Scientific Method
Follow these steps when writing lab reports.
*Lab Report outline adapted from lesson plan by S.Ward, ORMS Durham, New Hampshire 2009
- Question: What is it that you want to find out?
- Research: Investigate what others have already learned about the topic.
- Variables: Identify the manipulated and responding variables. It is also important to include a constant.
- Hypothesis: Predict what you think will happen in the experiment. This educated guess must be stated in a way that can be measured.
- Experiment: Develop an experiment or procedure for testing whether the hypothesis is true or false.
- Results & Observations: Collect and record what happened in your experiment.
- Conclusion: Analyze the data collected and summarize the results. Explain the meaning of and reasoning for the results. Determine if results support the hypothesis.
Follow these steps when writing lab reports.
- Your experiment will need a Title. You can choose a title after completing the experiment.
- Research Question. You will need to make a clear statement that defines the problem or question that you will be investigating. This should reflect what variable or the relationship between the variables you will be working with.
- Making observations & Organizing Background Information. Any background information you have or can gather through research will be helpful when hypothesizing and designing your experiment.
- Manipulated or Independent Variable Identify one thing you plan to change in the experiment.
- Responding or Dependent Variable. ldentify what you plan to measure or watch in the experiment.
- Constants. All other factors should be kept the same throughout the entire experiment so they don't have an effect on the results of the experiment.
- Hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible answer, prediciton, or explanation to the problem or question of the experiment. It should be based on facts and observations and should be testable. Hypotheses are usually written as "If...then..." statements and should include variables.
- Materials & Procedures. Make a list of all materials that are needed to complete the experiment. The procedure is a detailed, numbered step by step process for completing the experiment. Consider what someone else would need to knowif they were trying to recreate your experiment.
- Results, Observations, Data Tables, and Graphs. Depending on the experiment, qualitative and quantitative observations will be made (facts, no opinions). Design adata table, with headings for each column. Remember the independent variable, x axis, goes on the left column and the dependent variable, y axis, goes on the right column. Design a line or bar graph to show data.
- Conclusion. After analyzing data, make a conclusion. State the problem and hypothesis, breifly describe what was done, and describe the results. Explain what the experiment shows or proves. If data supports the hypothesis, then the conclusion should state that the hypothesis is correct. If the data does not support the hypothesis, suggest a new hypothesis. The conclusion should be a paragraph of at least 5 sentences and give some data to show whether you have proven or rejected the hypothesis.
*Lab Report outline adapted from lesson plan by S.Ward, ORMS Durham, New Hampshire 2009