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.
Style:
Methods:
Style:
What to avoid
Content
What to avoid
Style
Figures and tables
Style: hello
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
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.
whatever steps you do, you write.
you know your procedure is a good procedure if it is able to be duplicated
analyze and figure it out with your opnion
"How is she doing" is correct.
By reading the stated "enterprise procedure" and doing as it says there. If you don't understand what a certain part of it means, ask someone higher up in rank to explain or to show you.
Were doing this is correct.
An intricate procedure is a complicated way of doing something.
It is not possible for a person to get an A on their report without doing anything. A person will be required to work hard in order to get this mark on a report.
yes
Neither. You are doing it...or...You're doing it.
reporting
The conduct of a formal meeting uses "parliamentary procedure." A standard reference source is Robert's Rules of Order.
What are you doing is the correct 'saying' or pronounciation. What you doing' is slang and is slightly shortened to make life easier, and of course we understand it.
The correct sentence is the following: "What were you doing from before?"
Yes, the phrase 'what they're doing' is grammatically correct. For example: What they're doing is wrong.