Inorganic Time-wastery

I spent 8 hours in a lab today, working on some ion-exchange resin. Let me give you the low down on standard lab prep.

1. Lab instructor emails you to collect your lab manual 1 week to 3 days in advance
2. You collect the manual, and read about the experiments you will be doing
3. You read and/ or watch any required books/ videos that help you understand the appropriate techniques
4. You complete usually approximately 2-3 hours worth of preliminary work BEFORE the lab. this could be research, questions, equation sheets etc.

The basic idea is that you turn up to the lab with complete understanding of what you are supposed to be doing, how it works and how to do it properly without making a tit out of yourself. Here is what actually happened today:

1. No emails received prior to lab session.
2. Consulted my peers, they too had no idea what was happening
3. There were no lab manuals available to collect
4. We all turned up to the lab, and were given our manuals to look at for the first time
5. Lab working time starts now.

In a nutshell, I wasted 2-3 hours of my potential lab time working on preliminary work that I could have done in my own time beforehand if I was given the manual. In semester 2, we are timetabled for 8 hours in the lab on thursday, and 4 on friday. So naturally, everyone's goal is to finish quickly so you don't have to come in on friday.


I asked Dr Johnson why we had not been given the lab manuals sooner. Here is the dialogue that followed.


Me: But we could have done the preliminary work beforehand and had longer to read about the experiment!
Dr Johnson: HAHAHAHAHA
Me:...
Dr Johnson: But this is a short experiment, and if we gave you the manual earlier you would have definately finished before friday- and you're timetabled for friday
Me: you have got to be kidding


I was like "oh, man" for the whole day after that. Especially because I have essentially been tricked into making my way to the lab at 8:30 in the morning on an inevitably snailing (see previous post) day rather than asleep until 2 in the afternoon.


Gah.