Format

A scientific report usually consists of the following: To MAXIMIZE YOUR POINT USE THIS FORMAT AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS FOR EACH SECTION. 12 FONT

  1. Title
  2. Abstract
  3. Introduction
  4. Materials and methods
  5. Results
  6. Discussion
  7. Literature cited

There is general agreement among scientists that each section of the report should contain specific types of information.

Title

The title should be less than ten words and should reflect the factual content of the paper. Scientific titles are not designed to catch the reader's fancy.

  • Example: The effect of plant weekly weight gain with the weekly addition of 20ml of water.
  • Example:The effects of plant weekly plant growth maintaining a soil temperature of 20-24 C
  • Example: The weekly stem growth for Phaseolus vulgaris (pinto bean) grown with a weekly supply of 20ml of water that is 95% water and 5% red food color
Abstract

The purpose of an abstract is to allow the reader to judge whether it would serve his or her purposes to read the entire report. A good abstract is a concise (100 to 200 words) summary of the purpose of the report, the data presented, and the author's major conclusions.

  • What was the purpose for your experiment? What did you think would happen?
  • Why did you think that would happen?
  • Explain what you noticed about your plant and it growth. (growth, death, color, responses)
  • What was the final result of you plant growth? (Use your data to explain the results.) State your hypothesis. Was it accepted or rejected.
Introduction

The introduction defines the subject of the report. It must outline the scientific purpose(s) or objective(s) for the research performed and give the reader sufficient background to understand the rest of the report. A good introduction will answer several questions, including the following:

  • State your hypothesis.
  • Why was this study performed? (What did you think would happen and why?)
  • (AP Environment Only)What knowledge already exists about this subject?Research Phaseolus vulgaris the pinto bean. What is the best environment for it growth? What are some of the plants requirements?
  • What do you know about pinto bean growth? (Talk about cellular respiration in beans and photosynthesis in plants)
  • What is the specific purpose of the study?(Explain any specific changes you thought you would see like color changes, fast growth, death, baby beans, flowers)
  • Was your hypothesis accepted or rejected and why.

The specific hypotheses and experimental design pertinent to investigating the topic should be described.

Materials and Methods

As the name implies, the materials and methods used in the experiments should be reported in this section. The difficulty in writing this section is to provide enough detail for the reader to understand the experiment without overwhelming him or her. When procedures from a lab book or another report are followed exactly, simply cite the work, noting that details can be found in that particular source. However, it is still necessary to describe special pieces of equipment and the general theory of the assays used. This can usually be done in a short paragraph, possibly along with a drawing of the experimental apparatus. Generally, this section attempts to answer the following questions:

  • What materials were used?
  • What did you do first, second, third and so on.
  • When was water or soil added? How was it added?
  • How were the beans, soil, water cups, light and what ever else you neededused?
  • Where and when was the work done? You have to use your data table. (This question is most important in field studies.)
Results

The results section should summarize the data from the experiments without discussing their implications. The data should be organized into tables, figures, graphs, photographs, and so on.

Insert a table here and include all your data. (Label all tables and graphs)

AP Environmental Science Only- Graph the growth, temperature, or weight of you plant. Which ever independent variable you used-X axis)

What did the data tell you about the plants growth patterns.

Example:

Plant growth in cm
Dates
Discussion
  • What did you learn from this experiment about plants?
  • What could you have done differently?
  • What did you observe and learn about pinto bean behavior and growth?
  • What could have been done to have better growth for all students? (plant type, environment, amount of light, and so on).
Literature Cited

This section lists all web sites, articles or books cited in your report. It is not the same as a bibliography, which simply lists references regardless of whether they were cited in the paper. The listing should be alphabetized by the last names of the authors. Different journals require different formats for citing literature. The format that includes the most information is given in the following examples:

I’m only expecting 1 or 2

For articles:
Fox, J.W. 1988. Nest-building behavior of the catbird, Dumetella carolinensis. Journal of Ecology 47: 113-17.

For Books:
Bird, W.Z. 1990. Ecological aspects of fox reproduction. Berlin: Guttenberg Press.

For chapters in books:
Smith, C.J. 1989. Basal cell carcinomas. In Histological aspects of cancer, ed. C.D. Wilfred, pp. 278-91. Boston: Medical Press