You will be completing in-person labs during the semester.
All lab reports must be submitted individually.
You are welcome to refer to your textbook as a resource for these labs. You will have to use some additional online sources to write your reports. Please ensure that you correctly reference these sources to avoid plagiarism issues. Referencing your sources is good scientific practice and one of the essential parts of writing skills which a lot of employers are looking for.
Your lab report will be submitted through Canvas. Please ensure that you are using the appropriate assignment submission link to complete your assignment.
Lab reports should be typed and submitted to the appropriate assignment submission link through Canvas. Anything submitted via email or as a comment on the assignment WILL NOT be accepted and WILL NOT be graded.
Any lab report is hand-written or contains hand-written sections WILL NOT be accepted and WILL NOT be graded.
Please ensure that you also check out and FOLLOW the rubric for every lab report because it will give you insights into exactly what we are looking for and how we will grade your report. You can access to the rubric by clicking on the assignment submission link and scrolling down to the bottom.
Please note that your submission will be run through Turn-it-in so copying someone else’s lab report will be apparent and will be flagged accordingly.
Please only use .doc, .docx or .pdf formats for submission.
Please ensure that your lab report is a format that can be opened by your TA and also in a format that the TA can check for plagiarism on Turnitin. If the lab report does not meet these criteria, it will not be graded.
Do not PLAGIARIZE – aka copy off the lab document. Copying or presenting someone else’s work as yours are considered plagiarism and academic misconduct. It can have serious consequences.
YOU MUST PARAPHRASE aka rewrite the sentence in your own words without altering the meaning or intent of the original author.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ENTIRE LAB REPORT MUST BE WRITTEN IN THIRD PERSON PAST PASSIVE (scientific language).The entire assignment should be written in past tense and indirect speech (i.e.: no first or second person!).
Your lab report will be submitted through Canvas and should generally include the following sections.
Some lab reports may have specific instructions in addition to these general instructions. If that is the case, please ensure that you follow those instructions too. These will also be available on Canvas within the same module.
It is important that you follow the rubric associated with that particular lab report. The rubric can be accessed by clicking on the assignment submission link for that particular lab report and scrolling down to the bottom.
Times New Roman, size 12, double spaced, justified format.
(Please do not submit anything longer than 8 pages—this is NOT a requirement, just a request to make grading easier and for me to be able to get you your feedback faster. Thank you!)
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ENTIRE LAB REPORT MUST BE WRITTEN IN THIRD PERSON PAST PASSIVE (scientific language). So, basically the entire lab report should be written in past tense and indirect speech (i.e.: no first or second person!) and this is a very important requirement.
Lab Report:
Heading (NO COVER PAGE needed): Name, Date, Lab Section, TA Name (e.g., Jane Doe TA). Title of Experiment.
Purpose: General explanation of the purpose of the lab in your own words. 2-3 sentences. This section should be written in past tense and indirect speech (i.e.: no first or second person!) and this is very important. State the purpose of the experiment in your own words. This will be a broad statement on the purpose of the lab.
Introduction: This section should be written in past tense and indirect speech (i.e.: no first or second person!) and this is very important. It must cover the chemistry concepts(s)/theory involved in the experiment. Explain what this experiment is about and how the goal of the experiment will be accomplished. Include any important equations and what they are used for. The introduction should not be lab procedure aka this is NOT your methods section. DO NOT include detailed methods. This section will include many important definitions; however, you are not to simply list definitions, they need to be incorporated into the introduction in paragraph format. Use your own words to explain your understanding of the principles underlying the lab. Remember to include the references/citations you use. You are welcome to refer to your textbook(s) to help. (Remember to use in-text citations to cite any information using ACS or APA format!) You are also required to have AT LEAST 3 citations from reputable sources OTHER THAN your textbook and the lab (document) itself posted on Canvas.
Data/Observations: This section should be written in past tense and indirect speech (i.e.: no first or second person!) and is very important. All data tables, graphs, observations, and the like should be included here. Tables and graphs should include numbers and titles (e.g., Table 1. Temperature differences in water. OR Graph 1. Temperature change of water over time.), tables and graphs should also include a brief description OTHER THAN the title. This only needs to be 1-2 sentences describing what is being observed in the table/graph. Also include any written observations in this section
Calculations and Results: This section should be written in past tense and indirect speech (i.e.: no first or second person!) and is very important. The “Equation” tool can be used in Microsoft Word to write out calculations or you may just type out your steps, please do not submit any hand-written work—IT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. If the same calculation is performed more than once, you only need to write out the steps you took once, then you may state that the same calculation was completed for whatever else you used it for and then just state the final result for the other calculations. Pay attention to units when performing calculation—no units will result in loss of points. Not all experiments will require calculations. Record only your own observations or data, and not your neighbor’s. Copying or presenting someone else’s data as yours is considered plagiarism and academic misconduct. It can have serious consequences as outlined in the syllabus and on Canvas.
