Introduction

The introduction of the lab is where you are explaining what experiment you performed and what is already known about the topics that are involved. Ideally, it should be written before the experiment is done and even before a hypothesis is made. (We may not always have time to do this before the lab, so if you are writing it afterward, keep this in mind.)

What Goes Into Your Intro:

• Part 1: Background
  • A discussion of the background information that someone would need to know in order to understand the lab purpose, your hypothesis and your interpretation of the data. (You do not need to explain common sense ideas. A good rule of thumb would be to imagine you are explaining the lab to a freshman or sophomore, they have some general knowledge but have never taken a chemistry class.)
• Part 2: Approach
  • The purpose of the lab.
  • An outline of the experiment you are doing. (keep it general, details are covered in the procedure)
  • This is also where you would discuss independent (what is changed) and dependent (what is measured) variables.

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking that defining vocabulary is a discussion of the background information. It is possible (although usually not the case) that the definition is everything you know about a topic, however you must make a connection to the experiment that you are doing.
• Writing about what you think will happen. This belongs in the hypothesis section.
• Making a separate "Purpose" section.

Next Section: Hypothesis