Chemistry is the science of matter, its properties, and changes. In your classroom work in chemistry, you will learn a great deal about the information that has been gathered by scientists about matter. But, chemistry is not just information. It is also a process for finding out more about matter and its changes. Laboratory activities are the primary means that chemists use to learn more about matter. The activities in the CBL Laboratory Manual require that you form and test hypotheses, measure and record data and observations, analyze those data, and draw conclusions based on those data and your knowledge of chemistry. These processes are the same as those used by professional chemists and all other scientists.
CBL (computer-based laboratory) activities use graphing calculators to collect and analyze real-world data using different probes or sensors. The CBL system is an interface that collects data from the probes and sends the information to the calculator. The calculator, in turn, runs stored data collection and processing programs, which interpret and plot data obtained from the CBL system.