Lab Report Template / Information

Lab Report Guidelines

Refer to these guidelines when writing your lab reports. These guidelines should assist you as you do your experiment and record your data and observations. The parts must be in this order. (This is the order that they are done in the experiment.)

Parts of a Lab Report:

Purpose: What is this experiment about? What are you trying to discover? The question you write in this section must be specific.

Hypothesis: This is where you make a statement saying what you think will be the result of your experiment. This is an educated guess based on what you already know. This also needs to be specific and exact.

Materials: List the items you use for the experiment, including the product names. Be specific in the amounts needed and used. This is like the list of ingredients for a recipe.

Procedure: This is like the directions of a recipe; it is a step by step of how to do the experiment. Someone completely unfamiliar with the subject should be able to read the procedure and repeat the experiment.

Results – Observations and Data: You need to record all observations that you make during the experiment. This should be detailed descriptions of what you saw happening during the experiment. You do not tell why you think something happened, just what you observed. Changes and patterns should also be recorded.

Data is the numerical result of your experiment. This is often shown in a graph or chart to make the information clearer.

Conclusion: What did you discover?

• Was your hypothesis true or false?
• What happened in the lab?
• Provide Evidence!

This is the answer to the original question. This is where you tell if your hypothesis was correct or not and WHY you have come to that conclusion. Your answer must be based on the results of the experiment, not on your opinion or what you may have wanted or expected to happen. Do not just repeat your results, but use them to explain what happened and what you have discovered.

Also, talk about any possible mistakes that could have been made. Does this experiment lead you to any other questions? Is there anything more you would like to try?

This is a sample lab report set up. You will need more or less space depending on your experiment.

Purpose:

The purpose of this lab was to ___________________________________________

Hypothesis: __________________________________________________________

Materials:

1. _______________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________etc.

Procedure:

1._________________________________________________

2._________________________________________________

3._________________________________________________

4._________________________________________________

5._________________________________________________ etc.

Results: Observations:

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Data:

Conclusion:

Once again the purpose of this lab was to _____________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________