1. The Science Writing Heuristic Lab Report Format

2. Science Investigative Reporting: A Quick Reference Pre-Lab Sections (to be completed prior to the lab) Beginning Questions: What will I investigate? Safety: How will I stay safe? Tests and Procedure: What will I do to answer my question(s)?

3. Class Laboratory Work and Preliminary Analysis Data, Observations, Graphs, Balanced Equations, and Calculations: What did I observe and what did I do? What calculations did I perform? What graphs did I prepare?

4. Post-Lab Sections Claims How do I answer my beginning question(s)? What can I claim? Evidence and Analysis How do I know? Why am I making these claims? Provide a written explanation that supports your claim. Reading, Reflections, and Post-Laboratory Questions How have my ideas changed? Do I have a new question? How do my ideas compare with the ideas of others in the class? How will I answer post-laboratory questions?

5. Lab Report Rubric

7. Inquiry Laboratory Activities 1. Prior to the lab: A. Prepare beginning question(s); B. Outline a procedural strategy; C. List safety concerns. 2. Upon arrival in lab: A. Share your beginning question(s) with your lab partner(s) or group mates; B.Discuss these questions with your partner(s) or group mates; C.Discuss these questions with the class to decide which one(s) to study as a group.

8. 3.After deciding on beginning questions, discuss what strategies would be appropriate to answer the beginning questions. A.The class will be divided into groups. All team members within a group are expected to be working on some kind of lab procedure. No spectators! B.Each group will reach a consensus on how to carry out the investigation. Each team member is expected to understand how to conduct all parts of the lab. C.The groups will share their strategies and must ensure that their procedures can be replicated to generate “ good ” data. D.The class will draft appropriate data tables and manage the variables to be investigated. E.Identify which student groups or pairs are responsible for different runs. In this way, anyone can talk with the persons who collected any piece(s) of data.

9. 4. After data is collected, analyze it and try to interpret it. A.Look for trends, patterns, and anomalies. B.If there are anomalies, decide who will repeat the experiment to replace that data. How do you decide which part(s) to repeat? C. It is often useful to graph results and interpret your graph(s). 5.Propose your claim(s) and cite supporting evidence.

10. 6.Discuss results as a class to create an understanding of the concept(s) for the lab. Your teacher will guide your discussion. 7. After the lab: A.Consult other appropriate resources to explain, confirm, or dispute what you have learned in the lab. These could be your text, the Internet, your teacher, your class notes, etc. B.Answer any Post-lab discussion questions ” that have been posed by your teacher or proposed in a lab handout.

11. Zooming in on the Report Examples

12. Beginning Questions These questions are typically in the form of a quantitative relationship. Examples How does the temperature affect the rate of a reaction? How does the mass of the reactants affect the mass of product obtained? What is the relationship between the density of a solution and its concentration? Even though a question may seem obvious, it is important to ask that question, make a claim about it, and then back up the claim with evidence. After you propose a beginning question, make a prediction to try to answer it.

13. Tests and Procedures List the steps that you will take to perform the lab experiment. What would you want to include if someone were going to use only your written procedures to do the lab? After you and your group have agreed on a strategy for completing the experiment, outline that procedure if it differs from your own. You should list exactly what you did to accomplish your work. Example Suppose that you are investigating the rate at which aluminum metal dissolves in hydrochloric acid. An appropriate procedure might include: 1. Obtain a sample of aluminum between 0.50 and 1.00 gram. 2.Record the time (in seconds) necessary to dissolve the metal sample in 20.0 mL of hydrochloric acid with concentration ranging from 1.50 M to 3.00 M.

14. Data, Observations, Graphs, Balanced Equations, and Calculations During the lab, enter the following into your notebook: data, observations, notes, calculations, equations, graphs, chemical information.

15. Making a Claim A claim should be a one- or two-sentence statement about the results of your laboratory work that answers your beginning question(s). Acceptable Examples The rate of the chemical reaction increases with temperature. If the concentration of reactant A doubles, the rate of the reaction doubles. The reaction rate is, therefore, directly related to the concentration of reactant A. Inappropriate Examples My product was a yellow solution. The vacuum filtration technique was very helpful in separating the products of the reaction.

16. Evidence and Analysis This is a written explanation that supports your claim. Claim: The rate of the reaction increases as concentration increases. Evidence When the concentration of reactant A doubles, from 0.10 M to 0.20 M, the rate of the reaction doubles, from 2.5 mL/min to 5.0 mL/min. When the concentration of reactant A is cut in half, from 0.10 M to 0.050 M, the rate of the reaction is halved, from 2.5 mL/min to 1.3 mL/min. Include supporting data. Explain the meaning behind the data and calculations. Graphs, balanced equations, and calculations need to be interpreted and explained in order to count as evidence. Simply referring to them is not good enough. Emphasis is placed on interpretation and explanation of these results.

17. Reading, Reflections, and Post-Laboratory Questions Discuss your initial beginning question(s). Have your ideas changed? Do you have a new question? If you made a prediction prior to performing the experiment, was it correct? If not, do you understand why not? How do your results compare to those of other students in other groups or the textbook or a literature value? Can you relate your work to any real-life application? What connection did you make between the lab and lecture? How have you incorporated your answers to any post-lab questions into your reflection?

18. Sample Student Lab Report

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