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Engineering Notebooks

Historical notebook example from Alexander Graham Bell dated March 10, 1876 showing a sketch and handwritten notes about a design.
Alexander Graham Bell's notebook entry from a successful experiment with his first telephone

 

An Engineering Notebook Documents your Work

Not only do you use an engineering notebook to organize and document your work, it is also a place to reflect on activities and projects. When working in a team, each team member will maintain their own journal to help with collaboration.

Your engineering notebook should have the following:

  • An entry for each day or session that you worked on the solution
  • Entries that are chronological, with each entry dated
  • Clear, neat, and concise writing and organization
  • Labels so that a reader understands all of your notes and how they fit into your iterative design process

An entry might include:

  • Brainstorming ideas
  • Sketches or pictures of prototypes
  • Pseudocode and flowcharts for planning
  • Any worked calculations or algorithms used
  • Answers to guiding questions
  • Notes about observations and/or conducted tests
  • Notes about and reflections on your different iterations