Lab Reports

Example Scientific paper

HOW TO WRITE A BIOLOGY 1441 LABORATORY REPORT

(Modified from Simmons et al. 2014)

Student reports are an important part of the laboratory experience. They give students an opportunity to report their findings in a concise format similar to what is used by research scientists in scholarly journals, only in a shorter format. Biology 1441 lab reports will have the following sections (each with a specific function): Title, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Literature Cited. Address each numbered point in sequence, but do not include the numbers in your writing. You will collect data in lab groups in class but lab assignments must be completed individually.

1. Title

· Your title must be clear and concise. Place your name beneath your title.

· Describe what you were investigating. It can take the form of a description of the dependent and independent variables, or it can summarize your major findings. E.g. “The effects of sodium chloride solutions on seed germination” or “Increased sodium chloride concentrations reduce seed germination.”

2. Introduction

· Tell the reader what problem or principle you are investigating, then give the reader enough background knowledge to understand the principle and your experiment.

· This is often best accomplished by describing and explaining your dependent and independent variables. For example, if you are doing an experiment on the influence of temperature on the permeability of cell membranes, you would first want to describe the function and structure of cell membranes. You would then want to explain under what circumstances cell membranes might encounter extremes in temperature and how this may affect their permeability. You will also want to mention the organism you are testing and why it is a good model for your experiment. This will usually take 5-10 sentences to accomplish.

· Be sure to cite any sources (including our textbook or lab manual) using APA format. In parentheses provide author’s last name and the year of publication for example (Smith 2013) or (Smith and Jones 2014). If the source was written by more than two authors, only list the first author and then use “et al.” followed by the year; for example: (Smith et al. 2006).

· Finally, give your rationale and hypothesis. Your rationale explains to the reader the reasoning that led to your hypothesis. Be sure you hypothesis is biologically relevant, predictive, clear and testable.

3. Methods

· In paragraph form, describe how you conducted the experiment. Give the reader enough information that they could replicate your experiment including numbers of replications and analysis of the data.

4. Results

· Describe the trends/most significant findings. Do not list raw numbers; instead, quantify important trends with percent (%) change. Also discuss the results of any statistical tests.

· You should also mention observations/qualitative data.

· Include a figure (graph with caption below) in this section. Do not start sentences with “Figure 1 shows.” Instead cite the figure at the end of a sentence (Figure 1). Your figure should not contain a title; instead, include a title sentence in the caption, describe and quantify the major trends, and provide a description of what the data points/columns and error bars are e.g.: (mean±SE). Also include the sample size in your caption e.g., (n=3). You can also include a p-value if appropriate.

5. Discussion and Conclusion.

· Start by telling the reader whether or not your hypothesis was supported by the data.

· Interpret your results in relation to the background information that you provided in the introduction. Explain (don’t simply describe) the relationship between your dependent and independent variables. You may need to compare your findings to what others have described in the scientific literature.

· Also discuss the biological relevance of your findings; e.g., if you tested the effects of temperature on an enzyme in a test tube, how do your findings relate to the organism in the wild or biology as a whole?

· The conclusion should be the longest portion of your report (roughly 10-12 sentences). End with a sentence describing future research that would further your knowledge of the topic.

6. Literature Cited.

· Use APA format. Citations should include the authors’ last names, initials, year of publication, and title of the article, book, etc. Journal articles should also include volume and page numbers. If citing websites, choose only reliable sources that include the author’s names.

Example citations

Textbook

Urry L.A., Cain M.L., Wasserman S.A., Minorsky P.V., Reece J.B. (2017) Campbell Biology (11th ed.)

San Francisco, CA. Pearson Benjamin Cummings.

Patra, M., Salonen, E., Terama, E., Vattulainen, L., Faller, R., Lee. B.W., Holopainen, J., Karttunen, M. (2006). Under the influence of alcohol: The Effect of Ethanol and Methanol on Lipid Bilayers. Biophysical Journal 90:1121-1135.

Website

Ferwerda, M.J. & Cooper, D.B. (Date of publication). Title of website. Retrieved from http://www.thiswebsite.com.

For more help with citations, please visit Purdue Owl.

Additional Lab Report Instructions:

1. Always follow the instructions given by your instructor.

2. Use Times New Roman font size 12.

3. Set margins to 0.5” on every side.

4. The maximum length of a mini-lab report is two pages (including your figure).

5. Use appropriate binomial nomenclature when using scientific names. (E.g., Homo sapiens or H. sapiens).

6. Scientific writing is clear and concise. It uses formal language, and does not use quotations. Keep your audience in mind as you write (freshman level biology).

7. If you are not a strong writer, make an appointment with the UCA Writing Center.

References

Simmons, A.D, M. Larios-Sanz, R. C. Rosell. (2014). Using Mini-reports to Teach Scientific Writing to Biology Students. The American Biology Teacher. 76:551-