Lab Report Guildelines

Lab Report Guidelines

7sections to a scientific paper.

Title –representative of the experiment you performed.

Abstract –A brief summery, no more than 250 words of the entire paper. If you start with the 5 sentences listed below you will be addressing the content of an abstract.

1st sentence should tell the reader why your chosen study is important.

2nd sentence should be a brief, summery of your methods

3rd sentence should be a brief summery of your results

4th sentence should be a brief discussion of your conclusion

5th sentence should be your hypothesis.

Introduction –provides the background information so that the reader will understand the experiment. This should include the definitions of key words, brief history of the question being asked. Any information that you anticipate the reader would need to understand the data. The last sentence will be your hypothesis.

Methods and Materials –explanation of how you performed your experiment. This should be in paragraph form and the description should be in enough detail that if a reader wanted to duplicate the experiments, they could.

Results –should be written in paragraph form. All data should be written out, placed in a table and a graph. The sentence, “see results in table 1” is not sufficient. You must write out your results. Graphs and tables must be titled and have appropriate lables. They must also be referenced within the text

Example: Sodium chloride diffused through the 20 at a rate of 5 mM/min, 50 at a rate of 10 mM/min and 100 at a rate of 1 mM/min , but did not diffuse across the 200 membrane (Table 1, Graph 1). Urea, diffused across the ……….

Discussion –You should include the following in this section

1. You will draw conclusions based on your results. What does your data tell you?

Example: Sodium chloride diffused faster than Urea indicating it has a smaller molecular weight.

1. You will also explain issues which may have affected the results.

Example: the experiment was conducted at room temperature however the ambient temperature was 90°F which may have produced faster diffusion rates.

1. You will compare your study to other similar studies.
2. Make suggestions for further research.

References –citations. You should have a minimum of 2 primary references the library online data bases or is a good place to start.

Laboratory Report Format

There is amaximum of 3 pages, references included.

Typed, handwritten reports or reports with anything other than the students name will not be graded

Margins must be minimum of .5 inches

12 pt font

Single or double spaced