Posted: November 28th, 2022

Lab Report – detailed instructions

Lab Report – detailed instructions.
See the lab report grading rubric for specific grading information. Your lab report is worth 35
pts.
General Guidelines and expectations:
1. Scientific writing should be concise and to the point. This is not the place to use
“flowery” language.
2. Your report should be about 3 pages long, must be typed, and must be double
spaced with normal font and borders.
3. Figures and graphs should be completed using a computer program and
integrated within the text of your report or placed at the end of the report.
4. Each figure (picture, graph, or data table) should include a figure number
and a short description. (Example – Figure #1: Table showing the average mold
colony size per piece of bread over 6 days).
a. Your writing must talk about any figure you include. Don’t add a picture or
data table without also talking about it!.
b. You must include at least one data table or graph showing some of
the important or interesting data you collected.
c. If your data was qualitative (color for example) include photos.
5. For any outside sources you use, you must cite it! You should clearly indicate the
source and include a references cited section. Please ask your instructor if you are not
sure how to do this.
6. You must include at least one source – this will likely be a source of
information you use in the introduction. Do some research about the enzyme you
chose, find information that related to your experiment. Extra credit points (2) awarded if
you include at least one source that is a peer-reviewed scientific journal article (must
relate to your enzyme and experiment).
7. The content and format of your report should follow the guidelines laid out on the
following pages. Each section of your lab report must contain very specific information,
and ONLY that information. Follow the instructions on the next pages carefully.
Content and format instructions:
Use the following pages to see what information should be in each section of your lab report.
Write your report in this order. Be sure you include the section headings! See sample lab
report in D2L.
– Introduction
– Methods
– Results
– Discussion
– Abstract (place at top of your report, but write it last).
Title and your name.
· Put your title and your at the top of the first page of your lab report. Centered as
you see below.
· A good title tells what you did in the fewest number of words possible. Your title
should include the enzyme you worked with as well as the variable you tested.
Title: Include enzyme and independent variable.
By: Your Name
Abstract
Your final report should start with the abstract, BUT you should write this last! An
abstract is a short paragraph or two that is a summary of your experiment, your results
and conclusions. Your abstract must include all of the following (don’t use bullets in
your abstract, put the following information into one or two short paragraphs).
– Your central question.
– Your hypothesis.
o Make it clear what part is your hypothesis. The easier way to do this is
to state “My hypothesis is…”.
– A brief summary of the methods (you will describe method details later)
– A summary of the most important data.
– Your conclusion about your hypothesis.
Introduction
Introduce the reader to your experiment. In this section, you must include a minimum of
one in-text citation for information you have found from another source. This might be
specific information about the enzyme you chose and the organism you used (yeast,
apple, or potato for example).
Here is a good website with information on one style of in-text citations. If you know
another style (like MLA) you can use that style instead. In Text citations – APA style
All of the following must be included in the introduction (in paragraph format).
– Background information (should cite at least one outside source here) of
at least one paragraph.
o You must talk about the enzyme and the full reaction that it catalyzes
(substrates/products)
o Information about why you performed this experiment or why it is
important.
– Your central question needs to be clearly stated and easy to find.
o “The central question is….” Or “the question I asked is…”.
– Your hypothesis needs to be clearly stated and easy to find.
o The easier way to do this is to state “My hypothesis is…” or something
similar.
Methods
Your methods section is used to describe exactly what you did (in paragraph form, not
bulleted) during the entire course of the experiment.
· Write out your methods so that someone else should be able to repeat the
experiment exactly as you did it with only this methods section to guide them.
You are not writing instructions for someone else. Write what you did, in past
tense, but including enough details so that someone could use your information
to do the same thing.
· Be sure to include specifics such as specific types or brands used, and
amounts or concentrations. Be very specific and detailed!
· You must write this section (only this section) in the past tense.
· Don’t include details that are not relevant to the successful outcome of the
experiment (such as- “I took off my jacket and hung it in the closet”).
· Do not include your actual results/data yet – those go in the next section!
· A photo of your experimental set up would be appropriate here – but is not
required. If you include a photo be sure to give it a figure number, short
description, and talk about the photo somewhere in your methods section.
Look back through this section. Could someone with no knowledge of the experiment
use this section to successfully complete the exact experiment that you did. You might
have a friend read this section to see if anything is missing.
Results
In this section, you will present just the results and data you gathered during your
experiment.
· This section must have a paragraph or two of text that summarizes the
data you collected / your results.
· You MUST include at least one data table or graph showing your data.
Data tables and graphs should be make electronically. Ask instructor if you need
help.
o Data tables/graphs should have a figure number and short description
and all data needs to be discussed in the written text of this section.
· Pictures should be included if appropriate. If you include a photo be sure
to give it a figure number, short description, and talk about the photo somewhere
in your methods section.
You should NOT include any type of analysis or conclusions in this section. Just
simply describe what happened for each treatment and present the important data you
gathered.
Discussion
Now you finally get to interpret and discuss your data and determine if is supports your
hypothesis or not. In this section you will also include thoughts on what you learned,
possible errors or issues with the experiment, and what further research you would do
to continue to try and answer your central question.
· Restate your question and hypothesis.
· You should clearly state if your data supported or contradicted your
hypothesis and discus how your data led you to your conclusion. It is also
ok to conclude that you cannot determine if your hypothesis was supported or not
(maybe due to errors or issues with the experiment). Be sure to reference your
data and fully explain.
o Don’t use the word “prove”. You can’t prove your hypothesis. You can
support it with your data or you can “not support” it with your data.
· Include information on what you have learned. It could be about the
enzyme or a species you used.
· Include an analysis of your experimental methods. There are always
possible sources of error or influence in an experiment like this.
o Did anything unexpected happen that might have affected the results?
o What were the possible sources of error?
o How could the experiment be improved?
· Include a short paragraph discussing what further research could be done
to more fully answer your central question. The research you discuss cannot be
just a repeat of what you already did but it should be directly related to or expand
on your experiment or central question.
Citations
In this section, you should list the full citation for any outside sources you used in your
experiment. Below are examples of the types of information that must be included.
This follows the APA citation style. You can also go to the link provided in the
introduction section information. It has links to specifics on how to cite different types of
material.
Websites – include the following:
§ Author(s), publication date, Title of the page or article, Website name, and the
URL (full/complete link).
§ If there is no author, start the citation with the title of the article, then
publication date.
§ If the page is likely to change over time, add a retrieval date (date you
viewed)
Articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers – include the following:
§ Author(s), date of publication, Article Title, Journal Title, volume number, issue
number (if applicable), and page numbers
· If you use the library data base system, you can copy the APA
citation directly from the article listing.
Submission and revisions:
· Your first revisions should be on your own, before the due date. Read
through the instructions and grading rubric. Look for any requirements you are
missing. Check your section headings and figures.
· Read your report out loud to yourself. Do the sentences make sense?
· Check over spelling and be sure your enzyme is spelled correctly
throughout the report.
· Ask someone to read over your lab report and to mark spelling and
sentences that are confusing.
· You will be able to make revisions if the lab report you submit is complete
(has all required components) and shows evidence of effort and time spent to
revise. If you submit an incomplete report, revisions can be done but will not be
eligible for full points.

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Study Notes & Homework Samples: Identify three different examples from Louv’s discussion »Mrs. Lopez wants