Setup for Lab Reports
The purpose of writing a lab report is to allow another person the opportunity to learn what you have experienced and concluded about a subject. In the real world, a lab report is published so that other people can try to replicate your results. If the lab is done over and over with consistent results, your conclusions can be considered valid.
Since the reports are meant to be read by other people, neatness and spelling do count! You should also always write in complete sentences. Everything in the report should be in a very ordered set-up, easily read by other people. The report should also be concise. Do not write things in your report just to take up space and make it look big. The report should be written in past tense. You should also avoid writing in the first person (I did… I think..). It takes practice to write in this manner, but you will get used to it. Since the report should be easily read, it must follow a specific format. If you don’t follow the format, points will be taken off. The format will read like this:
Name
Date
Period/Partners
Title (Be descriptive)
Purpose: This is a one or two sentence statement telling the reader what the goal of the lab exercise was. In other words, why was the experiment conducted?
Procedure: This tells the reader step-by-step what was done in the lab so that it could be repeated if necessary. Do not just write the assignment over again! If the procedure can be found somewhere else, just tell the reader where it can be found. As an example, “The Procedure for this lab can be found on page 345 of the Physical Science textbook, titled, "Curing Cancer.” If there are any changes to the given procedure, you must spell those out.
Safety: Here you would list any safety precautions that should be observed when performing this lab.
Data: Data are things that you measure. The data that you have collected should be presented in TABULAR form if possible. Frequently you will be required to produce a graph from the data you collected. Usually no written text is necessary in this section. Each graph or table should have a title such as: Figure 1: The Effect of Aspirin on the Heart Rate on Adult Male Mice.” It is more professional-looking to place your data tables and graphs in the middle of your report but it is OK to place them at the end and write "refer to page X for data table and graph".
Calculations: DATA is stuff you measure. CALCULATIONS are mathematical manipulations of the data you collect. If, for example, we were trying to determine the speed of an object, you would have to measure the distance that the object traveled and measure the time this movement took. You could then calculate the speed of the object by dividing the distance traveled by the time interval. Samples of all the required calculations should be presented in this section of the lab report.
Questions: If there are specific questions asked in the lab, you are to answer them here.
Conclusion: This is one of the most important parts of the lab report. This tells the reader whether you have achieved the purpose of the lab exercise. DO NOT just rewrite the procedure here. A good way to start the conclusion is by restating the purpose. Explain the general findings and then what the data mean. Give your results, briefly support them with your data and then explain them. Also, explain any known errors that may have influenced the results of the investigation. Don’t just make up possible errors. Conclusions do not have to be long to be good. In summary:
Since the reports are meant to be read by other people, neatness and spelling do count! You should also always write in complete sentences. Everything in the report should be in a very ordered set-up, easily read by other people. The report should also be concise. Do not write things in your report just to take up space and make it look big. The report should be written in past tense. You should also avoid writing in the first person (I did… I think..). It takes practice to write in this manner, but you will get used to it. Since the report should be easily read, it must follow a specific format. If you don’t follow the format, points will be taken off. The format will read like this:
Name
Date
Period/Partners
Title (Be descriptive)
Purpose: This is a one or two sentence statement telling the reader what the goal of the lab exercise was. In other words, why was the experiment conducted?
Procedure: This tells the reader step-by-step what was done in the lab so that it could be repeated if necessary. Do not just write the assignment over again! If the procedure can be found somewhere else, just tell the reader where it can be found. As an example, “The Procedure for this lab can be found on page 345 of the Physical Science textbook, titled, "Curing Cancer.” If there are any changes to the given procedure, you must spell those out.
Safety: Here you would list any safety precautions that should be observed when performing this lab.
Data: Data are things that you measure. The data that you have collected should be presented in TABULAR form if possible. Frequently you will be required to produce a graph from the data you collected. Usually no written text is necessary in this section. Each graph or table should have a title such as: Figure 1: The Effect of Aspirin on the Heart Rate on Adult Male Mice.” It is more professional-looking to place your data tables and graphs in the middle of your report but it is OK to place them at the end and write "refer to page X for data table and graph".
Calculations: DATA is stuff you measure. CALCULATIONS are mathematical manipulations of the data you collect. If, for example, we were trying to determine the speed of an object, you would have to measure the distance that the object traveled and measure the time this movement took. You could then calculate the speed of the object by dividing the distance traveled by the time interval. Samples of all the required calculations should be presented in this section of the lab report.
Questions: If there are specific questions asked in the lab, you are to answer them here.
Conclusion: This is one of the most important parts of the lab report. This tells the reader whether you have achieved the purpose of the lab exercise. DO NOT just rewrite the procedure here. A good way to start the conclusion is by restating the purpose. Explain the general findings and then what the data mean. Give your results, briefly support them with your data and then explain them. Also, explain any known errors that may have influenced the results of the investigation. Don’t just make up possible errors. Conclusions do not have to be long to be good. In summary:
- What was the purpose of the lab?
- What did you conclude? (i.e. were you successful?)
- What data supports this conclusion?
- What errors or limitations did you encounter in the lab?
- How could you make it better for someone (i.e. another Physical Science student) who was trying to replicate this experiment?