NOTEBOOK: Purpose and How to
PURPOSE: You will need a way to organize your work, to keep track of what you have achieved, and to layout the credit you have earned. Your tool for doing this is your notebook, which will double for keeping notes and documenting your projects. Your notebook must adhere to the following rules:
- The notebook must have its pages sewn in. This type of notebook is commonly called a "composition book" and is available from local stores. The key feature of this type of notebook is that the pages are not designed to be removed. YOU SHOULD NOT TEAR OUT PAGES FOR ANY REASON.
- Use only INK in your notebook. NO PENCIL. DO NOT scratch out mistakes, only put a line through them.
- Place your notebook face up in front of you with the pages opening at the right. This side of the notebook is for your notes. Number your pages from front to back in the upper right hand corner. If you miss a class unit, leave 2 pages blank so that they stay in order.
- Label the first two pages your table of contents. As you get credit for your journal I will enter your journal grades in your table of contents and initial them. This way, if something doesn't match in skyward you have proof of completion.
- Now turn your notebook over, top for bottom, so that the back cover is on top and the pages open at the right. This side of the notebook is for your projects. As you complete each project, I will initial your notebook, providing you with a record of the projects you have passed. Leave 2 pages blank at the front of the book for a table of contents. Number your pages from front to back in the upper right hand corner.
- Each project description will consist of five parts: When you have completed these five parts, you may submit your project to be graded, ensure you have your evidence. Here is a sample project.
- Purpose: A paragraph describing the purpose or importance of the project.
- Procedure: A section describing what you plan to do. This may be paraphrased from the webpage description of the project.
- Data: A section describing exactly what you did. This may consist of prose and/or lists and should include every detail necessary for you to replicate the project should ANYONE wish to do so. It will particularly emphasize any changes from what you planned to do. Be sure to include units for every number.
- Results: Evidence for completion of the project. It may also include samples or pictures of materials you produced. When you make paper or twine, for example, you can tape a sample into the notebook. When you make pottery or an electric motor, you can tape in a picture of your project.
- Conclusions: A paragraph summarizing your results. How do you know you were successful? What might you have done differently? How does this project relate to other projects you have done or may plan to do? Was there anything that surprised you? Is there anything that this project has given you a curiosity about or something else you would like to try?
- Mistakes are inevitable and are not held against you, you can use feedback to improve... but you may decide later that a calculation that you thought was a mistake was correct after all. If you have scribbled out your mistake, or torn it out of your notebook, you have no way to recover it. THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT ONCE YOU HIT THE UNITS PROJECT and every project thereafter. For this reason, we simply draw a single line through a mistake. This marks it as a mistake, but allows it to be recovered later if necessary.
- Your notebook is your complete record of your work in the course. No work should be removed from the notebook and none of your work should be documented anywhere other than the notebook. IT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. If you forget your notebook, you MUST transfer any other work into the notebook. Cut and paste is forbidden with the exceptions below.
- The front cover should have a copy of the periodic table pasted into it.
- The back cover should have a copy of general formulas pasted into it.