The Science Writing Heuristic
Lab Report Format
Science Investigative Reporting:
A Quick Reference
Pre-Lab Sections (to be completed prior to the lab)
Beginning Questions: What will I investigate?
Safety: How will I stay safe?
Tests and Procedure: What will I do to answer my question(s)?
Class Laboratory Work and Preliminary Analysis
Data, Observations, Graphs, Balanced Equations, and Calculations:
What did I observe and what did I do?
What calculations did I perform?
What graphs did I prepare?
Post-Lab Sections
Claims
How do I answer my beginning question(s)? What can I claim?
Evidence and Analysis
How do I know? Why am I making these claims? Provide a
written explanation that supports your claim.
Reading, Reflections, and Post-Laboratory Questions
How have my ideas changed? Do I have a new question? How do
my ideas compare with the ideas of others in the class? How will I
answer post-laboratory questions?
Lab Report Rubric
Section of
Report
Beginning
Question(s)
Safety
Considerations
Procedure and
Tests
Data,
Observations,
Calculations,
and Graphs
Claim(s)
Evidenc e and
Analysis
Reading ,
Reflections,
and Post-lab
Questions
Total Points
Categories
What question(s) did I have? What question(s) did the group decide to use?
What general point(s) can I make about staying safe in this experiment ? What
more specific point(s) should I make about a certain chemical or procedure?
What did I actually do (in outline form, specific enough for someone else to
follow to p erform this experiment?
What qualitative observations did I make? What quantitative data have I
collected, and what calculations did I perform to make sense of my data? Wha t
balanced equations have I written? Have I prepared a properly labele d and titled
graph?
What can I claim to answer my beginning question(s) or the class beginning
question(s)?
What is my interpretation of my data (graphs , class data, trends, or other
analysis) to support my claim( s)? Hav e I connected the proper evidenc e with the
proper claim?
A. Have I identified and explained sources of error and
assumptions made during the experiment?
B. How have my idea s changed, what new questions do I
have, or what new things do I have to think about ?
C. How does this work tie into the concepts about which I have learned in class?
D. To what can I refer in my text, my notes, or some real life application to make
a connection with this lab work?
E. What are my answers to any post-lab questions? How do I incorporat e them
into my report?
Nu mber
of
Points
2
2
2
6
2
6
10
30
Inquiry Laboratory Activities
1. Prior to the lab:
A. Prepare beginning question(s);
B. Outline a procedural strategy;
C. List safety concerns.
2. Upon arrival in lab:
A. Share your beginning question(s) with your lab
partner(s) or group mates;
B. Discuss these questions with your partner(s) or group
mates;
C. Discuss these questions with the class to decide which
one(s) to study as a group.
3. After deciding on beginning questions, discuss what strategies
would be appropriate to answer the beginning questions.
A. The class will be divided into groups. All team members
within a group are expected to be working on some kind of
lab procedure. No spectators!
B. Each group will reach a consensus on how to carry out the
investigation. Each team member is expected to understand
how to conduct all parts of the lab.
C. The groups will share their strategies and must ensure that
their procedures can be replicated to generate “good” data.
D. The class will draft appropriate data tables and manage the
variables to be investigated.
E. Identify which student groups or pairs are responsible for
different runs. In this way, anyone can talk with the persons
who collected any piece(s) of data.
4. After data is collected, analyze it and try to interpret it.
A. Look for trends, patterns, and anomalies.
B. If there are anomalies, decide who will repeat the
experiment to replace that data. How do you decide which
part(s) to repeat?
C. It is often useful to graph results and interpret your
graph(s).
5. Propose your claim(s) and cite supporting evidence.
6. Discuss results as a class to create an understanding of the
concept(s) for the lab. Your teacher will guide your discussion.
7. After the lab:
A. Consult other appropriate resources to explain, confirm, or
dispute what you have learned in the lab. These could be
your text, the Internet, your teacher, your class notes, etc.
B. Answer any Post-lab discussion questions” that have been
posed by your teacher or proposed in a lab handout.
Zooming in on the Report
Examples
Beginning Questions
These questions are typically in the form of a quantitative
relationship.
Examples
• How does the temperature affect the rate of a reaction?
• How does the mass of the reactants affect the mass of product
obtained?
• What is the relationship between the density of a solution and its
concentration?
Even though a question may seem obvious, it is important to ask
that question, make a claim about it, and then back up the claim
with evidence. After you propose a beginning question, make a
prediction to try to answer it.
Tests and Procedures
• List the steps that you will take to perform the lab experiment.
• What would you want to include if someone were going to use only
your written procedures to do the lab?
• After you and your group have agreed on a strategy for completing
the experiment, outline that procedure if it differs from your own.
You should list exactly what you did to accomplish your work.
Example
Suppose that you are investigating the rate at which aluminum metal
dissolves in hydrochloric acid. An appropriate procedure might
include:
1. Obtain a sample of aluminum between 0.50 and 1.00 gram.
2. Record the time (in seconds) necessary to dissolve the metal
sample in 20.0 mL of hydrochloric acid with concentration
ranging from 1.50 M to 3.00 M.
Data, Observations, Graphs, Balanced Equations, and Calculations
During the lab, enter the following into your notebook:
• data,
• observations,
• notes,
• calculations,
• equations,
• graphs,
• chemical information.
Making a Claim
A claim should be a one- or two-sentence statement about the
results of your laboratory work that answers your beginning
question(s).
Acceptable Examples
• The rate of the chemical reaction increases with temperature.
• If the concentration of reactant A doubles, the rate of the reaction
doubles. The reaction rate is, therefore, directly related to the
concentration of reactant A.
Inappropriate Examples
• My product was a yellow solution.
• The vacuum filtration technique was very helpful in separating
the products of the reaction.
Evidence and Analysis
This is a written explanation that supports your claim.
Claim: The rate of the reaction increases as concentration increases.
Evidence
When the concentration of reactant A doubles, from 0.10 M to 0.20
M, the rate of the reaction doubles, from 2.5 mL/min to 5.0 mL/min.
When the concentration of reactant A is cut in half, from 0.10 M to
0.050 M, the rate of the reaction is halved, from 2.5 mL/min to 1.3
mL/min.
Include supporting data. Explain the meaning behind the data and calculations.
Graphs, balanced equations, and calculations need to be interpreted and explained
in order to count as evidence. Simply referring to them is not good enough.
Emphasis is placed on interpretation and explanation of these results.
Reading, Reflections, and Post-Laboratory Questions
• Discuss your initial beginning question(s). Have your ideas
changed?
• Do you have a new question?
• If you made a prediction prior to performing the experiment,
was it correct? If not, do you understand why not?
• How do your results compare to those of other students in other
groups or the textbook or a literature value?
• Can you relate your work to any real-life application?
• What connection did you make between the lab and lecture?
• How have you incorporated your answers to any post-lab
questions into your reflection?
Sample Student Lab Report
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