Creating a Formal Lab Report

When carrying out investigations, it is important that scientists keep records of their plans and results.
One of the most important aspects of the scientific method is that any result can be independently verified
by other scientists in order to ensure the validity of the results. In order to have their work accepted by the
scientific community, scientists generally share their work by publishing papers in which details of their
investigation are given.

You will be submitting formal lab reports after an investigation is completed in this class. Make sure you
keep thorough and accurate records of your activities as you carry out any investigation, since you will
likely be writing up the report at a later time.

Your formal lab reports should be based on the following headings, as appropriate. Generally, scientists
use a similar format in their final reports, although the headings and order may vary. Refer to this sheet
whenever you prepare a lab report and use the check boxes to ensure that you have covered all of the
expectations.

At the beginning of your report, create a title that suggests what the investigation
is about. For most labs, the textbook already has a title you can use. Under the
Title title, include the date that the investigation was conducted and your name. You
do not need to have a title page.

Background Information
Begin by introducing your investigation. Include any specific knowledge that
Introduction the reader may need to know to understand your report, such as what formulas
- Background Information you will be using, what scientists first studied the phenomena, and what their
- Purpose theories were.
- Question Purpose and Question
Explain to the reader why the investigation has been done and what question you
were trying to answer by doing it.

A hypothesis is an educated guess about what the results of the experiment will
be. It must be written down before the investigation has even begun!
Remember, a hypothesis is an EDUCATED guess, so you must always back up
Hypothesis your prediction with an explanation as to why you think the result will be that
way. Where possible, use quantitative language like 'directly proportional', 'three
times as fast', 'half as far', etc.
Detailed Procedure
This section outlines how the investigation was completed. The reader needs
clarity in this section so that they can repeat the investigation, if need be, to
Lab Design verify your results. In most cases your procedure will be based on an
- Detailed Procedure investigation from the textbook. To save time and space you may simply say,
- Materials "The procedure was followed as outlined in Nelson Science 10, page 27, with the
exception of…" (list any SPECIAL materials or instructions that the reader may
- Apparatus
not know about.)
- Variables
Materials and Apparatus
List all of the materials you utilized to perform your investigation. Draw a
picture of how the apparatus was setup. Clearly label your diagram.
 Variables
State the independent variable (what you changed on purpose), the dependent variable (what
changed because of what you did), and everything else you attempted to control in your lab
design.

In this section, include all qualitative and quantitative observations that you
made. Qualitative observations can be written in sentence form. Be as precise as
possible and include any unexpected results. Always try to present your
observations in a form that is easily understood. For example, use charts to
display your data. Also, make sure the reader can easily know what the
chart/data table is about. You should not explain the observations at this time.
Observations Remember, all numbers in science are meaningless without units. The table
- Qualitative below is an example of well formatted observations:
- Quantitative
Table 1: Distance and time data for a remote controlled car
Distance Time Mass
Trial
(m) (s) (kg)
1 0.334 2.32 45.42
2 0.441 3.74 45.42
3 0.398 2.98 45.42

In this section you explain what the observations show. Make statements about
the patterns or trends you observed. If you need calculations to support your
analysis, include them here and display the results in chart form. See the
example below:

Speed = Distance/Time
= 0.334 m / 2.32 s
= 0.144 m/s

Average Speed = (Speed 1 + Speed 2 + Speed 3) / 3

= (0.114 m/s + 0.118 m/s + 0.134 m/s) / 3
= 0.122 m/s

Analysis All other calculations were performed as above.

Trial Speed (m/s)

1 0.114
2 0.118
3 0.134
Average 0.122

Make a graph to display your calculations where appropriate. Most importantly,

you should use this section to look at your observations theoretically. Discuss
your graph if you have one. Do the results make sense? If so, can you explain
why? If not, can you deduce a possible explanation? Did the theories outlined in
the background information prove to be valid for this investigation? Conclude
the analysis by answering the question that initiated the investigation.
 Judge the investigation overall. Reflect on the procedure and consider how well
Evaluation of it worked. Explore sources of error (what might have affected the results?).
Investigation What were the strengths and limitations of your investigation?

Summarize the results of the lab investigation and what you learned. Officially
answer the lab question. Highlight any new questions you have from doing this
Conclusion investigation. Extend what you have learned in the lab to new situations to think
of applications. (Ask yourself, “Who cares? Who else might be interested in my
lab results and why?)

Extra Hints
1. All text should be written in past tense, 3rd person. For example, do not say, "next, I measure the
distance and record it in my lab book." Instead you should say, "The distance was measured and
recorded in the lab book."

2. You will loose points if your conclusions do not follow logically from your results. Do not say
something just because that is what the textbook says.

3. You will loose points if you do not remark about remarkable results, and attempt to analyze their
cause. For instance, if your lab record says, "We measured the free-fall acceleration, g, in the
classroom to be 468 m/s2," without any further comment, your mark will suffer.

4. You will lose points if you use the word "prove" or "disprove" in any of its forms. Proof is a
mathematical notion, and you haven't done it. There is no absolute truth in science. Your results
may "support" or "not support", some hypothesis, theory, or law, but you did not "prove" it. The
words "verify" and "confirm" are also okay.

5. You will lose points if you merely speculate about sources of experimental error. Statements like
"Friction may have caused a discrepancy in the results" need to be supported with data, or at least
some plausible theoretical mechanism.

6. You will lose points if you use the words "human error". Your instructor will read this phrase as "I
don't care enough about this experiment to actually think about what is going on in it."

7. You will lose points if you say something like "there may have been a calculation error". Your
instructor will read this phrase as "I really don't care enough about this experiment to go back and
check my work."