HONORS PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Lab Report Format Information Sheet
The reporting of experimental results is an important part of good scientific work. Putting together a
good report provides an opportunity for you to synthesize and process information that you gathered
during your lab. It also provides a standardized and organized format for the evaluation of your work
by your peers (or instructors).
In this class, you will periodically produce a lab report for labs throughout the year. Each lab report
will follow basically the same format, but there will be some modifications to accurately represent the
specific circumstances or data of each lab. These modifications will be discussed in detail when they
arise.
The basic sections of each lab report and a short description of each are listed below…
1.
Report Header (Upper Right Hand Corner)
A. Names of Lab Group Member (Hopefully you don’t need any help here)
B. Class and Period (Check your schedule)
C. Date (Once again, hopefully no need for assistance here)
D. Title
i. This is usually given to you for each lab.
ii. It is Ok to use the Title on the lab write up given to you
iii. Don’t just write “Lab 1” or “Lab from week of 9/8”
2.
Introduction (“Background Information”)
A. Problem Statement & Hypothesis
i. First section not in the header
ii. Write a testable question that applies to your lab. State it in the form of a question,
which means you need a question mark!
iii. After your question, pose a hypothesis that applies to your lab.
1. Remember, your hypothesis is based on facts, laws, and theories so be sure to
include this information in your hypothesis.
B. Literature Review / Background Information
i. Definitions and explanations of terms used in the problem statement and procedures.
These will apply to the topics that we are covering in class (or maybe ones that we
covered previously).
ii. This is your “research”
1. If this were a paper for a journal, you would need to actively research a topic to
find out what research had been previously completed on this topic. This is
how you would come up with your testable question and the procedure used
during the experiment.
iii. All research should be from scholarly sources with appropriate citations.
1. Citations within the report should be made with the author’s last name and the
year of publication following the information. (e.g. Barth, 2012)
2. Any direct quotations from an outside source need to be explained within the
context of the lab.
3. The number of outside sources required for each lab will be detailed by your
instructor.
3.
Materials and Methods (“Procedure”)
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A description of what you did during the lab – it is not a recipe for what you made. You
must tell the reader what you did and with what the work was done.
i. DO NOT copy each step word-for-word from the lab write up
ii. Remember, it is not a recipe for what you made in your lab – it is a story of what you
did in your experiment.
B. Write a brief PARAGRAPH that tells a story of what you did in lab. Be sure to include the
amount of materials that you used during the experiment, if that was important.
i. This might include the mass of a powder that you measured to perform a trial, the
volume of a liquid that you used, or any other measurements that are important to the
understanding of the lab itself.
ii. If you did multiple trials where the procedure for each trial was the same but the
amount of material used were different, you do not need to include the details of each
trial here. Write one descriptive set of details to accurately explain what you did. The
amounts used for each trial can be included in the Data & Observations section
C. Try to strike a balance between an over-detailed description of even the most trivial items
and a sketchy statement that provides insufficient information
D. Summarize the procedure so that someone reading the report who is familiar with scientific
lab work would be able to reproduce your experiment
i. You don’t have to tell someone to measure liquid volumes using a graduated cylinder.
You can say, “We then added 25.2 ml of rubbing alcohol to the beaker.” Someone
familiar with lab work should know how you obtained that 25.2 ml.
ii. You don’t have to tell someone to clean a piece of equipment. People familiar with
lab work should know to start with clean equipment. If it is important NOT to clean
equipment (i.e., you are adding something to a container that already has contents),
you should include that. If it is important that the equipment is dry, you should state
that.
iii. Sometimes, it is important to pre-rinse equipment with a certain substance. You
should include that.
iv. You don’t have to include clean up instructions or a description of what you should do
in case of an accident (i.e. “Clean up acid spills with NaHCO3”, or “Discard waste
products in the container at the front of the room.” etc.). That is not part of the
procedure for your experiment. That is just a reality of working in a laboratory.
E. Sketch of Experimental Setup
i. Include a computer generated picture to show the setup of the equipment used during
the lab. Be sure to include proper sequencing and relative size.
ii. You can take pictures of the lab as you are working on it and include those in the
report.
iii. It doesn’t have to be a “comic strip” that shows your lab work step-by-step. One
picture that shows the general setup is fine.
A.
4.
Results
A. Data & Observations
i. Provide data in table format with correct SI units (if necessary).
ii. Make sure that all observations are included, even if they don’t seem correct or
accurate.
1. These can be included within the data table or as descriptive statements
outside of the data table
B. Calculations
i. In many labs, calculations will need to be completed with the data collected.
ii. Show at least one FULL calculation for each type that was performed.
1. If you performed the same calculations multiple times with different data for
each trial, you can show one detailed calculation with the data for trial 1 and
then a table that shows the results of your calculations for subsequent trials
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iii. Be sure to include all units and make the calculation easy to follow.
C. Graphs
i. Include hard copies of any graphs that were collected or produced with a graphing
program.
ii. Graphs made from data should include titles, axis labels with units, trendlines and
equations, etc.
iii. Graphs should appear within the text of your report, not as separate pages at the
end.
5.
Error Analysis
A. Discuss places within the experiment where things could have happened to make your data
less than ideal.
B. Don’t include human error…we all know that we’re not perfect and uncertainty is a part of
measurement.
C. Include some discussion on what effect this source of error would have on your results
6.
Discussion and Conclusion
A. State whether or not your hypothesis was supported.
B. Include a short paragraph with a discussion and interpretation of the most significant data
from the Results section.
C. When writing a conclusion statement, include some discussion about why the activity was
performed and how it relates to class.
D. Discuss sources of error and suggestions for improvement with regards to the Methods and
Materials.
7.
References
A. In text citations are necessary any time you refer to a previously reported idea, result,
method, etc. within the report.
B. Are most commonly listed at the end of the report in alphabetical order.
C. Visit the following website for more guidelines and proper examples of citations
i. http://www.bio.davidson.edu/courses/molbio/protocols/papers.html
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