Lab Report
The purpose of a Biology lab report is to describe and analyze a laboratory experiment that explores a scientific concept so that other scientists might be able to replicate the experiment and investigate the principles of it.
Style Guidelines:
Scientific writing is very concise and precise. The least amount of words you can use to express an idea, the better and more scientific your writing will be. Some additional guidelines to follow are:
- Margins should not be less than 1/2 inch
- The font should be 12 pt
- Should be written in third person. No personal pronouns
- If referring to anything that happened in the past, then use the past tense.
- Document Sources
Format:
Title: * a brief, concise, yet descriptive title
Introduction/Statement of the Problem
• What question(s) are you trying to answer?
• Include any preliminary observations or background information about the subject
• Define the topic. The first part of a lab report should set up the topic being investigated by providing background information on it and clearly explaining exactly what you are testing.
• Explain the significance of the topic. How does this topic relate to the world of biology? Why is this experiment topic important? Why is this experiment important? Essentially, you should describe why your audience should pay attention to this experiment.
• Present the hypothesis and research question. Your hypothesis when performing the experiment should be identified in this section along with the research question(s) you are addressing. If you have more than one hypothesis, they should all be identified.
• Define the overall goal. Whether you have one hypothesis or many hypotheses, they should all be pointing to one overall goal. This goal should be clearly defined and explained in conjunction with your hypothesis.
Methods and Materials
• Give an overview of the lab methods. Explain what experimental system you will be using to test your hypothesis and why you chose that particular system. What advantages does it provide? If the system you used was provided for you in another text, explain why they chose that particular system. Then you should identify what you are measuring in the lab.
• Make a list of ALL items used in the lab. Alternatively, materials can be included as part of the procedure.
• Write a paragraph (complete sentences), which explains what you did in the lab as a short summary.
• Add details (step-by-step) of your procedure in such a way that anyone else could repeat the experiment.
• Use the narrative format. This section should not be in a list format or read like a recipe. The information should be relayed in a story type of writing.
• Only include the important details. Not every detail needs to be included. Only the relevant elements should be mentioned. If a scientist would need to know a certain aspect to repeat the experiment, then it should be included. Otherwise, leave it out.
Results (Data):
• This section should include any data tables, observations, or additional notes you make during the lab.
• Distinguish between multiple experiments. If this report includes multiple experiments working towards the same overall goal, then each experiment should receive its own paragraph in this section. In each paragraph, explain what you did, why you did it, and what the results were.
• Use visuals where appropriate. A well-executed graph or table representing your results can be very effective in communicating data from your experiment. However, a figure cannot stand alone in communicating the results of an experiment. Any figures should be explained in the text of the results section
• All tables, graphs and charts should be labeled appropriately.
Discussion
• Accept or reject your hypothesis.
• EXPLAIN why you accepted or rejected your hypothesis using data from the lab.
• Include a summary of the data - averages, highest, lowest, etc. to help the reader understand your results. Try not to copy your data here, you should summarize and reference KEY information.
• This section carries the most weight. Most professors pay the closest attention to this section because this is where students interpret what they have discovered.
• Reiterate the results. Remind the reader of what you found in the results section of the lab report. If more than one experiment was conducted, separate the individual experiments into individual paragraphs just as they were in the results portion. Rather than saying the same information over again though, discuss the results in the context of the overall goal of the experiment, which was identified in the introduction of the report.
• Interpret the results. The reader needs to know what the results of the experiments mean. Why is the data like it is? Why is this data important to know? Answering these questions will take raw data and make it meaningful for the reader.
• Discuss possible errors that could have occurred in the collection of the data (experimental errors)
• Discuss potential modifications for the experiment. If a person wanted to replicate this experiment, what might they change about it to create further progress in this topic area? This is not about correcting mistakes made in conducting the experiment. What should be discussed here is how to modify the methods of the experiment to push scientific knowledge in this topic forward.
Conclusion:
• This section is not always required. Some professors feel as if the discussion section also functions as a conclusion. However, many do still expect a conclusion section after the discussion. The conclusion pulls the discussion section into the context of the introduction.
• Restate the results and discussion. Briefly reiterate the ideas from the results and discussion sections in the context of the overall purpose of the experiment that was identified in the introduction. Do the ideas from the results and discussion support the hypothesis? What can you conclude about the topic being investigated from this experiment?