Writing Lab Notebook Reports

All Materials © Cmassengale

General Instructions:

1. All labs must be written in pencil and be submitted to the teacher in a spiral notebook.

2. Always use third person (NO personal pronouns --- me, I, you, we, etc.) when writing all parts of a lab report. (USE HE, SHE, THEY, THEIR, THEM, ETC.

3. The following things should be written clearly in marker on the front cover --- "Subject" Lab Notebook, teacher name, student name, period.

4. Number each page of the spiral notebook in the lower right hand corner.

5. On Page 1, write the subject, year, student name, class period, and teacher name.

6. Page 2 should have "Table of Contents" written at the top and two columns, one for "Page" and the other for "Lab Title".

7. Begin writing the first lab on page 3 of you notebook. DO NOT WRITE ON THE BACK OF YOUR PAPER!

8. SKIP A LINE BETWEEN SECTIONS!  

9. TITLE and UNDERLINE each section & then begin writing on the NEXT LINE!
   

Your lab report should be written using the following format:  (Be sure to left align & underline headings)

Title  (center on top line; on the right of line 2, put date & lab #)
The title should indicate clearly & concisely the subject and scope of the report. 

Introduction - 20 points  (PARAGRAPH FORM)

• The introduction should give background information about the experiment. 

• It should also state the purpose of the investigation.

• This section will be two or more paragraphs in length.

Hypothesis - 20 points  (SINGLE SENTENCE)

• The hypothesis should be a single statement telling the exact thing you are trying to prove in your experiment.

• NEVER write this statement using "first person".  Write the hypothesis in past tense (third person.)

Materials - 10 points  (SINGLE SENTENCE)

• This section should be written in sentence form and name all of the materials and equipment used.

•  Be sure to include specific amounts and concentrations of chemicals used.

• Start the statement, "The materials used include _____, _____, etc."

Methods (Procedure)- 10 points  (PARAGRAPH FORM; DO NOT NUMBER)

• This section should the NUMBERED STEPS of the lab procedures.  

• The steps should be complete so that someone else could use your listed materials and procedures to conduct the same experiment and get the same results. 

Results (Data & Questions) - 20 points

• All data should be collected and organized in a logical order.  Results should be illustrated as charts, tables, graphs, &/or diagrams. All graphs should include a title, the independent variable labeled on the horizontal axis, and the dependent variable labeled on the vertical axis.

• All lab questions and answers should be included also with this section. ( NUMBER & UNDERLINE the questions & then write the answers)

Error Analysis
Include any important factors that you think may have actually affected your results.

Discussion and Conclusion - 20 points
Discussion is the most important part of your report, because here, you show that you understand the experiment beyond the simple level of completing it.!! 

• This is where you give a detailed account of what happened in the experiment.

• Explain all observations and results in your experiment.

• Analyze and interpret why these results were obtained. 

• Be sure to tell the significance or meaning of the results.

• Restate the original hypothesis and explain whether the experiment succeeded. If the hypothesis was not correct, you should analyze why the results were not as predicted.

• Explain experimental errors that appear in the results.

Additional help with Conclusions

Click here for Notebook paper Layout of Lab

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