Explain how to write a correct procedure when doing a lab report?

Answer 1

How to Prepare a Lab Report - Grade 7 Science

Each time we do a lab in class, you will be required to complete a lab report. If you are working in pairs, you are both required to hand in a lab report. Even in most cases your information is the same.

When we do a lab in class, you will be given a sheet that includes information on the lab we are doing as well as the analysis questions you will have to complete for your report.

General guidelines for preparing a lab report:

o The Lab Report should be typed, Times New Roman 12pt Font.

o All drawings or graphs should be at least ¼ to ½ a page.

o All drawings must be done in pencil.

Follow these steps to be sure that you have a complete and satisfactory lab report.

1. HEADING

-Your full name

-Partners full name

-Course

-Teacher

-Date of Lab

-Lab Title

Name: Eryn Hessian

Partner: ....................

Course: Grade 7 Science

Teacher: Ms. Hessian

Date of Lab: October 20, 2003

Lab Title: Microscope Lab One

2. PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES

What is the experiment designed to find out or demonstrate? Look back at the title, procedures, and introductory paragraphs of the activity sheet to understand the purpose. This should be written in complete sentences.

Purpose:

This experiment will show us some parts of a cell, such as nucleus, cell membrane, and cytoplasm. We will be able to see a living cell. Staining it with iodine will help us see the parts with more contrast.

3. HYPOTHESIS

Write a clear prediction of what you think will happen and why.

Hypothesis:

I predict that I will be able to see the nucleus, because of the high power magnification, and also because I will stain the cells with iodine to have a more visible look.

4. MATERIALS

· Write a list of the materials that were used in carrying out the lab.

Materials:

1. Microscope.

2. Cheek cell.

3. Water dropper.

4. Glass slide.

5. Cover slip.

6. Iodine.

7. Toothpick

5. THE PROCEDURES/METHOD

· Make a number or lettered list or outline of the steps you will need to follow as you perform the experiment. Your goal is to write enough information so you will know what to do, or that someone who has never done this lab would be able to follow YOUR instructions step by step.

· You need not use complete sentences here.

Procedure:

1. Take a clean toothpick and rub it over your cheek.

2. Place what you collected from your cheek on the glass slide.

3. Add the cover slip.

4. Drop a tiny drop of iodine next to the cover slip.

5. Examine the slide on scanning, low and high powers

6. DATA AND OBSERVATIONS

· This section will tell the story of what went on during the experiment.

· As you do the lab activity you are to take notes based on your observations.

· Get everything down, don't wait until later.

· If a chart or table is needed, make one.

· If drawings are necessary do them *AT THE TIME YOU MAKE YOUR OBSERVATIONS*.

· Your drawings must be large (one-quarter of the page), labeled, done to scale (if possible), with measurements and neat.

· Drawing should be in pencil.

DATA AND OBSERVATIONS:

When I started to "rub" the toothpick over my cheek, I thought I wasn't grasping anything. I tried "rubbing" harder, nothing again. Then, the teacher told me that even if I didn't see anything on the toothpick, I was getting cells. So I gently put my cheek cells on the glass slide and slowly covered it with the cover slip. I put some iodine so that the cells would get stained. Then, I started to examine it. We had to start examining then with the 'scanning level', which is the lowest. After that, I went to the other two different levels on the microscope. When I couldn't see clearly, I adjusted it with fine or the coarse focus knob. The cell was very interesting, I never thought that a tiny and almost invisible part of my cheek, would show me all this. I had to draw pictures of what I saw. On the high power, the nucleus, the cytoplasm, and the cell wall, were pretty much visible.

7. ANALYSIS QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

· Analysis Questions can be found on the sheet given to you at the beginning of each lab.

· Answer the analysis questions at the end of the activity. You must use complete sentences.

· This is one of the places where you show you understood what you did in the activity.

· Do not write down the questions but do answer in complete sentences that clearly reflect the question being answered.

Analysis:

1. We added iodine to the cheek cells so that the cells would become stained or colored. Stained or colored cells are easily visible and organelles become more obvious.

2. The nucleus was the most visible structure in the cheek cell.

3. A cheek cell is of course and animal cell, because it is a human cell and humans are classified as animals.

8. CONCLUSIONS

The conclusion requires reflection about the lab and should be in the form of a well-written set of paragraphs. You may want to try making an outline or rough draft of this before writing your final draft.

