Laboratory Report Assignment

Although we will be doing many hands-on activities in this class, there are 16 specified laboratory activities. In addition to whatever questions may need to be answered for the other activities, you are required to turn in a formal report of these 16 labs. These reports are just that, reports, and so they should be written incomplete sentences with correct spelling and grammar. They should be typed, font size 10 to 12, double spaced. These lab reports will be due two days after the laboratory activity is completed. (If the activity is completed on a Wednesday, the lab report is due on Friday.) If the report is handed in late, I will deduct a letter grade off for every day that the report is late. Although you may be working in pairs or groups while doing the activity, this report is individual work. If any of the reports resemble each other, zeros will be given and parents will be contacted. These 16 laboratory reports will be worth 20% of you final grade.

All lab reports will include the following:

  1. Introduction

·  The introduction should be a written paragraph answering the questions of why this activity was done and what you expect to learn form the activity. It may include any background information that is necessary. This portion of the report should be in your own words, unless you are citing a reference. (Use MLA format)

·  The introduction section should be completed prior to the lab activity.

  1. Hypothesis

·  In this section of the report, you must state what you think the outcome of the activity will be. Best stated in “If … then…” format.

·  The hypothesis should also be completed before the activity begins.

  1. Procedure

·  In this section you will state exactly what you did during the activity. You may want to list the steps that you followed in bulleted form. In this section you are simply stating instructions so that someone else may recreate your experiment. Do not add your opinion to this section.

·  If the procedure is provided for you, please write a summary of the materials that were used along with an explanation of their use.

  1. Observation

·  The observation section contains information on what you saw, heard, smelled, or felt. This section does not include what you think or haw you feel about the activity. This is a subjective section, which gives the facts only.

·  Any calculations that need to be made should be found in this section.

·  You will be asked to record this section in different ways. Unless asked to do otherwise, please include in your observation section a data table and a paragraph explaining the data table (an example is provided).

  1. Analysis

·  This section should include the individual analysis questions found in the textbook.

6. Conclusion

·  The conclusion section will be written in a paragraph form. In this section you will interpret the data that is in the observation section. You will explain what the data means. You will also state whether your hypothesis was correct or if you were way off in left field when you made your predictions.

·  Include all limitations of the procedure as well as any errors that you may have had. Suggest modifications that could be made to improve the experiment.