Lab Report Expectation Guide
This guideline will help clarify expectations in all lab reports. Feel free to add notes as you
receive feedback from your teacher on grade reports. Refer to this every time you write a lab
report in this class. As a whole your report should be neat, and uniformly formatted. It should
appear professional, which is easy in the age of computers. Remember obvious rules, like no
slang, and no contractions. All good lab reports parallel the scientific method.
TITLE
Your title should be a complete statement that states the purpose and method of
the experiment. Scientists never feel a need to be cute or catchy with their titles.
(i.e. Seahorse resistance to various types of environmental stress over one-week
periods)
ABSTRACT
This is a one-paragraph summary of the entire experiment including results and
conclusion. Sometimes you don’t have time to read the whole thing. This
section is not necessary with shorter lab reports.
INTRODUCTION
This section should be in paragraph form with all three subsections connected.
The total length will depend on the size of the experiment/assignment. Include
the word “Introduction” as a section heading.
Purpose
The purpose should be stated first. It should be clear and only one to
three sentences long. Explain exactly what you intended on discovering
with your experiment.
Background information
This section should state all you know about the topic of the experiment.
It should be researched and have citations. For the smallest lab reports it
will be a few paragraphs; for the largest lab reports it will be a few pages.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis should only one sentence long, and the very last of the
Introduction.
MATERIALS
This section must be absolutely complete. It should include the size of items if
the size matters; it should include the temperature if the temperature matters.
The quantity of each item should be clear. As true scientists you will only use the
Metric system. The format should be bullet points. Include the word “Materials”
as a section heading.
Examples:
 6 x 250 mL beaker
 tap water, room temperature
 5 x strips of black construction paper (5 cm x 25 cm)
METHOD
Every detail must be mentioned. A guiding rule is you should be able to give this
lab report to someone in California, and they could duplicate the experiment
exactly. The steps should be numbered. Include the word “Method” as a section
heading.
RESULTS
First present you quantitative (or measurable) data in a data table, and then in a
graph. The title of each should be as clear as the title of your report (it is often
the same title). All graphs and tables should have titles, clear headings, units of
measurement, and be done by a computer, or at least really neat. Use the
appropriate scale on graphs and be sure to label your axes. Typically the
independent (or manipulated) variable will be on the x-axis. You should include a
narrative of your results. This is simply a one or two sentence summary of your
results in word form.
Qualitative results are often appropriate also. They include observations that
were a result of your experiment, but not something you measured.
CONCLUSION
The point of any experiment is to prove something based on data. In your
conclusion you answer the purpose of the experiment and reinforce your answer
with data. In a well designed and carried out experiment, your data should
constitute proof.
First you will restate your purpose and address your hypothesis. Then you will
refer to your data and connect it back to the purpose. This should be the “A-ha”
moment of the scientific process.
Next you will address any flaws you had in the design or execution of your
experiment. Be complete and critical of yourself; it may allow the judge to be
sympathetic when grading your report.
Lastly propose follow-up experiments. How can your experiment be made
better? How could another experiment extend our knowledge further? What
other ideas might this be applied to? Consider open-ended questions that arise
as a result of your efforts.
This entire section should be any where from a page to several, depending on
the scale of your experiment.
Lastly, appreciate your contribute to human knowledge. Every experiment,
even in this class, is a step forward for our entire global community. Sounds
pretty noble?…That’s science.