What to put in your conclusion section:

Look back at your purpose. Was the purpose satisfied? If you had a hypothesis, was it correct or incorrect, and what did you learn from the outcome? What general conclusions can you make about how your observations helped you gain a better understanding of the topic being studied? What specifically did you learn and how can that be applied to your life today or to your understanding of the world. What did you learn about the "Big Questions" associated with this lab? Demonstrate your understanding.

Conclusions:

My hypothesis was correct because I did see the nucleus. My purpose was correct; the iodine stained the cell parts, and definitely made them more visible. I learned that even the tiniest speck of living organism has all the components of a cell, if not, it wouldn't be a cell.

Answer 2

Writing an introductionThe abstract is the only text in a research paper to be written without using paragraphs in order to separate major points. Approaches vary widely, however for our studies the following approach can produce an effective introduction.

• Describe the importance (significance) of the study - why was this worth doing in the first place? Provide a broad context.
• Defend the model - why did you use this particular organism or system? What are its advantages? You might comment on its suitability from a theoretical point of view as well as indicate practical reasons for using it.
• Provide a rationale. State your specific hypothesis(es) or objective(s), and describe the reasoning that led you to select them.
• Very briefy describe the experimental design and how it accomplished the stated objectives.

Style:

• Use past tense except when referring to established facts. After all, the paper will be submitted after all of the work is completed.
• Organize your ideas, making one major point with each paragraph. If you make the four points listed above, you will need a minimum of four paragraphs.
• Present background information only as needed in order support a position. The reader does not want to read everything you know about a subject.
• State the hypothesis/objective precisely - do not oversimplify.
• As always, pay attention to spelling, clarity and appropriateness of sentences and phrases.

Materials and MethodsThere is no specific page limit, but a key concept is to keep this section as concise as you possibly can. People will want to read this material selectively. The reader may only be interested in one formula or part of a procedure. Materials and methods may be reported under separate subheadings within this section or can be incorporated together. General intentThis should be the easiest section to write, but many students misunderstand the purpose. The objective is to document all specialized materials and general procedures, so that another individual may use some or all of the methods in another study or judge the scientific merit of your work. It is not to be a step by step description of everything you did, nor is a methods section a set of instructions. In particular, it is not supposed to tell a story. By the way, your notebook should contain all of the information that you need for this section. Writing a materials and methods sectionMaterials:

• Describe materials separately only if the study is so complicated that it saves space this way.
• Include specialized chemicals, biological materials, and any equipment or supplies that are not commonly found in laboratories.
• Do not include commonly found supplies such as test tubes, pipet tips, beakers, etc., or standard lab equipment such as centrifuges, spectrophotometers, pipettors, etc.
• If use of a specific type of equipment, a specific enzyme, or a culture from a particular supplier is critical to the success of the experiment, then it and the source should be singled out, otherwise no.
• Materials may be reported in a separate paragraph or else they may be identified along with your procedures.
• In biosciences we frequently work with solutions - refer to them by name and describe completely, including concentrations of all reagents, and pH of aqueous solutions, solvent if non-aqueous.

Methods:

• See the examples in the writing portfolio package
• Report the methodology (not details of each procedure that employed the same methodology)
• Describe the mehodology completely, including such specifics as temperatures, incubation times, etc.
• To be concise, present methods under headings devoted to specific procedures or groups of procedures
• Generalize - report how procedures were done, not how they were specifically performed on a particular day. For example, report "samples were diluted to a final concentration of 2 mg/ml protein;" don't report that "135 microliters of sample one was diluted with 330 microliters of buffer to make the protein concentration 2 mg/ml." Always think about what would be relevant to an investigator at another institution, working on his/her own project.
• If well documented procedures were used, report the procedure by name, perhaps with reference, and that's all. For example, the Bradford assay is well known. You need not report the procedure in full - just that you used a Bradford assay to estimate protein concentration, and identify what you used as a standard. The same is true for the SDS-PAGE method, and many other well known procedures in Biology and biochemistry.

Style:

• It is awkward or impossible to use active voice when documenting methods without using first person, which would focus the reader's attention on the investigator rather than the work. Therefore when writing up the methods most authors use third person passive voice.
• Use normal prose in this and in every other section of the paper - avoid informal lists, and use complete sentences.

What to avoid

• Materials and methods are not a set of instructions.
• Omit all explanatory information and background - save it for the discussion.
• Omit information that is irrelevant to a third party, such as what color ice bucket you used, or which individual logged in the data.

