Outline for Lab Reports - BIOLOGY II
Outline for Lab Reports
Step 1 = Title
This is a step forward for most in that your title needs to be of a scientific nature. Fun titles have their place in science, but this is not one of those. A good title helps the reader understand the basic idea of the experimentation. An example from our first worm lab might read –
Evaluating Regeneration Rates in Lumbricus variegatus.
Step 2 = The Report
The report should be broken into sections, each section containing specific information pertaining to the experiment and its parts. These section heading are:
- Introduction
- Materials and Methods
- Results and Analysis
- Conclusions
INTRODUCTION
The introduction is designed to acquaint the reader with the rationale behind the experiment and to provide background information. By doing this the reader can understand the basics of the experimental design. Any and all hypotheses are found here.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This is where you detail every part of the experimental design. From start the finish, this section provides the reader with all the information he/she would need to sit down and duplicate every single step of your experiment. Every treatment that was made, every piece of data that was taken, and every variable that was considered needs to be in this part. Basically, it is the “how you did it” section. Detail is extremely important here because the goal is to have a description that would allow a total stranger to repeat your experiment in exactly the same way you did it the first time.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
In this section is where you will present all of your data, whether it is graphs, charts, or tables; every piece of information you gathered needs to be in here. Also, any calculations you did with the raw data needs to be included so the reader can understand how you got your results. You do not make any conclusions about the data in this section.
CONCLUSIONS
Here is where you tell the reader whether you proved or disproved your hypotheses and why. You take all of your results together and decide if the experiment turned out the way you had hoped; and if it didn't, you explain any and all possible reasons why. In most cased you will need to restate some of the data to support your argument.
Step 3 = Sharing you results
For this exercise all you will need to do is provide the class with a brief summary of your procedures and results. No visuals or PowerPoints are required, just a simple verbal summary will suffice.