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Date Topic Pg.

Sept 19 Writing a Lab Report

What does a lab report need to have?

• THE PARTS • Title• Introduction• Materials & Methods• Results• Discussion• Conclusion• Literature Cited

Ideas for a title for this lab

What is a scientific title?• A scientific title generally has:• 1. The environmental factors that were

changed (light, temperature).• 2. The thing that was measured (growth).• 3. The specific organism that was studied (the

bacterium, Escherichia coli). • "The Effects of Light and Temperature on the

Growth of Populations of the Bacterium, Escherichia coli "

Introduction

• The Introduction is the statement of the problem that you investigated.

• Include background information• Hypothesis• You will not be writing an introduction for this

lab.

Materials & Methods

• Do not write a list!• Do not say: “First get a bean seed. Then

weigh it. Next put the bean in a Petri dish.• Describe what you did: Twenty five beans

were divided into five groups. Each bean was massed using an electronic balance. The initial mass of the bean was recorded.

The good news is, you don’t have to write a methods & materials for this

lab report.

Results

• Present summarized data• Do NOT include raw data– Wait. What is “raw data?”– Raw data is the data you collected in your

experiment. Data that hasn’t been ‘cooked;’ – ‘Cooked’ data is data that you have manipulated.– Averages, graphs, tables, REMEMBER TITLES!

Dealing with Data

• Click through the PowerPoint “Making an X Y scatter plot” for details on how to create your graph.

• Remember that your graph should display the averages for the beans in each group.

Discussion

• Interpret your data• What patterns did you see?• What happened that was strange or

unexpected?• Give at least three sources of error or things

you would change in the experiment next time. You should explain how each of these sources of error could have affected your experiment.

Conclusion

• This section simply states what the researcher thinks the data mean, and, as such, should relate directly back to the problem/question stated in the introduction.

• This section should not offer any reasons for those particular conclusions

Headings

• Each section should be clearly identified.