The Science Writing HeuristicLab Report Format

Science Investigative Reporting:A Quick Reference

Pre-Lab Sections (to be completed prior to the lab)

Beginning Questions: What will I investigate?

Safety: How will I stay safe?

Tests and Procedure: What will I do to answer my question(s)?

Class Laboratory Work and Preliminary Analysis

Data, Observations, Graphs, Balanced Equations, and Calculations:

What did I observe and what did I do?

What calculations did I perform?

What graphs did I prepare?

Post-Lab Sections

Claims How do I answer my beginning question(s)? What can I claim?

Evidence and Analysis How do I know? Why am I making these claims? Provide a written explanation that supports your claim.

Reading, Reflections, and Post-Laboratory QuestionsHow have my ideas changed? Do I have a new question? How do my ideas compare with the ideas of others in the class? How will I answer post-laboratory questions?

Lab Report Rubric

Section of Report

Categories Number of

Points Beginning Question(s)

What question(s) did I have? What question(s) did the group decide to use? 2

Safety Considerations

What general point(s) can I make about staying safe in this experiment ? What more specific point(s) should I make about a certain chemical or procedure?

2

Procedure and Tests

What did I actually do (in outline form, specific enough for someone else to follow to perform this experiment?

2

Data, Observations, Calculations, and Graphs

What qualitative observations did I make? What quantitative data have I collected, and what calculations did I perform to make sense of my data? What balanced equations have I written? Have I prepared a properly labeled and titled graph?

6

Claim(s) What can I claim to answer my beginning question(s) or the class beginning question(s)?

2

Evidence and Analysis

What is my interpretation of my data (graphs , class data, trends, or other analysis) to support my claim(s)? Have I connected the proper evidence with the proper cla im?

6

Reading, Reflections, and Post-lab Questions

A. Have I identified and explained sources of error and assumptions made during the experiment? B. How have my ideas changed, what new questions do I have, or what new things do I have to think about? C. How does this work tie into the concepts about which I have learned in class? D. To what can I refer in my text, my notes, or some real life application to make a connection with this lab work? E. What are my answers to any post-lab questions? How do I incorporat e them into my report?

10

Total Points 30

Inquiry Laboratory Activities

1. Prior to the lab: A. Prepare beginning question(s); B. Outline a procedural strategy; C. List safety concerns.

2. Upon arrival in lab: A. Share your beginning question(s) with your lab

partner(s) or group mates; B. Discuss these questions with your partner(s) or group

mates; C. Discuss these questions with the class to decide which

one(s) to study as a group.

3. After deciding on beginning questions, discuss what strategies

would be appropriate to answer the beginning questions. A. The class will be divided into groups. All team

members within a group are expected to be working on some kind

of lab procedure. No spectators!B. Each group will reach a consensus on how to carry out the investigation. Each team member is expected to understand how to conduct all parts of the lab. C. The groups will share their strategies and must ensure that their procedures can be replicated to generate “good” data.D. The class will draft appropriate data tables and manage the variables to be investigated.E. Identify which student groups or pairs are responsible for different runs. In this way, anyone can talk with the persons who collected any piece(s) of data.

4. After data is collected, analyze it and try to interpret it. A. Look for trends, patterns, and anomalies. B. If there are anomalies, decide who will repeat the

experiment to replace that data. How do you decide which part(s) to repeat?

C. It is often useful to graph results and interpret your graph(s).

5. Propose your claim(s) and cite supporting evidence.

6. Discuss results as a class to create an understanding of the concept(s) for the lab. Your teacher will guide your discussion.

7. After the lab: A. Consult other appropriate resources to explain, confirm, or

dispute what you have learned in the lab. These could be your text, the Internet, your teacher, your class notes, etc.

B. Answer any Post-lab discussion questions” that have been posed by your teacher or proposed in a lab handout.

Zooming in on the Report Examples

Beginning QuestionsThese questions are typically in the form of a quantitative relationship.

Examples• How does the temperature affect the rate of a reaction?• How does the mass of the reactants affect the mass of product obtained? • What is the relationship between the density of a solution and its concentration?

Even though a question may seem obvious, it is important to ask that question, make a claim about it, and then back up the claim with evidence. After you propose a beginning question, make a prediction to try to answer it.

Tests and Procedures• List the steps that you will take to perform the lab experiment. • What would you want to include if someone were going to use only

your written procedures to do the lab?• After you and your group have agreed on a strategy for completing

the experiment, outline that procedure if it differs from your own. You should list exactly what you did to accomplish your work.

ExampleSuppose that you are investigating the rate at which aluminum metal dissolves in hydrochloric acid. An appropriate procedure might include:1. Obtain a sample of aluminum between 0.50 and 1.00 gram.2. Record the time (in seconds) necessary to dissolve the metal

sample in 20.0 mL of hydrochloric acid with concentration ranging from 1.50 M to 3.00 M.

Data, Observations, Graphs, Balanced Equations, and Calculations

During the lab, enter the following into your notebook:• data, • observations, • notes, • calculations, • equations, • graphs, • chemical information.

Making a ClaimA claim should be a one- or two-sentence statement about the results of your laboratory work that answers your beginning question(s).

Acceptable Examples• The rate of the chemical reaction increases with temperature.• If the concentration of reactant A doubles, the rate of the reaction doubles. The reaction rate is, therefore, directly related to the concentration of reactant A.

Inappropriate Examples • My product was a yellow solution.• The vacuum filtration technique was very helpful in separating the products of the reaction.

Evidence and AnalysisThis is a written explanation that supports your claim.

Claim: The rate of the reaction increases as concentration increases.

Evidence When the concentration of reactant A doubles, from 0.10 M to 0.20 M, the rate of the reaction doubles, from 2.5 mL/min to 5.0 mL/min. When the concentration of reactant A is cut in half, from 0.10 M to 0.050 M, the rate of the reaction is halved, from 2.5 mL/min to 1.3 mL/min.

Include supporting data. Explain the meaning behind the data and calculations. Graphs, balanced equations, and calculations need to be interpreted and explained in order to count as evidence. Simply referring to them is not good enough. Emphasis is placed on interpretation and explanation of these results.

Reading, Reflections, and Post-Laboratory Questions

• Discuss your initial beginning question(s). Have your ideas changed? • Do you have a new question? • If you made a prediction prior to performing the experiment, was it correct? If not, do you understand why not?• How do your results compare to those of other students in other groups or the textbook or a literature value? • Can you relate your work to any real-life application? • What connection did you make between the lab and lecture? • How have you incorporated your answers to any post-lab questions into your reflection?

Sample Student Lab Report

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