Science Lab Reports |
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Writing lab reports is form of content area writing for Science instruction. Writing lab reports is a way students can communicate their lab findings and the conclusions they have drawn to their teacher, their class, or to the public. When students are taught the Scientific Method, they learn several elements of a lab report. They learn to pose problems in the form of a question, to formulate a hypothesis, and that Scientific experiments should have only one independent variable, but multiple constants or controlled variables.
For a lab report, students should write their procedures either in numbered step-by-step format or as a summary in past tense, whichever is prescribed by their teacher. The purpose of listing the procedures is that the results should be repeatable, so someone reading the report should be able to repeat the experiment and obtain the same results.
Student lab reports should contain a data chart. The original rough data may be required by the teacher, but a summary chart or graph may be acceptable for the formal lab report. Finally, students should be taught that their results should answer the original question, and that any discussion regarding the results should be written as their conclusions. Some questions that may help students write their conclusions are as follows:
In 2-3 cohesive paragraphs, respond to the questions below.
For a lab report, students should write their procedures either in numbered step-by-step format or as a summary in past tense, whichever is prescribed by their teacher. The purpose of listing the procedures is that the results should be repeatable, so someone reading the report should be able to repeat the experiment and obtain the same results.
Student lab reports should contain a data chart. The original rough data may be required by the teacher, but a summary chart or graph may be acceptable for the formal lab report. Finally, students should be taught that their results should answer the original question, and that any discussion regarding the results should be written as their conclusions. Some questions that may help students write their conclusions are as follows:
In 2-3 cohesive paragraphs, respond to the questions below.
- Our experiment showed...explain your results. Explain why you designed your experiment as you did.
- We believe this is because... (Explain why you think you obtained the results you obtained.)
- As stated in our Background... (Restate some of your background information that helps to explain your results.)
- One thing that could have affected our results.... (Confess any mistakes made during your experiment.)
- A question I still have is... (What question(s) still remain?)
- We could test this by... (How could you test a question that still remains?)
- Students should be reminded to include their sources of information.
Click here for a lab report form to use with students.