ResultsThe page length of this section is set by the amount and types of data to be reported. Continue to be concise, using figures and tables, if appropriate, to present results most effectively. See recommendations for content, below. General intentThe purpose of a results section is to present and illustrate your findings. Make this section a completely objective report of the results, and save all interpretation for the discussion. Writing a results sectionIMPORTANT: You must clearly distinguish material that would normally be included in a research article from any raw data or other appendix material that would not be published. In fact, such material should not be submitted at all unless requested by the instructor.

Content

• Summarize your findings in text and illustrate them, if appropriate, with figures and tables.
• In text, describe each of your results, pointing the reader to observations that are most relevant.
• Provide a context, such as by describing the question that was addressed by making a particular observation.
• Describe results of control experiments and include observations that are not presented in a formal figure or table, if appropriate.
• Analyze your data, then prepare the analyzed (converted) data in the form of a figure (graph), table, or in text form.

What to avoid

• Do not discuss or interpret your results, report background information, or attempt to explain anything.
• Never include raw data or intermediate calculations in a research paper.
• Do not present the same data more than once.
• Text should complement any figures or tables, not repeat the same information.
• Please do not confuse figures with tables - there is a difference.

Style

• As always, use past tense when you refer to your results, and put everything in a logical order.
• In text, refer to each figure as "figure 1," "figure 2," etc. ; number your tables as well (see the reference text for details)
• Place figures and tables, properly numbered, in order at the end of the report (clearly distinguish them from any other material such as raw data, standard curves, etc.)
• If you prefer, you may place your figures and tables appropriately within the text of your results section.

Figures and tables

• Either place figures and tables within the text of the result, or include them in the back of the report (following Literature Cited) - do one or the other
• If you place figures and tables at the end of the report, make sure they are clearly distinguished from any attached appendix materials, such as raw data
• Regardless of placement, each figure must be numbered consecutively and complete with caption (caption goes under the figure)
• Regardless of placement, each table must be titled, numbered consecutively and complete with heading (title with description goes above the table)
• Each figure and table must be sufficiently complete that it could stand on its own, separate from text

DiscussionJournal guidelines vary. Space is so valuable in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, that authors are asked to restrict discussions to four pages or less, double spaced, typed. That works out to one printed page. While you are learning to write effectively, the limit will be extended to five typed pages. If you practice economy of words, that should be plenty of space within which to say all that you need to say. General intentThe objective here is to provide an interpretation of your results and support for all of your conclusions, using evidence from your experiment and generally accepted knowledge, if appropriate. The significance of findings should be clearly described. Writing a discussionInterpret your data in the discussion in appropriate depth. This means that when you explain a phenomenon you must describe mechanisms that may account for the observation. If your results differ from your expectations, explain why that may have happened. If your results agree, then describe the theory that the evidence supported. It is never appropriate to simply state that the data agreed with expectations, and let it drop at that.

• Decide if each hypothesis is supported, rejected, or if you cannot make a decision with confidence. Do not simply dismiss a study or part of a study as "inconclusive."
• Research papers are not accepted if the work is incomplete. Draw what conclusions you can based upon the results that you have, and treat the study as a finished work
• You may suggest future directions, such as how the experiment might be modified to accomplish another objective.
• Explain all of your observations as much as possible, focusing on mechanisms.
• Decide if the experimental design adequately addressed the hypothesis, and whether or not it was properly controlled.
• Try to offer alternative explanations if reasonable alternatives exist.
• One experiment will not answer an overall question, so keeping the big picture in mind, where do you go next? The best studies open up new avenues of research. What questions remain?
• Recommendations for specific papers will provide additional suggestions.

Style: hello

• When you refer to information, distinguish data generated by your own studies from published information or from information obtained from other students (verb tense is an important tool for accomplishing that purpose).
• Refer to work done by specific individuals (including yourself) in past tense.
• Refer to generally accepted facts and principles in present tense. For example, "Doofus, in a 1989 survey, found that anemia in basset hounds was correlated with advanced age. Anemia is a condition in which there is insufficient hemoglobin in the blood."

The biggest mistake that students make in discussions is to present a superficial interpretation that more or less re-states the results. It is necessary to suggest why results came out as they did, focusing on the mechanisms behind the observations

Answer 3

Introduction is top most section of Lab report which provides the sufficient background information to the reader so that he understands why lab was performed. It contains 4-5 lines which describe the problem being studied under particular lab.

Answer 4

whatever steps you do, you write.

you know your procedure is a good procedure if it is able to be duplicated

Answer 5

analyze and figure it out with your opnion