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BIO253L Lab Report Guidelines
Submission Procedure and Due Date: Upload the file to the Canvas submission link by the due date in the syllabus.
Plagiarism: This lab report must represent the student’s own original ideas and wording and cannot be taken either partially or entirely from another published or unpublished work: students must complete the report independently and in their own words.
Unknown identification (80 points): The proper identification of the unknown accounts for 80 out of 200 points. Partial credits are awarded for getting down to only two possibilities, or for getting the accurate family or genus. Your score will be revised upward or downward based on whether you did all the critical tests, interpreted the results correctly, and explained convincingly how you arrived at your conclusion.
Formatting and Presentation (12 points):
The lab report should be computer processed (use Microsoft Word), spell-checked, and paginated (include page numbers, starting with page after the cover page). Do not allow spell-checker to alter scientific words. Use commonly used fonts (Times New Roman, Helvetica, Arial, Calibri, etc), size 12.
Cover sheet: On the front page, include your name, section of the lab (BIO253L-L1 or BIO253L-L2), name of the exercise, your unknown ID number, due date and name of professor.
Your lab report will be divided into five sections, each with their own major heading: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, References.
Introduction (14 pts)
Introduce relevant theory and present the aim of the research (lab exercise).
Start with a short general introduction to microbiology, ubiquity of bacteria, and pathogens. Indicate the medical or scientific importance of identifying microorganisms, and end with the goal of the exercise.
Material and Methods (18 pts)
Briefly describe what you did. Use the passive voice, not the active voice (Instead of writing “I did this or that,” you would write, “This or that was done.”).
Include enough details so that an experienced scientist could replicate your experiment. Mention all the tests you used. If you followed the protocols described in the lab handouts or lab manual to the letter, just reference them. If your exact conditions were different from the handout or lab manual (temperature, time, amount of reagent, etc.) or the test procedure was not described, make sure to describe them.
If you want, you can add some figures that demonstrate the difference between positive and negative results in differential tests – but you must cite and reference their sources. Instead of describing aseptic techniques in detail, just write that “aseptic techniques were followed as described in… “ (cite both the lab manual and lab handoutsand include them in your references at the end).
Figures: All figures in the lab report need to be numbered and need to include a descriptive title. (For more information on how to prepare a lab report, refer to McMillan’s Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences.)
Results (26 pts)
This is where you present the results obtained, often in the form of graphs and tables.
A few sentences or paragraphs should guide reader through your tables and figures.
For this lab report, present the results of all tests in one table. Label it Table 1, followed by a table title. Table titles should be in bold and found at the top of tables. Make sure to include headers for each column or row, as necessary. If your table spans more than one page, put Table 1 (continued) as the title at the top of the next pageand put the headers for each column at the top again. The table should include the results you observed for each test, and how you interpreted the results (e.g. +, -, Gram-positive, facultative aerobe, etc.). Include the pictures of every result in one of the table columns. If you can’t find a picture for one of the results or the picture is of low quality, describe the result obtained (you will still lose points). Describe ambiguous results obtained for some tests.
Make sure to describe the colony morphology for your bacterium in the results section and show a picture of the streak for single or of a few colonies.
Discussion (22 pts)
Usually, this section is where you draw conclusions and parallels, engage in speculation, discuss possible sources of errors or mistakes, and propose future experiments you could perform to refine your hypothesis.
For this lab report, explain your deductive logicapproach (how you determined the identity of the unknown). Indicate how you chose which section of Bergey’s manual to use, how you figured out the family, genera, and finally the species of your bacteria as you accumulated more test results. Clear writing and logic willbe critical for this section. A flowchart figure of the logical process can be useful sometimes. Make sure to cite the section of Bergey’s manual you used and reference it in at the end.
Present and discuss any problems, difficulties, or issues with the tests or with the determination of the unknown that arose during the course of your lab project.
Add a paragraph that includes additional information about the microorganism species you have identified (make sure to include the references you used).
In your last paragraph, compare your approach with more modern techniques for identifying microorganisms. What are the advantages of the newer methods.
References (10 pts)
Cite in your text and reference at the end of your lab report all literature or manuals used for your research project. For this lab report, put in the full reference the professor’s hand-out, for the chapter of Bergey’s Manual used, and for the outside source used in your discussion. Use the APAformat (you can find help in the Biological Sciences” by Victoria McMillan (4th ed.) or at websites online).
Grammar and Writing Quality (18 pts)
Overall writing quality and spelling will also be assessed.
Writing species names: Make sure to use the proper nomenclature and always italicize the species, genus and family names: for instance, Escherichia coli. Always use the full species name first, then you can abbreviate the species name: for example Escherichia coli at first, E. colilater.
Grading Rubric (200 pts Total)
Grade for Unknown ID (80 pts)
Correct Gram ID & shape/25
Correct Family/25
Correct Genera/20
Correct species/10
Did the student present convincing and clear evidence?
TOTAL/80
Presentation (12 pts)
Typed, Font 12, paginated, general look/4
Cover page and required cover page elements/4
MS-WORD file/4
TOTAL/12
Introduction (14 pts)
Introduce topic of Microbiology, bacteria ubiquity, pathogens/6
Objective (Aim) of Lab exercise/3
Medical or scientific importance of identifying microorganisms/2
Overall intro quality/3
TOTAL/14
Material and Method (18 pts)
Purpose of each test/6
Citation or Method description for each test (if not standard)/3
Incubation temperature & time (and details of reagent addition)/3
Gram stain method included/2
General assessment of methods sectionquality/4
TOTAL/18
Results (26 pts)
Picture and description of colony morphology/2
Missing test results (-1 per omission)/3
Results table, title & number, format/3
Pictures of results for each test/8
Accurate interpretation for each test/4
One or more paragraphs in Results section that refer to Table/2
General assessment of Table and Results Section quality/4
TOTAL/26
Discussion (22 pts)
Logic-choosing section of Bergey’s manual/2
Logic-determining the bacteria family or genus /2
Logic-determining the bacteria species/4
Quality/clarity of interpretation logic and/or flow chart/4
Difficulties/challenges/mistakes/2
Additional information about the specie you identified/2
Modern methods for identifying bacteria and their advantages/2
Professor’s assessment of discussion section overall quality/4
TOTAL/22
References & Citations (10 pts)
Citation & Refs to Bergey’s Manual, lab hand-outs, & outside source/6
Professor’s assessment of APA styleformatting/4
TOTAL/10
Overall grammar and writing (18 pts)
Passive voice/2
TA assessment/4
Scientific name format and spelling/4
Professor’s assessment/8
TOTAL/18
Total: /200.0
Writing species names: Make sure to use the proper nomenclature and always italicize the species, genus and family names: for instance, Escherichia coli. Always use the full species name first, then you can abbreviate the species name: for example Escherichia coli at first, E. coli later.
