, and geologic map within reach.
• Workspace clear — bench wiped, bags and coats off the surface.

Readiness — the mind, not the bench

• Pre-read done — the procedure read start to finish; no surprises mid-test.
• Today’s objective known — you can state, in one sentence, the question this Field & Lab Day answers.
• Demonstration target clear — you know what result, observation, or skill counts as success.
• Prediction written — a one-line hypothesis: what you expect to see, and why.

A real scientist’s notebook is a contemporaneous, permanent record — written during the work, in ink, never erased, never recopied “neatly” later. The single rule: if it is not in the notebook, it did not happen.

Writing it the right way

• Write in ink, during the work — notebooks are not recopied later; the in-the-moment record is the value.
• Never erase — one line through a mistake, correction beside it. The crossed-out attempt is data too.
• Record what you observed, not what the textbook predicts — your readings prove you did the work.
• Leave nothing for “later” — analysis and conclusion are written the same day, while it is fresh.

Lab-notebook entry — blank template

Weekly planner — write your days in

Photocopy these two templates — one notebook entry per Field & Lab Day, one planner per week. Keep them in the front of the binder.