Principles of Ecology Laboratory
BL/ENVS 403 – Laboratory Report Assignments
Hay Infusion and Competition Experiments
GENERAL— These reports should allow a reader to precisely understand what you did, how your data clearly led
you to your conclusions, and the factors that might complicate or invalidate your conclusions. The assignments
must be word processed in 12 point Times New Roman font, have one-inch margins, and be space and a half OR double
spaced. They must be stapled in the upper left corner and have page numbers on each page. You are expected to have
basic proficiency in written English. All scientific names must be italicized. You and your team may discuss your
results, but everyone should create their own figures and write their own reports. 10 points
AUTHORSHIP AND TITLE— Include your name, the name of the course, my name (spelled correctly), and the date in the
upper right-hand corner. Write a descriptive one-sentence title appropriate to the experiment that states your conclusion
OR includes a summary of the experiment. (Do NOT begin this section with the word “title.”) 5 points
INTRODUCTION— Construct three to five well written paragraphs that include(s) some background concerning the topic
and clearly stated hypotheses that you tested and what reasoning led you to initially propose the hypotheses. You must
include two (2) primary literature sources in your introduction. Begin this section with the word
INTRODUCTION. 15 points
MATERIALS & METHODS—In this section, you may cite the Lab Manual (Kingsolver, 2008), but you need to include the
full reference to the lab manual in your literature cited section. You must also include ANY and ALL changes or
amendments you had to the protocol outlined in the laboratory manual. Be as specific as possible when describing what
you did. Please write this section in the past tense. Begin this section with the words MATERIALS &
METHODS. 15 points
RESULTS— Write a one or two paragraph explanation of your results in the body of the report, but do NOT begin to
discuss your data in light of your hypothesis here. Include the names of all statistical tests and the results. Refer to
all tables and/or figures you include in the text of this section (e.g., “Figure 1 shows that the treatment group grew
faster than the control group). Your report must include at least one computer generated figure (this means graph),
but you may include as many figures as you like to properly show your data. For the hay infusion lab, you should
also include drawings or photographs of the organisms you observed. If you use photographs, please include the
website where you obtained the photos. Also please give all tables and figures appropriate legends. Do not include
the raw data. Begin this section with the word RESULTS. 20 points
DISCUSSION— Construct a two or three paragraph, well written discussion. You must clearly and correctly state if the
data support or reject your hypotheses and explain how your data support or reject your hypotheses by comparing the
observed and expected NUMBERS (not frequencies) in light of the p-value, if you did statistical tests. Generally discuss
what your results suggest about evolution and/or management. You should have at least two (2) additional peerreviewed sources in your discussion. Also discuss possible sources of error in your data collection or analysis and what
these may mean for your conclusions. Begin this section with the word DISCUSSION. 20 points
LITERATURE CITED—Include at least five academic sources used, plus the laboratory manual. Use APA style.
Begin this section with the words LITERATURE CITED. 15 points