Writing a Lab Report

Title Be descriptive! Include your name (English + Family Name), Chemistry 10, Section X, Date Determining the Formula of a Hydrate Katie Boiteau Chemistry 10 Section Z 10 March 2009

1. Question What is the aim or goal of this experiment? Why do you want to investigate this question?

2. Hypothesis None for this lab. You can give background information. What is a hydrate? Anhydrous? % composition? What are hydrates used for? Etc.

3. Variables None

4. Protocol Give a summary of how you will answer the question from step 1. What kind of method will you use? What kind of data will you collect? What kind of calculations will you do?

Procedure 5. Diagram (or photo!), label equipment! 6. Method: Past tense, passive voice Find mass = mass was found Add water = water was added Stir = was stirred Try not to use “I” or “we”

Past tense, Passive voice Add 2 mL water to the test tube. Two mililiters of water was added to the test tube. Stir the compound as you heat it. The compound was stirred while heating.

Find the mass of the crucible on the electronic balance. The mass of the crucible was found using the electronic balance. Grind the CuSO 4 in the mortar and pestle. The CuSO 4 was ground using the mortar and pestle. Continue to heat, cool and mass the compound until the change in mass is less than 0.01 g. The compound was heated, cooled and massed until the change in mass was less than 0.01 g.

7. Equipment Do not make a list. Just make sure you use names of equipment and their sizes (if necessary) in your procedure. Ex: Three mL of water and 1.0 g CuSO 4 were mixed in a 40 mL beaker.

8, 9, 10 Variables None in this lab

11. Enough Data Make sure your procedure describes WHEN and HOW you recorded data. What data did you record? How did you know the water was evaporated? Ex: After heating for about 2 minutes, the mass of the crucible and the CuSO 4 was found on the electronic balance and recorded.

Your assignment – Due next Weds. On a fresh, nice piece of paper (in complete sentences, in paragraphs): Write a title and heading 1. State aim or goal and explain 2. Write background information: what does your reader need to know to understand your lab report (optional)? 4. Summarize how you will answer your goal/question from Draw a diagram of your equipment set-up and label. 6. Write your method in the past tense. Include ALL the steps that YOU did! How do you know you collected enough data? When and how did you collect data?

12. Raw Data Quantitative data should be in a table. Tables should have titles (Not “Table”), labels, units and uncertainty. Qualitative data in paragraphs Do not do any calculation yet! Item NameMass (g, ±0.005 g) Crucible (empty)23.58 Crucible + copper (II) sulfate hydrate Copper (II) sulfate hydrate 2.05 Table 1 : Masses of copper (II) sulfate before, during and after evaporation

13. Processing Data Explain how you will process your data. Give sample calculations. Do your calculations. Show all the math. % composition of water and CuSO 4 Mass and moles of water and CuSO 4 Calculate X. Calculate % error for water.

14. Graphs None for this lab!

15. Interpret results Make a summary of your data collection and your calculations. What did you discover?

16. Compare How did your results compare to the given value for % composition and X? What was your % error?

Evaluation Describe three errors and weaknesses (in a paragraph!) How did they affect your data and % error? How could you fix them next time (improvements)?

Your assignment – Due next Weds. 12. Make a raw data table with a title. Use labels, units and uncertainty. 13. Explain how you processed your data and show ALL your calculations for % composition, mass, moles, X, and % error. 15. Summarize what you found out in a paragraph. 16. Compare your % composition for water, and X to the real ones Evaluate: Describe three errors/weaknesses, how they affected your data and how to improve them.