Lab Reports

Lab reports will be given whenever there is a student designed lab so that you have an opportunity to analyze your results, practice writing as a scientist, and thinking through exactly what was done in your experiment

Communication is a huge skill to have for science. Often scientist need to communicate their findings/ideas to other scientist through poster presentations. I will be having your group conduct scientific investigations and presenting your data similar to how scientist do.

For your slides, you may have multiple slides conveying one idea. For example, the methods slide doesn't need to just be one slide, it could be slides 2, 3, and 4 if that is easier for you to discuss your findings.

Slide 1- introductory slide (7 points)

Slide

Appropriate title

Authors of research

Appropriate picture

Notes Section

Statement of the problem being investigated (This investigation to see how (x-variable) affects the (y-variable)

Identify independent variable

Identify dependent variable

Identify at least 3 control variables

State a hypothesis for what your group thinks you may find before you do any other research (In actual science they often do the research before they start the experiment. )


Slide 2- Methods (7 points)

Do not use we, us, our, I in a lab report. Lab reports should be removed from any sense of personal ownership since anyone should be able to repeat an experiment and get similar results.

Slide

Appropriate labels for the picture

Appropriate picture

Notes Section

List of apparatus used to make the experiment successful

Paragraph(s) answering the following

What was investigated?

How was it done?

How did you account for the controls?

What did you analyze (was it a graph, motion map, etc)

How did you analyze the results?

Slide 3- Graphs and Data (6 points)

Slide

Data table clearly visible, well organized, and appropriately labeled

Graph that is properly scaled, well labeled, and data is clearly visible

Notes Section

Discuss the type of trend that formed. If you needed to linearize a graph, include the original graph and the linearized graph on two separate slides. For every graph that you have, in the notes section include the slope, y-intercept, and correlation of your graphs to help you stay organized and for me to grade.

Slide 4- Conclusion ( 10 points)

Slide- bullet point statements - aim to be under 5 words.

Appropriate picture (can be a graph, visual representation, or a picture of something that will be a good talking point for your presentation. GIF's can work)

Trend that formed

Math model that was formed.

Citation that either confirms or denies your findings. ( just the name for the slide should do)

List of possible sources of errors


Notes Section - Looking for three to four paragraphs here

Was the hypothesis correct?

Meaning of the slope

Meaning of the y-intercept

What background research did you find and how does that help confirm or deny your work? Be descriptive and include in text citations. Please use appropriate APA Citations

http://www.citationmachine.net/

What is your percent error (measured-theoretical)/theoretical *100%

For the most part, percent error will be measured from interpretations of your slope.

What are some potential sources of error that lead to your slope being off. If you express human error, you must include why there is human error.