1. IA Lab Report
IB HL BIOLOGY

2. Introduction Short paragraph
A simple introduction to your experiment and paper

3. Research Question
Be very specific with your independent and dependent variable

4. Background Information
Provide background information on the biological process you are studying – photosynthesis, germination, etc.
Provide background information on the variable you are testing – why it might impact your experiment
Explain why this experiment has biological significance – real world application – and/or why you are interested in the experiment

5. Hypothesis
Does not need to be written as an “if, than, because” statement
Be sure to include an explanation

6. Controlled Variables Do not include a variables table
Write as a narrative
Include variables controlled and why

7. Method Do not write as procedural steps
Explain the procedure of your experiment in a narrative

8. Data Only include processed data in the body of your paper
Informative title
Units and uncertainty
Placement of DV and IDV
Number of sig figs

9. Table 1: The Impact of Antibiotics on the Growth of E. coli bacteria
Type of Antibiotic
Average Zone of Inhibition (mm +/- 0.5)
Standard Deviation
T test
P value
Are results significant?
Distilled Water 2 .5
Penicillin 12 1
0.025
Yes
Tetracycline 3
0.85 No

10. Statistics Average raw data
Calculate the standard deviation for every average
Run a t-test between each variation of your variable and the control
Sample calculations will be placed in the appendix of your paper

11. Qualitative Data
If you collected qualitative data include in a table in the body of your paper

12. Graph Title Label axes – include units and uncertainty
Only graph processed data
Include error bars on your graph – be sure to indicate what data was used to create the error bars

13. Graph 1: The impact of Antibiotic on the Growth of E. coli
Error Bars represent +/- 1 standard deviation

14. Conclusion and Evaluation
Question & hypothesis restated
ALL Findings accurately retold
Hypothesis rejected or accepted, with evidence
Complete biological explanation of the experiment
Comparison to other data
Relates back to “real world application” of the experiment
Most relevant limitations or sources of error are identified
Discussion of confidence in the data
Realistic improvements suggested

15. Literature Cited
Use proper formatting

16. Appendix
Include raw data in a table – follow rules for formatting a table
Include your sample calculations
One sample calculation for each type of calculation completed to process your data
Pictures?

17. Additional Information
Use IN TEXT citations
These results are significant because they are contested by scientific context about the differences between name brand and generic drugs, as established by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA 2017)

18. Additional Information
Scientific names – italics, capitalize genus, species is lower case
After first time using the genus name can be abbreviated
Lodge pole pine
Pinus contorta
P. contorta