Again, whenever possible, use table format for your calculation. Include in this section any chemical reactions, key formulas for calculations, etc. If the same calculation is to be done more than once, show the details once and just present the final result for the others. Pay attention to the units and significant figures. Not all experiments have a calculation section. Some experiments may have a combined Data/Calculation section. Some may have only Observations/ Results section. Chose the correct format for each individual experiment according to the RUBRIC.
Conclusion/Discussion: This section should be written in past tense and indirect speech (i.e.: no first or second person!) and is very important. This section is for interpreting your data. If there is an unknown involved in the experiment, what is your finding about the unknown? IF the true value is known, what is the percent error? Interpret your results and explain any results that were unusual or unexpected. You should reflect on any mistakes you made, how they were accounted for or resolved, and how they contributed to any error. EVEN IF YOU DID NOT MAKE ANY MISTAKES, you still need to include potential sources of error and how they would have affected the experiment. Answer any questions that may have been asked during the experiment here (in paragraph format; do not write out a question and then an answer—I should be able to tell what the question may have been based on your answer statement). Citations are not required in this section, but if they are used remember to cite then using ACS or APA format.
Your conclusion should reflect the purpose of the experiment and whether that was accomplished. If there is an unknown involved in the experiment, what is your finding about the unknown? If the true value is known, what is the percentage error? Don’t restate procedure in this section.
Citations: Minimum of three different citations from reputable sources other than your textbook and the lab document posted on Canvas. Use ACS format or APA format!
All lab reports must be submitted individually. Submitting lab reports with the exact same content is not advisable, even if you are lab partners. This is considered plagiarism and academic misconduct and you can be prosecuted for this (as outlined in the syllabus and on Canvas). We recognize that your data will be the same, however the rest of the lab reports HAVE to be DIFFERENT.
After completing the assignemnt, please convert the document to either the .doc, .docx or .pdf formats for submission. Please do not assume that because it is in one of the required formats, it is automatically compatible with turnitin. It is the student’s responsibility to check that the assignment is compatible with turnitin.
2. Please ensure to check that you have used citations in the text where needed. You must cite the reference in the body of the question and then you can include the whole list of citations at the end of the assignment. You can use the APA (American Psychological Association style of citation or the ACS (American Chemical Society) style of citation. Please pick a style and stick to that style during the assignment.
3. Please note that all submissions in this lab must be typed. We do not accept handwritten assignments.
4. The complete lab report MUST BE TYPED and turned in online by 11:59 pm EST on the due date
5. Your entire submission must be in one document. DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR ASSIGNMENTS IN PARTS TO THE SAME LINK. If you have forgotten some portion of the assignment, please resubmit the entire assignment as one document. We will not check multiple documents if submitted. The last submission will be the one that the TA will grade.
6. If you have to resubmit the assigment, please make sure all parts of the assignment are incorporated into the document you resubmit. Please also note that the time at which you resubmitted the document will stand as the time of submission (so if your resubmit late, the penalties for late submission will apply).
7. We will not grade the lab if it is resubmitted as a comment or emailed to the instructor. It must be submitted to the correct link for the lab to be graded.
8. Please do not change the numbering or the formatting of the lab because this makes it very difficult to grade. Please do not delete questions/sections you do not want to answer, please leave them blank. If you change the formatting of the document, we cannot grade your lab report (it is too cumbersome for the TA) and you will receive a grade of zero.
9. If the uploaded assignment is not in a format that can be opened by your TA, they will not grade the lab report and you will receive a zero for it. So after you submit the report, it is your responsibility to check to ensure that the document uploaded correctly and that you are able to open the online submission.
10. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are uploading the correct lab report to the correct link to receive credit. Assignments turned into the incorrect link will not be graded and will earn a grade of zero.
11. If you do not submit your own data and fail to follow instructions as explicitly laid out in the assignment instructions, you will receive a zero for failure to follow instructions.
