LAB REPORT PROCEDURES
LAB TITLE
The title should be descriptive and explains the purpose of the investigation.
ABSTRACT
This provides a summary of your report. The abstracts will consist of a short paragraph of introduction which includes the objectives of your experiment, a description of the investigation conducted, methods, and rationale for the hypothesis you made. The abstract is concise.
INTRODUCTION
A short paragraph describing the background information needed to understand the major concepts and processes in the lab. Also includes the purpose of the lab.
PROBLEM
This should be a concise question of what you are trying to figure out in you investigation.
HYPOTHESIS
Remember... Do BEFORE we carried out our experimental procedure.
Written as an If… then… statement.
The hypothesis is what you think will happen during the investigation. It differs from a guess in that it is based upon prior knowledge or evidence. The hypothesis should be the statement that drives you laboratory investigation and your best prediction of the results based on prior experience with the problem.
MATERIALS
A list of the materials and equipment used in the lab.
PROCEDURE
Include a list of steps for performing the lab. Be specific but brief. Someone should be able to recreate your experiment by reading you procedure in order to check and challenge your data. The procedure must be reproducible.
Include a diagram or digital picture (or video) to show the lab setup of equipment and materials.
State any hazards that may be encountered in the lab.
Identify the variables (independent,dependent, and controlled) in the experiment.
RESULTS/DATA COLLECTION ANALYSIS
This is where you include all of your data tables (for all observations and measurements) and graphs.
Data tables and graphs must have a descriptive title and be labeled with variables and units.
Data may be qualitative (observational without numbers) or qualitative (with numbers) or both.
Show work for any calculations as well as appropriate units. Include the equation, if one was used.
Digital pictures and/or video can supplement this section.
Do not hide or eliminate faulty data but present it in your lab report. Later, in you CONCLUSIONS, you will explain why you think your data is incorrect. Often qualitative data may be used to support or explain discrepancies in qualitative data in you conclusion. Good scientists present the data they obtain even when it is suspected to be faulty. This is why a true experiment has many trials and much peer review occurs before the results are accepted by the scientific community at large.
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
Summarize the important procedures and results of the lab. The conclusion should clearly tie the results of the experiment to the hypothesis and a discussion why the hypothesis should be accepted or rejected must be explained in detail. Evidence from the results (INCLUDE DATA) must be presented to support your acceptance or rejection of your hypothesis. Results should also be compared to your question in your problem
Identify and explain how sources of error influence the lab results. Some sources of error could be equipment/instrument error, procedural setup error, human error, etc.
Discuss how lab could be modified to improve the results.
Include answers to additional questions posed by your teacher. Incorporate the question into your answer.
FURTHER QUESTIONS
In this section, state other questions for further investigations? What new questions arise from the results of the investigation?
LITERATURE CITED
Make sure to cite the resources you used to develop your lab report.
CORRECT USE OF LANGUAGE
You will also be assessed based on grammar, punctuation, and spelling.