Formal Lab Reports

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Formal Lab Reports

• Prince Andrew High School

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Title Page

• At the bottom right corner of the title page,
  include
• Title
• Presented to
• Teachers name
• By
• Students name
• Partner
• Students name
• Date
• Class
• PAHS

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Purpose

• This section tells the reader the objective of
  the lab activity.
• Ex To determine the concentration of an unknown
  hydrochloric acid solution.
• Note Do not include part of procedure in the
  purpose section.

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Hypothesis

• A hypothesis is an educated guess based on
  previous knowledge of the concept explored in the
  lab activity.
• Note that it is not always possible to write a
  hypothesis. The teacher can let you know when it
  is appropriate to do so.

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Introduction

• An introduction is a presentation of the theory
  covered during the lab activity. This section
  should help the reader get a better appreciation
  of the knowledge presented during the lab.
• It requires a certain amount of research and
  should be properly referenced.
• All mathematical formulas to be used in the lab
  analysis should be presented in this section with
  a thorough explanation of the variables involved.
• It is important to refrain from presenting
  procedure within this section.

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Materials

• Since a lab sheet must be attached to the lab
  report, in this section it is only necessary to
  state
• As per lab sheet
• If changes were made to the procedure during the
  lab and therefore a change in the materials list
  happened, these would need to be stated in this
  section.

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Procedure

• Since a lab sheet must be attached to the lab
  report, in this section it is only necessary to
  state
• As per lab sheet
• If changes were made to the procedure during the
  lab, these would need to be stated in this
  section.

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Results

• Results from an experiment should always be
  presented in a data table format.
• Data tables should have proper headings and
  units indicated.
• Qualitative observations should always accompany
  Quantitative data. They can be added in a
  separate section under the data table.

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Analysis

• An analysis consists of making sense of the data
  collected.
• In this section, you must include all
  mathematical work as well as graphing when
  appropriate.
• All work must be shown with proper units and
  significant digits.
• Proper graphing techniques must also be
  followed.
• Percent error should be calculated in this
  section.

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Conclusion

• A conclusion consists of four very important
  parts.
• In the first part, the student must show that
  the purpose has been met. This is usually done
  by stating for example
• In this lab, we found the concentration of the
  hydrochloric acid solution to be _____ WITH A
  PERCENT ERROR OF ____.
• The accepted value used to calculate error
  should be properly referenced. Any researched
  physical or mathematical value used to comment on
  the validity of the results have to be properly
  referenced at all times.

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Conclusion (cont)

• Evaluation
• In this section of the conclusion, you must
  evaluate what possible errors could have
  contributed to the lack of success of your
  experiment or the lack of correlation between
  your obtained values and the referenced values.
• Separate your errors into systematic and random
  errors. Comment on the impact or significance of
  these errors on the results obtained in the lab.

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Conclusion (cont)

• Modifications
• In the final section of the conclusion, you are
  asked to propose modifications to the lab which
  would improve the errors identified in the second
  section. Make sure to propose modifications
  which will directly improve the lab performance
  and make sure to address everyone of the errors
  stated in your evaluation section.

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References

• Please follow APA style for your reference
  section.
• Resource materials are available to you if you
  need help in this section.

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Additional Questions

• For certain laboratory activities, it is
  possible that the teacher will supply you with
  additional questions which will test your
  understanding of the materials studied during the
  lab activity. Make sure to answer these
  questions using complete sentences.

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