in the labs for chem and bio you get to pick your benches,,, for chem this is three people on a long bench on one side and three on another, generally you work alone but if you do an experiment that is long and has a few parts then youll have to do it with the others, its always good to team up with someone that you know, if not then make sure you get your results before they leave!
last semester i had two other girls on my bench and between us we worked all the experiments out, youll get a talk before you start a lab from one of the lab assistants describing what exactly you have to do. ALL your instructions, down to what page the information is on will be in the chem lab book that youll have to purchase in the first week or so. youll also have to complete a safety tutorial and theyll stell you all about that in first week, this is to make sure you dont blow the lab up,,, and if you do,, then so you know where all the extinguishers are hehe.
john ferguson was the chem coordinator for last years first year,,, his a little scary/grumpy looking but if you ignore his little grumpy image then youll start to understand some of the little jokes he makes.
in bio labs youll get to pick a bench, but its a giant bench with like 8 people on a bench, you usually split the bench for experiments but some groups work together. youll get a mini tutorial on what youll be doing in the lab before you start which is much more informative than the chem ones,,, especially if you get into one of gary ellem's classes as he is one of the best demonstrators i think.
you dont buy a preprinted lab book for bio but need a lab book (you can get them from the union shop) with grid and lines. theyll post the lab notes (description of EVERYTHING) in the lab on the blackboard website (yell if you dont know what it is,,,, just this messageis getting giant!) and youll print them off for the lab.
and you have to get a lab coat and funky dissection kit, but they organise that on the first lab
(emma takes a breath)
next?
hehe
