Lab Report Format

Lab Reports
Your lab reports should be word-processed and include the following sections:

Title Page – Yes, you can be creative but don’t spend more time on the front page than you spend on the rest of the report. Your name, date, and your partner’s name(s) should be on the front cover.

Purpose – “Why am I doing this lab?” can be answered in a sentence or two.

Hypothesis – “What do I think will be the outcome of the lab based on my previous knowledge?” Again, this is a sentence or two with a reason for your hypothesis. This is ALWAYS in third person – “It is hypothesized that ……”

Materials – A list of everything used in the lab, in the quantity used. *

Procedure (Method) – A list of numbered steps of what you did for the lab. *
* In some cases, you may simply say, “Refer to Textbook/Handout/Webpage.

Results – Included in this section could be:
ÿ Observations – what did you use your powers of observation to see, hear, smell, feel (remember, no tasting!)? Do this in sentence form.
ÿ Charts – Use charts for any data (numbers) that you might collect over the course of the lab.
ÿ Graphs – You might need a graph to better show your data or to compare two or more trials.
ÿ Drawings – If you need to diagram an object, please do it on plain white paper and use appropriate labels. Color only if it is appropriate to do so.

Analysis – Why what happened, happened? In your analysis, you will answer the question set that is provided and explain your results. You need to tell the reader why you got those results. You can use your data and observations to support your answers and explanations. This should be in paragraph form. Also include sources of error in your analysis. What are the highly probable sources of error that you encountered in your lab? More than one person massing an item could be one; using two different scales might be another; the cancelled basketball game is not a source of error! No lab is perfect all the time!

Conclusion – Restate your hypothesis and compare it to your observations and results. “In conclusion, my hypothesis proved to be correct because if your don’t add the water to the brownie mix ….”

Factors to consider when you get your grade –
Did I spell check? Is it in the correct format? Is it word-processed? Was it on time? (ten points per day late penalty)

Lab Reports 2007 rev.docCreated on 9/5/07 7:54 PMCreated by Pam Stewart