Writing a Lab Report



Writing a Lab Report

Ms. Thompson

Biology I & Physical Science

While your lab report does not have to be typed it is preferred that it is. If you handwrite your lab report, please make sure everything is legible and clear. All parts of the report should be properly labeled. Please adhere to the following guidelines.

Head the page with the following information:

Your Name

Date and Block

Title: This should include your independent and dependent variable. It should be straightforward but not too lengthy.

Introduction: Include:

• Brief background research on the topic

• Summary of past research (if any)

• Purpose of the study

• Brief description of methods (Summarize your experiment in 1-3 sentences)

• State the Hypothesis: A preliminary possible explanation to an observation. “I hypothesize that …”

Experiment:

Independent Variable: What is manipulated in the experiment.

Dependent Variable: This is affected by the independent variable.

Constant(s): These aspects of the experiment stay the same throughout the investigation.

Materials: List out the materials in column form. Include every material used in the experiment. Draw lab apparatus if special.

•

•

Procedures: Describe the procedures exactly as you followed them. Be sure to put this is paragraph format unless otherwise stated. If not stated, it can be numbered in a list.

1.

2,

Results: You take the data you collected and organize them appropriately (graph-form).

Be sure to include how you collected your data. Perhaps you used a chart to record your data. If so, you will put that chart here.

Conclusion: Written in paragraph form, answer the following questions in your conclusion:

What did your results conclude?

Was your hypothesis right or wrong?

If your hypothesis was wrong, why do you think it was wrong? What could you have changed?

Were there any problems in the experiment? If yes, discuss them.

Example: This lab (experiment) investigated __________. In order to study the problem we ___________. My results showed ____________, thus proving my hypothesis was ____________. I believe the results are (accurate/inaccurate) because ____________. In order to further investigate this problem, next time I would _____________.

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Your report should be neat, legible, organized, and easy to understand. Remember, when others read your lab report, they should be able to clearly understand everything you did in your experiment, and exactly what your results were. Please email me if you have any questions.

cthompson@

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