1. Yikes! You’re writing a lab report!

2. What does a lab report need to have?
• YOUR IDEAS • THE PARTS
• Title
• Introduction
• Materials & Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Literature Cited

3. Ideas for a title for this lab

4. What is a scientific title?
• A scientific title generally has:
• 1. The environmental factors that were
changed (light, temperature).
• 2. The thing that was measured (growth).
• 3. The specific organism that was studied (the
bacterium, Escherichia coli).
• "The Effects of Light and Temperature on the
Growth of Populations of the Bacterium,
Escherichia coli "

5. What could the title be for this
experiment?
• Looking at the connection between
temperature and the speed at which
molecules move.

6. Introduction
• The Introduction is the statement of the
problem that you investigated.
• Include background information
– How does what we did relate to wind?
– What is convection?
– How does what we did relate to convection?

7. Materials & Methods
• Do not write a list!
• Do not say: “First get a foam cup. Then put
hot water in it. Next take the temperature.
After….”
• Describe what you did: A foam cup was filled
almost to the top with hot water. The
temperature of the water was recorded at the
start of each trial.

8. Results
• Present summarized data
• Do NOT include raw data
– Wait. What is “raw data?”
– Raw data is the data you collected in your
experiment. Data that hasn’t been ‘cooked;’
– ‘Cooked’ data is data that you have manipulated.
– Averages, graphs, tables, REMEMBER TITLES!

9. Discussion
• Interpret your data
• What patterns did you see?
• What happened that was strange or
unexpected?
• Give at least three sources of error or things
you would change in the experiment next
time.

10. Conclusion
• This section simply states what the researcher
thinks the data mean, and, as such, should
relate directly back to the problem/question
stated in the introduction.
• This section should not offer any reasons for
those particular conclusions

11. Literature Cited
• This is your bibliography. If you gave a
definition of convection in your introduction,
you need to say where that definition came
from.

12. Headings
• Each section should be clearly identified.