The Scientific Method and lab report
 The Scientific Method is a way to find answers to
questions that interest you.
 The way we apply the scientific method is by writing
lab reports
Source internet
Why you need to write lab report
 Practical skills - The ability to report technical
information in a clear and concise manner.
 Communicate results to others - the results and
conclusions drawn from experimental methods are of
little value unless they can be shared.
 Learn to write - by writing and being corrected
 Learn to follow certain format – lab report is not a
creative writing assignment and it requires a clear and
precise writing.
Very important!!!!!!!
 Plagiarism from Latin plagiare "to kidnap" is the
practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship
or incorporating material from someone else's written
or creative work, in whole or in part, into ones own
without adequate acknowledgment”
 DO NOT COPY from the sources
 This is considered to be Plagiarism
 Use your own words to summarize the material
Why Statistical Analysis?
 In our lab reports you are not required to perform
statistical analysis.
 We want to be sure that the scores of two groups
really are different ("Are these results statistically
significant?" )
 We want to be sure that the differences we see are not
just due to chance.
 Important if a decision is made depending on the
results (is the effect of medication significantly
different from control)
Lab report components how to write a good lab report
General notes – 5 points
 Do not create “mini” lab report for each exercise you
perform.
 Write once the introduction, materials and methods, results
and discussion sections.
 Perform a spelling check on your report before submitting it.
 Read your lab report before submitting it and make sure that
you completed the sentences.
 If I can not understand it I will not grade it
 All lab reports should be submitted typed in font size 12 and a
spacing of 1.5 between lines.
 All lab reports should be submitted typed in class on the due
date AND electronically via turnitin.com
Title – 5 points
 The title says what you did.
 It should be brief (aim for ten words or less)
 It should describe the main point of the experiment or
investigation.
 An example of a title would be: "Effects of
Ultraviolet Light on Borax Crystal Growth Rate".
 Unacceptable title:
 “lab report 1”
 “physioex experiment”
 Cell transport mechanisms
 Thyroid hormones
Introduction – 15 points
 The Introduction provides the basic background a reader
needs to understand your experiment
 Don’t misidentify the audience! You are writing to a broad,
general set of readers, not exclusively to your professor
 Don’t assume that the reader is familiar with the subject
 The introduction is a summary of resources using your own
words
 Maintain focus!
 it’s the background for your particular question
 Don’t write EVERYTHING you find on the subject
 The introduction should be not more than one page
Objectives – 5 points
 This is not hypothesis!
 Write what is the purpose (or more than one) of your
experiments
 Don’t write – simple diffusion
 Write – “ investigate the effect of pore’s size on
diffusion rate of molecules with different molecular
weight”
Materials and Methods – 10 points
 The goal of this section is to give all the details necessary for
workers in other laboratories to be able to repeat the experiments
exactly.
 Here one describes the materials used (e.g., strains of organism,
source of the reagents) and all the methods followed.
 When many complex procedures are involved, it is acceptable to
refer to earlier papers describing these methods in greater detail.
 When using Physioex:
 Give the details of the lab manual you used – name, name of
author, edition, exercise #, pages numbers.
 Give the details of the software you used.
 DO NOT copy from the book all the steps of the experiment
(points will be deducted if steps will be copied)
Results – 30 points
 This is where you report what happened in your
experiments.
 This report is usually supplemented with graphs,
tables, and photographs.
 DO NOT copy the data from the printouts as is.
 You need to organize the data in tables or graphs and
make sure that all numbers have UNITS listed in the
table headings.
 If you submit graphs, make sure that units appear in the
appropriate places.
 Make sure that data being used, is relevant to the actual
experiment.
Let’s define some terms that will help in results’ presentation
 Independent variable a variable whose values are
independent of changes in the values of other variables
 Example - depth is not affected by water temperature
but the water temperature will vary with depth
 Importance in presenting results
 In a table the independent variable will be put on the
left column
 In a graph the independent variable will be on the X
axis
Let’s define some terms that will help in results’ presentation
 Dependent variable a variable whose value depends
on the independent variable
 A variable that receives stimulus and measured for
the effect the treatment has had upon it
 Example: A study to determine the effect of IQ on
SAT scores the dependent variable is SAT scores
 What is the independent variable?
Results - continue
 Any relevant constant variables/values should be listed under a "key"
outside of the table, either under the title of the table or directly
below the table.
 for example Key: Vessel radius is constant - 15mm
 This lets the reader know that throughout the experiment,
the radius stayed the same.
 You can not give a general statement
 for example: "electric stimulus elicits higher reaction as
compared to the chemical one".
 Make sure to add a title to each table/graph giving a brief statement
(one sentence) what the table/experiment is about.
 DO NOT submit the printouts of the physioex.
 DO NOT explain your findings in the results section – this is why
you have the discussion.
Discussion – 30 points
 This is the place to explain your results – answer the
question WHY.
 Do not write again your results.
 Point out what you think is the significance of their findings.
 DO NOT WRITE – “mechanical stimulus results in a lower
action potential than combined mechanical and thermal
stimuli.”
 WRITE – “combined mechanical and thermal stimuli result
in a higher reaction BECAUSE …. “
 Do not write the background again, just explain your results
References – 5 points
 Reference should include peer-reviewed sources
 Websites and Wikipedia are not considered peer-reviewed
 Each reference should provide enough information so that
another person can locate the document.
 Each reference should include the name(s) of the author(s), the
journal or book in which the report appears, and the year of
publication.
 In the case of scientific journals, the volume number in
which the paper appears and the page number on which the
paper begins should be included.
References
 Use MLA format
 Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume
number (Year): Page(s).
Monahan, Deborah J.
"Teen
Pregnancy
Prevention
Outcomes:
Implication for Social Work Practice." Families in
Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human
Services 83 (2002): 431+.
 DO NOT ADD name of database used, date and
location of search