Lab Write Up Format & How To Obtain the Data

Dear all, 

Below is the general idea of how to do a lab write up.  I'm sure many of you have seen this before. 

After the labs, I will post the results on the blog so you can obtain the data that was obtained during your lab.  I will make sure that the data is on the blog by the end of the lab day.  If I have any specific questions I would like you to answer in your lab, I will make sure to include it in a blog post.

 Patricia

The Lab Write Up

Title: What is this all about anyway? In a nutshell, how would you describe your investigation?

Purpose: Here you can expand on your title. This is where you should put your hypothesis.

Materials: Describe the materials you used.

Safety Procedures: Make sure other people who try this at home know what the dangers are and how to avoid them.

Procedures: Give a detailed description of what you did. That way another brilliant scientist can recreate your work or figure out exactly what you did.

Data and Analysis: Put all the relevant data here. You should put in all data and calculations you used to come up with your conclusion. Putting your aunt's shoe size, while interesting, is usually not important to your investigation.

Uncertainty (Error) Analysis: Here you should explain where your conclusions could be wrong or how certain you are of your data. (e.g. "Since the kangaroo was jumping at the time and we were driving along in the car, we could only measure it's height to plus or minus 10 cm.")

Conclusion: Tie it all together. Tell us if you found data to support your hypothesis (your guess was right) or not. Tell us if you had to change your hypothesis and what it all means.  Note, this part must relate to your purpose.  If it doesn’t either your conclusion or your purpose is incorrect.