Writing your Lab Report and Using the Google Drive By Ms. Ninfa

Write a GREAT LAB REPORT! First thing is first…. What is the point of a lab report? You want to be able to investigate something you are wondering about and then tell the whole world about it!! Scientific reports and experiments are in scientific journals where other really cool scientists can read about them and possibly use your information to discover other cool things! Since you are new scientists :) you’re not creating the experiments on your own just yet. I give you the experiments and then you get to practice those reports for when you one day discover something cool on your own.

Parts of the Lab Report These are the basic components of the lab report. They give the most information in the best order. If another scientist were to read your report they could repeat your experiment and hopefully get the same result. ○Abstract ○Introduction ○Materials and Methods ○Results ○Conclusion ○Works Cited (if you use information from class, you would cite the book)

Abstract We did this for one of our very first experiments of the year! Biology - We wrote abstracts on osmosis egg lab. This abstract is what that other scientist that’s looking at your lab is going to read first. This is your first impression! You want to make sure you give them the mini-low-down on the experiment you did! This should only be about a paragraph/and maybe a little bit after that. NO MORE THAN THAT!! You also do not need to go into too much detail. Especially about the actual experiment….we don’t really need to read that you put your lab goggles on here. Cool and all, but save that for later in the paper.

This is what we did on our next experiment. Biology - We wrote an introduction about Chromatography. You should have written about a page or less on JUST BACKGROUND INFO! You should not be talking about the experiment here! Just background information that you needed to know in order to do that lab! :) I.e. Tell the people what a pigment is or what chlorophyll a and b are!!! They might not know! Hit them up with some knowledge. Information should be gathered from your class PowerPoints, your textbook and credible online websites…(i.e. nothing with false info...double check) Introduction

Materials and Method Materials - you can just copy from your lab packet that I give you. Don’t worry I’ve got you on these next few steps. Methods - you can also just copy from your lab packet that I’ll give you. Since these two steps you aren’t really doing much, we’re not really going to practice them. Once you’re a graduated real scientist, then you can make these up on your own and then let other high schoolers copy your experiment over and over using poor innocent eggs and stripping them of their shells.

Results Results - This includes graphs and charts or sometimes just words. Either way some things you want to keep in mind: Make sure you make the graph correctly You need titles You need to be neat You need to have headings and labels You need to start at ZERO!!! :) Please always start at zero on graphs! You need to use the right type of graphs. CLICK HERE: If you’re writing your results, please know what you are talking about. When you don’t teachers go home and cry because you had no idea what was going on. It’s true. NEVER EVER FLUFF YOUR RESULTS! ALWAYS NEVER EVER JUST COPY OFF YOUR LAB PARTNER WHILE PERFORMING THIS PART OF THE EXPERIMENT. YOU WILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON. I PROMISE YOU.

Conclusion Here’s where you get to show off your new scholarly wisdom. Show off all those new smarts!!!! :) Hit them up with some knowledge!Seriously, here’s the part that really puts your paper into the Lab Report Paper Hall of Fame. Mention your hypothesis again! and tell us if you were right or wrong!!! KNOW WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT. Make sense out of your results. i.e. It was concluded from the results, that the water on the hypotonic side will indeed travel to the hypertonic side. We came to this conclusion after weighing and measuring both eggs. (Say a little more here….yada yada) NOW HERE IS WHERE THE CONCLUSION GETS GOOD. Then you add in something like this: Understanding where water travels to, otherwise known as osmosis, is important when understanding the human body and cells. The way cells will react depends on whether or not they are hypo, hyper or isotonic to the solution that they are in. From the results of this experiment, it can be concluded that it would not be healthy for the cell to be placed in either a hypo or hypertonic solution. Both cells exhibited reactions that would not allow the cell and/or organism to survive. To close it out: How could you improve your experiment and also talk about how someone could use you experiment to test other experiments.

Works Cited Use EasyBib…. Really… It’s that easy. For your book, use the ISBN #. For the internet, copy and paste. For any information that you didn’t get from a book or the internet, cite telepathic communication with aliens….KIDDING! For your lab reports everything should come from these two for the most part.

What your report should LOOK like It most definitely should be typed! Use proper headings Proper font/spacing Include all items KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. DO NOT COPY AND PASTE FROM THE INTERNET...we know...oh we will know. Make it enjoyable to read, if you can’t read through...no one else wants to either. PROOF READ IT!! Know the difference between: their and there and they’re, and weather and whether, and it’s and its, and your and you’re….You get the point…. Which brings me to my next topic! You can get it reviewed by someone else! A classmate, a friend, parents and guardians, and ME :)

Things to NOT have in your report Bad grammar Using the words, “us, we or I” YOU NOT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT Missing items like a works cited or a conclusion Not typed Wrong graphs

How to use the Google Drive :) To make everyone’s lives a little easier….I am about to introduce you to the GOOGLE DRIVE. Here is where you will be handing in your lab paper. You are going to type it in the drive. SMART PHONE = It’s an app! GET IT! This will do a few cool things for us: First it will stop cheating. Google Docs will tell me if you used info word for word from another cite….oh yes…. Second, we can save paper...Third, you can share it with me from home so no more I forgot my paper at home or on my flashdrive. Or I “ ed” it to you and you never got it….