Format Header
(use only on the first page of your lab report)
All lab reports should begin with your name(s), your class
and course section, the date, the experiment title, and the last name of your
professor or lab supervisor. This needs to go on a cover sheet as the first
page of your report.
Abstract
(single spaced)
The abstract is a one or two paragraph concise that is single spaced. It is a detailed summary of the report. It
should contain these four elements:
What the objectives of the
study were (the central question);
Brief statement of what was
done (Methods);
Brief statement of what was
found (Results);
Brief statement of what was concluded (Discussion).
While you need to finish the lab report to write the
abstract, in the final lab report, put it in the first section.
Introduction
This section tells the reader why you did the experiment,
including background information that may suggest why the topic is of interest
and other related findings. I should contain 3-5 paragraphs and occupy about 1
page. It should contain the following:
Descriptions of the nature
of the problem and summaries of relevant research (use APA format
to mention the two articles in your text) to provide context and key terms so
your reader can understand the experiment.
A statement of the purpose,
scope, and general method of investigation in your study. Express the central
question you are asking.
Descriptions of your experiment(s), hypothesis(es),
research questions. Explain what you are proposing for certain observations.
Experiment (Materials and Methods)
This section should describe all experimental procedures in
enough detail so that someone else could repeat the experiment. IT is NOT a
list and must be in paragraph form. It
is a summary not a word by word repeat of the procedure. Some guidelines to follow:
Explain the general type of
scientific procedure you used to study the problem. Cite your online textbook.
Describe what materials,
subjects, and equipment you used (Materials).
Explain the steps you took
in your experiment in a logical order (Methods).
Mathematical equations and statistical tests should not
just be included, but it is best if you describe how they function in the
experiment at that point in the method.
While bullets are insufficient, this section is a brief
summary, don’t put excessive detail here.
Results
The results section should present data that you collected
from your experiment and summarize the data with text, tables, photos,
and/or figures. Effective results sections include:
All results, including those
that do not support the hypothesis.
Statements made in this section or elsewhere in the report
must be supported by the results contained in figures and tables.
Discussion
The discussion section should give a detailed account of what
happened in the experiment and explain to the reader the significance of the
results. Evaluate what happened, based on the hypothesis and purpose of the
experiment. State whether or not your results confirmed or denied the
hypothesis. If the results contained errors, analyze the reasons for the
errors. The discussion should contain: 3
A Summary of the important
findings of your observations.
For each result, descriptions
of the patterns, principles, relationships your results show. Explain how your
results relate to expectations and to references cited (in introduction
above). Explain any agreements, contradictions, or exceptions. Describe
what (if any) additional research might resolve contradictions or explain
exceptions.
Suggestions concerning the theoretical implications of your
results. Extend your findings to other situations or other species. Give the
big picture: Do your findings help us understand a broader topic?
Conclusion
A brief summary of what was done, how, the
results and your conclusions of the experiment. (For a detailed explanation,
see the information under Abstract.) This section should be no more than a
paragraph of 5-6 sentences.
References
A listing of published works you cited in the text of your
paper listed by alphabetically by author according to APA format guidelines.
For online help see the Library.
The
lab should be 12 point font and double-spaced throughout, including the
references of citations at the end.
Much
of this information was taken from the LibGuide on lab reports on the Purdue
University Library page: http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/content.php?pid=232776&sid=1940943
