Why a checklist before every lab
A life science lab is a place where you handle living things and delicate tools, so a little care goes a long way. Glass slides can chip, microscopes are fragile, and a jar of pond water is full of tiny living things that deserve gentle, respectful handling. A pre-lab checklist is not busywork — it is the routine that makes safe, prepared work a habit, so the student walks in ready instead of scrambling.
It also does something quieter: it forces the student to arrive ready. The one who skimmed the steps in the hallway is the one who fumbles the slide or forgets what they are looking for. This checklist closes that gap. Print one for every lab, work top to bottom, and do not pick up a single slide until the last box is checked.
The goal is not to follow rules. It is to walk to the bench already knowing how to handle living things with care, the steps you will take, and what you expect to see.
1 — Safety
Nothing below this section happens until everything in it is done. No exceptions, every lab, every time.
- Hands washed before you start — and again any time you handle pond water or a live specimen.
- Long hair tied back and sleeves out of the way, so nothing dips into a jar or knocks a slide.
- Glass slides and cover slips handled by the edges — they are thin and chip easily.
- The microscope carried with two hands, one under the base, and set down gently away from the table edge.
- Live specimens and pond water treated gently — you observe living things, you never harm them.
- Any water spills wiped up right away, so no one slips and no equipment gets wet.
- Sink, paper towels, and trash located — you know where each one is before you start.
2 — Setup
With safety confirmed, set up the bench so the work flows without scrambling in the middle of a lab.
- The full lab read end to end — not skimmed — so you know what step comes next.
- Microscope set up: light checked, the lowest-power lens clicked into place, the stage clear.
- Slides ready — the prepared slides for the day, or blank slides and cover slips if you are making your own.
- Hand lens, dropper, and any specimens or pond-water sample gathered and within reach.
- A dichotomous key, field guide, or diagram out if the lab calls for one.
- Ruler, colored pencils, and anything else for measuring or sketching laid out in order of use.
- Lab notebook open to a fresh, dated page with the title and question already written.
3 — Readiness: the pre-lab questions
This is the section that separates copying from real science. Before the first observation, the student should be able to answer these in writing — in the lab notebook, in their own words.
- What is the question? State, in one sentence, what this lab is trying to find out or observe.
- What am I looking at? Name the organism, the cells, or the system you will observe, and what you already know about it.
- What is my prediction? A specific guess — what you expect to see under the scope, how the seedlings will differ, which group an organism will key into.
- What am I observing, and how will I record it? Name what you will watch for and how you will capture it — a labeled sketch, a table, a measurement.
- What could go wrong? Spot the one or two steps most likely to trip you up — focusing the scope, a torn onion skin — and how you will handle them.
- What does a good result look like? Know, before you begin, what a reasonable observation would be — so a surprising result makes you look again, not shrug.
A student who answers all six is not just following a recipe — they are running an investigation they understand, with a result they can already roughly picture. That is exactly the readiness the lab-notebook entry is built to capture, and the kind of preparation a lab defense is designed to reward.