Scientific Lab Report

Lab Report Form

(Name)__________________                                                       (Partner’s name)________

Period:________

(Date)month/day/year

Title: ______(the name of the lab or experiment)

Purpose: (won’t always have this section)

Problem: (won’t always have this section)

The purpose or problem states the reason(s) why you are doing the experiment. Write down exactly the problem that will be investigated or experimented. Purposes can be stated as a question and the problem is always stated as a question. You can have a purpose or a problem or both.

Introduction: (won’t always have this section)

In a few words tell what you already know or have found about the problem that will let you make an educated guess. This is your background information from the text, teacher, or other sources. It gives the reader an understanding of underlying principles and content information of the laboratory

.

Hypothesis:

What do you expect to find? The hypothesis can be stated as an “If…, then…,because.” statement. The ‘If’ part of the statement is based on related facts that you know to be true. The ‘then’ part of the statement is an educated guess on the outcome of the experiment. The ‘because’ is the why it will work. The hypothesis does not have to guess the correct outcome, but the experiment must be set up to test the hypothesis.

Research: (won’t always have this section)

In this section, you will research information pertaining to your experiment.

Materials

This is a list of all equipment and chemicals used to do the experiment. Please include quantities (amounts). Always list the items.

Procedure:

The procedure tells exactly what you did. Be specific. The procedure you use affects the results. So, it is important to be accurate in explaining what you did. The procedure can be written in paragraph form or step by step.

Results and Data:

The results tell exactly what happened when you did the lab and observed. Results include experimental (raw) data in the form of well-labeled tables, graphs, drawings and other observations. Place your observations and data in this section without discussion or comment. This is where you include any calculations made during the experiment. Answer any questions here.

Conclusion:

Conclusions explain your observations and describe how your data relates to the problem. It is written in paragraph/essay form and should include why you did this experiment (restate the purpose/problem). You should explain in your own words what you found out or discovered. Your conclusion should state whether or not the data confirms or rejects your hypothesis. Restate your hypothesis. Discuss any errors as well as any patterns you see. Part of the conclusion may be a new hypothesis based on your findings and suggestions for testing the new hypothesis in a different experiment. You may also make any predictions you would expect based on what you discovered.

Do draw a picture of the experiment, if appropriate.

• • Don’t say that the purpose was accomplished and then say nothing substantially more. You must include data from the lab results to demonstrate that the purpose was accomplished.
  • Don’t give the procedure again.
  • Don’t list the data again. It was already listed in the data (chart, table, etc.). You are to discuss and draw conclusions from the data.
  • Don’t forget to break up your ideas with more than one paragraph, if necessary. (This is referred to as an essay!)
  • Report is to be typed unless otherwise instructed.
  • Font size is 14 and use either Arial, Courier or Times New, or Verdana

Short URL: http://chandadavis.net/?p=1654