The Bronx High School of Science
V. Reidy, Principal
Biology Department
Dr. M. Wagner, Instructor
BOTTLE BIOLOGY LAB: NOTES ON THE FORMAL LAB REPORT WRITE-UP
Full write-up lab reports will be written using the same general format as scientific papers with separate
sections for each of the following: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, References.
Lab reports, like scientific papers, should be written in the past tense when you are talking about your actual
experiment because they are a report of what you actually did and why you did it. Primary articles in scientific
literature are first-person accounts of research, but are generally written in the third person, passive voice.
Lab reports should likewise be written in the third-person, passive voice.
Introduction:
Discuss ecological and biological concepts important to balanced ecosystems. These are the concepts discussed
in class during the ecology unit and found in your textbook. All concepts listed in the rubric must be addressed.
Often no more than 1-3 sentences is sufficient for each concept.
The problem must be clearly stated. The problem is to design and construct a balanced, closed terrestrial or
aquatic mini-ecosystem in a two-liter soda bottle. Your hypothesis must be clearly stated.
The Introduction must be properly referenced. Your textbooks are your main references. The introduction is not
necessarily in past tense. Do not use the words I or we when stating the problem or the hypothesis.
Materials and Methods:
This is a detailed description of what was actually done, written in paragraph form. It must state the organisms
used, the number of each, the amount of gravel or soil added, the quantity of water added, and any other details
needed to know exactly what went into the ecosystem. Modifications of the soda bottle are to be noted. A
general statement of the types of observations and measurements that were made during the course of this
investigation is to be included. This section needs to be past tense, third person, passive voice.
Results:
Qualitative and quantitative observations ( your data) made on the bottle-ecosystem over the course of the
experiment are reported. These data must be organized in tables. Graphs and figures may be included. All
graphs, tables, figures must be numbered and given an appropriate title (ex. Table 1, Table 2). A narrative
description (paragraph form) of what happened in the mini-ecosystem as a function of time must be provided.
This section must be in third person, past tense, passive voice. Results are matter-of-fact statements of the data.
NO ANALYSIS is t be done in the results section; save this for the discussion.
Discussion:
Results must be analyzed in light of the general concepts discussed in the introduction, i.e. explanations of what
happened are discussed here. The question of why the particular results were obtained is addressed. Each
ecological topic mentioned in the Introduction must me addressed in the Discussion, even if it is to say that
there is no evidence of a particular concept. Conclusions are drawn as to whether a balanced stable ecosystem
resulted, ecological succession took place, carrying capacity was exceeded, wastes built up to the point of
toxicity, etc. Given the particular results obtained, improvements to the original design of the mini-ecosystem
are suggested in this section. The significance of what you learned and any applications to the real world
(outside of the bottle) must be discussed.
References: A section with a list of references must be included. For example, if a textbook was used in
writing the Introduction, this needs to be included in the list. Use APA format. You can look this up online if
you do not know what it is.
The Bronx High School of Science
V. Reidy, Principal
Biology Department
Dr. M. Wagner, Instructor
**Good scientific writing is always concise. There is no minimum length requirement. Cover everything in the
rubric in as few pages as is possible.