Format for Formal Lab Reports

The purpose of lab reports is to share results of scientific work, and to demonstrate your critical thinking. Scientists in all scientific disciplines have a rigorous, standard method for presenting the results and conclusions of their research to other scientists. We will follow this method in writing formal lab reports. A good lab report shows your sound thinking before the investigation (thoughtful hypothesis, rationale and background information) and after the investigation (results, discussion and conclusion). The following format is to be used when writing formal lab reports for biology. Pay attention when we ask you to use the “formal format.”

A. Your name, your partners’ names, your class period, the date.

B. Typed, double-sided, and 1.5 or double line spacing. Every section of the lab must be labeled (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion).

C. Title: The title must clearly define the variable being investigated. Make it descriptive. The reader should know what the paper is about just by reading the title.

D. Introduction: The purpose of this section is to state the objective of your study. You will present relevant background information in order to familiarize the reader with your research topic. For example, background information on how enzymes catalyze reactions, and why they are important in organisms, would be appropriate in your enzyme report. Your hypothesis should be clearly stated here, along with a well supported, scientifically valid rationale for the hypothesis. Your hypothesis should be no more than one or two sentences. Your hypothesis can be followed by a set of predictions based on your hypothesis. Finally, discuss the variables you will measure in order to test your hypothesis.

E. Materials and Methods used in the experiment: This section is intended to provide the reader with all of the information they would need to repeat your experiment exactly. Make this a paragraph or a numbered list of steps that provides an account of what took place. It should be a sufficient description without excessive detail. Write it in past tense. It is OK to use first person. (for example, you can say, “we added 3mL of 3% hydrogen peroxide and 3 mL of water to a test tube”). It is often a good idea to include drawings or sketches that clarify the steps you took or the apparatus you used.

F. Results: Present your data in computer-generated tables and graphs, with complete labeling and descriptive titles. You must include a succinct, specific written summary of the data (Data Analysis) that briefly highlights some of the main results and refers to the tables and/or figures. In your summary, refer to your tables and graphs by name (e.g., “see Table 1,” or “as you can see in Graph 1.”) Do not put tables and graphs at the end of the report. They must come between the Materials and Methods and the Discussion.

G. Discussion: This is the most interesting and important section. Here, you must relate specific results to the hypothesis and predictions you made in your introduction. (Again, refer directly to your tables and graphs by name when you discuss your data.) Do your experimental results match the expected results? Based on these results do you feel your hypothesis was supported or not? Why? If your hypothesis was supported, discuss the implications of your study for organisms. If your research did not support your hypothesis, you should discuss why. What are some reasons that your experiment did not support your hypothesis? Was your hypothesis wrong? Were there experimental errors? Can you identify variables that you could not control that gave you poor results? You need to explain how you might run the experiment differently if you could do it again. You might also discuss future research you could do on the subject, based on your findings, and perhaps how the results of your particular study are relevant to living organisms.

H. References: Any published information, like your text book, a web site, or a scientific paper that you have mentioned should be cited in the text, with full bibliographic information at the end of the report. It is OK to use footnotes, particularly if you are citing a website with a long URL. However, it is important that you use references in the body of your text to support statements, thoughts or ideas that are not your own. See the Lakeside School Library website for advice on how to cite sources in your text and at the end of your report. (www.lakesideschool.org/upperschool/library/biblionew.html)

An example of a Reference:
McPherson, A. “Macromolecular Crystals.” Scientific American (March, 1989): pp. 62-63.

An example of how this would be cited in the body of your lab report:
“Enzymes are protein molecules that act as biological catalysts speeding up chemical reactions in cells that would occur too slowly under normal conditions (McPherson, 1989).”