BIO/291 v3
Week 6-Human Reproductive Cells Lab
In science, reporting what has been done in a laboratory setting is incredibly important for
communicating, replicating, and validating findings. However, writing scientific reports can be a little
overwhelming. There are a set of agreed upon components that the scientific community requires when
reporting scientific experimentation. Answer the following questions to describe what occurred during the
lab you conducted in Labster. Be sure to use complete sentences and descriptions that fully represent
what you experienced. Writing a lab report is less about being correct or incorrect, than it is accurately
reporting what happened and why. So, do not worry about reporting data that might seem counterintuitive
or unexpected. Focus on clearly communicating what you did and what you observed.
Describing what you did during a lab supports other scientists in replicating your work. It is through this
consistent replication that scientists are able to see repeating patterns and develop ideas that help move
science forward. When you discuss your data, in a later section, you will have to describe what choices
you made, why you made them, and any concerns about things that occurred that were unexpected. In
order to have enough information to do this, you need to keep very detailed notes. What doesn’t seem
important in the moment may end up being something that explains your findings later. A benefit of
conducting virtual labs when learning science, is that many potential errors are controlled for you. The
virtual lab environment often will alert you if something is not going the way it should. This does not occur
non-virtual settings. The virtual lab setting can be very helpful to learners for this reason. However, we still
have to practice documenting so that those skills are practiced for the lab experiences when technology
will not be there as a coach.
Many lessons learned as a result of scientific experiment come from the reporting and analysis of data.
This part of scientific reporting requires detailed descriptions of technical information and quantities as
well as high-level synthesis of information. High-level synthesis requires a mastery of foundational
content in the related scientific field and a complimentary mastery in some field of quantitative and/or
qualitative analysis.
The discussion section is used to explain why things might have happened the way that they did in your
experiment. Here, scientists describe any potential anomalies or mistakes and why they think they may
have occurred.
The conclusion section of a lab report describes how the learnings from the lab experimentation fit in to
prior scientific knowledge. This is done by comparing new information to previously known information
that was identified in the section of your report that discusses background information.
Once scientists have identified how the new knowledge fits into the old knowledge, they discuss the
implications of the new information for moving forward. In this class, the purpose of study is to learn some
foundational science ideas represented by the course student learning outcomes. Review the course
student learning outcome aligned to this lab in the assignment directions in Blackboard.
Following scientific experimentation, scientists usually come up with new questions that result from what
they learned. These new questions often end up leading to new experiments in the future.
Answer the following questions to describe what occurred during the lab you conducted in
Labster. Be sure to use complete sentences and descriptions that fully represent what you
experienced. Writing a lab report is less about being correct or incorrect, than it is accurately
reporting what happened and why. So, do not worry about reporting data that might seem
counterintuitive or unexpected. Focus on clearly communicating what you did and what you
observed.
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Homeostatic Control Lab Reporting Worksheet
BIO/291 v3
Page 2 of 4
TITLE:
What was the title of the lab you completed?
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PROBLEM:
What was the specific problem you were trying to resolve in the Lab?
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HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT:
Describe in detail three significant concepts from our course text or classroom discussion and how these
concepts relate to the lab.
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Describe in detail three significant concepts from the THEORY section which provided additional
background information about the problem? Explain how each concept is related to the lab problem. (To
review the theory section, launch the Lab and click the “Theory” tab on the top of the data pad).
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HYPOTHESIS STATEMENT:
Most scientific experimentation involves examining variables and their relationships.
-Provide a definition of what constitutes a variable in a lab experiment. Define three types of variables?
-Identify the variables that were examined in this lab. Clearly identify which variables were controlled
and which were changing.
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Develop a hypothesis statement based on your lab experience that clearly predicts the relationship
between the variables being studied. Use critical thinking to connect the variables and lab findings to
your hypothesis statement.
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METHOD:
You have already identified the variables that you studied in the lab in the previous section. Now, take
some time to fully define and describe, in detail, what each variable is and how it was changed throughout
the lab.
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Homeostatic Control Lab Reporting Worksheet
BIO/291 v3
Page 3 of 4
In 3-5 sentences summarize what you did during the lab not including your process of logging into the
system. This section would be much more robust for a non-virtual lab. For this virtual lab, a short, highlevel summary will suffice.
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Describe some of the observations you made. What numbers did you write down or keep track of? What
did each of your senses observe during the lab process? What did you see (ex: changes in colors,
movement, shapes, sizes, patterns)? What did you hear (ex: sounds from reactions, collisions, error
messages)? What did you lab character touch? Did you notice anything that seemed unexpected? Did
you notice anything that you did expect to observe?
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Which parts of the lab required you to think more than others and required more time? Explain.
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DATA & RESULTS
What relationships did you notice between the variables you examined? When you changed the
variable(s), how did the other(s) change? Explain the links between variables and changes.
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There are usually patterns in data involving the variables.
Explain in detail what data patterns stood out, including any patters between the variables.
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DISCUSSION:
Explain two examples of situations involving your lab that could have impacted the accuracy of your data.
Did the simulation alert you that an error was occurring? If so, how did you resolve it?
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CONCLUSION:
Using the background information from the text and Theory section, your hypothesis, observations and
data, provide a conclusion. The conclusion should demonstrate strong links between the factors listed
above in relation to the learning outcome for the assignment listed in the directions in Blackboard.
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Describe how the information from this lab is related to the course student learning outcome?
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Homeostatic Control Lab Reporting Worksheet
BIO/291 v3
Page 4 of 4
Following scientific experimentation, scientists usually come up with new questions that result from what
they learned. These new questions often end up leading to new experiments in the future. What
additional scientific things do you wonder about after completing and writing about your lab experience?
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