Purpose
Most of you will not be research scientists. However, in whatever career you pursue you will be expected to understand and follow instructions, do careful and accurate work, and document what you have done in a report to whomever is paying your salary. In this course you will carry out a number of laboratory experiments and then write up your results in a report. Your lab reports must be clear, concise and accurate so that anyone with a lab manual can read them and understand what you did and what results you found. Most of the experiments can easily be finished in the time allotted, and if you are careful you can actually write your report as you do your experiment. You are encouraged to turn your lab report in at the end of the experiment. However, lab reports are not due until the following D/L section, so you can take your reports home to complete them if you wish.
Report Structure, Content and Layout
Each lab is slightly different, making it difficult to establish a standard lab report layout. Here are the basic rules that must be followed for all reports.
1. The report must include your name and the date in the upper right corner.
2. The report must have a title at the top of the first page. The lab title will be given to you by the instructor at the start of the experiment.
3. The report must include all of the information you are asked to provide, both by the lab manual and by the instructor.
4. The report must be written in the order in which you carried out the experiment.
5. All graphs must have a title, and the axes must be labeled appropriately (including units).
6. Use full sentences to answer questions and to record your observations.
7. The report must be neat, organized, and legible. That means you should:
a. write your report using lined paper or graph paper.
b. write on only the front side of each page.
c. write clearly and use white space effectively.
d. staple all of the pages together when you are ready to turn in your report.
e. indicate which question you are answering or which step in the lab you are doing so that someone else reading the report understands what you are doing at each step.
f. if you make a mistake, cross it out neatly or rewrite that page when you are done with the lab (you are expected to make mistakes and they will not be counted against you).
8. If there were problems with an experiment, note them in your report at the point where they occurred and discuss their effect on your analysis of the data.
9. Be sure to include units in any calculations.
10. Be careful about significant figures at the end of any calculations.
Grading
Each lab is worth 10 points. Points will be deducted for inadequately answering questions, not following instructions, or not following the guidelines listed above. Lab reports will be graded using the following breakdown:
Policies