Our Biology lab activities are designed to provide
a wide variety of experiences. They will fall into two general
categories: observational or "skill" labs, and
experimental labs. "Observational" labs will
mainly involve watching or observing natural phenomena occur or
performing some scientific technique, while "experimental
labs will involve science process skills, such as hypothesis formation,
manipulation of variables, gathering, tabulating and graphically
displaying data, etc.
Please use the following form and numbering sequence when writing
up your lab:
1. TITLE: This should indicate what the lab is all about.
Be brief, but indicate the nature of the investigation. What was
the question being investigated? Specifically, what was being
observed ? Please do not exceed 25 words. The title on the labs
you get are catch titles. You must read and understand what the
lab is doing to write the lab. Example : Catch title: Enzymes
Correct title: The effect of temperature on the rate of
enzyme reactions.
2. HYPOTHESIS: Predict what will happen. Use an : If..................them............
3. MATERIALS AND PROCEDURE: What procedures were followed
and what materials and equipment were used? This is not expected
to be an account including minute details, but should be a general
overview of what was done. This will be your PRE-LAB. These
will be done before each lab and will include a hypothesis and
a summary of the procedure. These will be your cookbook for the
lab. Make charts to record data for the final writeup. For experimental
labs include the following:
a. What variables are important in this experiment?
b. Which variables will be controlled? How?
c. Which variable will be tested in your experiment(experimental
variable)? How?
d. An explanation of your experiment in a step by step manner.
Be thorough. Remember someone else should be able to repeat your
experiment exactly.
4. RESULTS/DATA/OBSERVATIONS: This part of the report will
display in table form the data that you collected. It should be
neatly and clearly presented. DO NOT FUDGE YOUR DATA!! Put
only the data that you, or your lab group, or the class collected,
not what you think that you should have seen. Use graph paper
with properly labeled axis, units and titles to graphically display
your data wherever appropriate. Use a ruler and graph paper.
Describe you results as well. In observational labs you
should include all drawings, labeled as they are asked or. We
will compare what you should get and what you did get to make
sure we understand the lab.
5. DISCUSSION: Here you present a summary of the data generated
by the lab. You will write a paragraph explaining what you concluded
from your data and an explanation of why you came to that conclusion.
Was you hypothesis supported? Why or Why not? What were three
sources of possible error and explain how each effected your
experimental
data. Sources of error is, perhaps, the most important part of
the lab discussion. Your discussion of error will help the reader
decide whether or not your experiment is valid or invalid. Note:
for our purposes, measurement errors are not acceptable because
this could be used as an excuse on every lab. and does not that
you are thinking on how the design or execution of this experiment
could be improved. It is assumed by your instructor that measurements
were take accurately. Is there a follow up experiment that could
be done to further study of the objective of the lab?
6. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS: In this section, put the answers
to ALL questions asked within the lab, and at the Analysis
questions at end of the lab. Remember, the write-up is
due 2 days after the labs are completed in class.
7. CONCLUSIONS: These should include the vocabulary used
in class or the lab to explain the concept generalization words at the
end. These words should be
used in a manner as to explain the findings