<p>are college labs ) similar to those that you do in A.P. sciences? Are they particularly difficult, moreso than A.P. courses than an A.P. chem class that covers at least 20 80-minute labs? </p>
<p>Also, we don't wear gloves in hs. But theoretically if we did, can they even protect if something like Hydrochloric Acid spills on your hands? doesn't something so strong penetrate your skin? And lastly, do you work with partners on labs (if so, self-chosen or assigned) or by yourself?</p>
<p>At my school we work alone in chem labs unless told by teachers to work in groups. No we do not wear gloves in chem class. but i'm in a beginning chem class and i doubt we really use dangerous chemicals. (then again i have worked hydorchloric acid. no spill on my hands yet). In physics the lab are more formal. We have to do a formal lab write up. I think the physics lab is harder than the ap physics lab i did in hs because we did not do lab write ups. But yea, physics lab is more work than the ap physics lab in hs. I don't know about chem because i didn't take chem in hs. So far chem lab seems easy, but lighting up the bunsen burner is really scary. I almost burned myself. I do go to cc, so i do not know if it is different at the universities. Hope this helps anyway. :)</p>
<p>Labs vary from school to school as far as if they require you to wear gloves, the hours needed whether you work in partners.</p>
<p>In my labs, I've worked alone and in partners. I actually prefer working alone because most of the time my assigned lab partner is just incompetent & stupid.</p>
<p>For the general chem series, the labs were similar to AP chem, and were 3 hrs once per week. However the upperdivision labs are 3 hrs twice a week, are separate classes (so they have thier own lectures, midterms and finals). The upperdivision classes also tend to be more demanding in the lab writeup.. for instance the one I had due yesterday was 6 pages long of typed text, 3 pages of graphs, and 5 pages from my lab notebook.</p>
<p>ALL of my labs have always required us to wear gloves, and I highly recommend you do also because the stuff you'll come in contact with can be more toxic than the stuff you play with in AP chem. Usually we use nitrile gloves which protect against many of the things we use, including diluted solutions of acid. For concentrated acids, they are better than nothing but heavier duty gloves are typically used.</p>
<p>I had Astronomy Lab a year ago and it was kickass. Best professor ever. Very laid back class. Was never difficult. It really depends on your professor/lab instructor.</p>
<p>My labs for physics were very similar to the ones I had in high school. The biggest difference (for every lab so far) has been the lab write-up. In AP classes, I was usually done with the lab after a short conclusion / summary written in my lab notebook. While a few of the labs in college have been like this, other ones (most notably Physics) require formal lab reports - 3-15 pages including everything you did in the lab, all data, all conclusions, graphs, error analysis, etc, etc, etc. These typically take students here on the order of 5-10 hours to writeup.
All of our labs require you to work with a lab partner of your chosing (as long as they are in your lab section). It's actually quite nice from my experience; often my lab partner knows what I might take a while to figure out and vice versa.</p>
<p>My Chem and Bio labs differ greatly. I never took either of the classes as an AP (I was a physics girl), so I can't compare that.
Chem lab is by far the strictest. We are a research institution, so our labs have really strict protocol. We have to wear shoes, longpants, normal t-shirts (no tank tops), hair tied back, goggles at all times, an acid proof apron, and gloves for all of our labs. We aren't allowed in unless we have those things. The lab period is four hours long, although so far we haven't used the whole time. The chemicals we have used so far haven't been very concentrated, so the gloves have been enough protection for our hands. We have to do pretty detailed pre and post labs.</p>
<p>Bio is a lot more low key, because most of what we do so far is look at slides. We do have to wear shoes and pants, but that is about it. Gloves are provided if we need them. It is a three hour period and we have to do pre and post lab, as well as sometimes doing detailed lab reports.</p>
<p>I have the same situation as Nikara (except the hair thing and tank tops (since I am a guy))...
In regards to hydrochloric acid eating through gloves and your skin, I don't think it is very likely... The HCl that they use for intro chem is extremely low molarity, so I don't think it will</p>