SCI 220: The Incredible Living Machine: The Human Body: Lab: Grading, Requirements and Reports

Lab Report Guidelines:  a specific template for the Lab Report is included in each Lab Exercise (except for Lab Exercise 8).  This template should be completed and submitted as your Lab Report.  

- SECTIONS A, B and C ARE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH LAB.  Your notebook will be checked each week in lab to verify that these sections are completed.  If they are not filled out in your Notebook, your grade for that Lab Report will be reduced by 40% of earned credit.

- SECTIONS D AND E are due either at midterm (Lab Reports for Labs 1-4) or at the end of the semester (Lab Exercises 5-8).  Notebooks will be collected at the midterm exam and final exam for grading.

A general description of the components of a lab report can be found below. 

Major components of a Lab Report

Note:  the format of a Lab Report is based on the conventions that are followed when scientists report their research in scientific journals.

SECTIONS A, B AND C MUST BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO COMING TO LAB

A. Title:  The Title of the Lab Report is NOT the same as the Title of the Lab Exercise.  A good title should indicate the goal(s) of the lab exercise or experiment and the methods used to achieve the goal(s)

B. Introduction: What is the context in which the experiment takes place?  

B-1.  Describe background information from your lab manual or other sources.

B-2.  Describe the purpose for doing the experiment.

B-3.  Discuss what might be the possible outcome of the experiment (in some cases, this section includes a hypothesis about the outcome of the procedure).

B-4.  Discuss any safety concerns.

C. Materials and Methods: What will you do and how will you do it?  

C-1.  Describe the materials that were used to gather the data.  This information may be in the form of a list of in paragraph form. 

C-2. Briefly and in your own words, describe the procedure you will carry out to collect the data.  If any data analysis is required, also describe how the analysis will be performed.

D. Results: This section contains the data you collect during the lab,

• THIS SECTION IS COMPLETED DURING LABORATORY CLASS TIME.  It will be submitted at the time the Notebook is collected, either at midterm or the end of the semester.
• The data may be written directly into the Lab Report in your Notebook.  For the sake of neatness, you may want to collect the data on a separate piece of paper and write it into the Notebook later; in this case, also include the sheet of paper on which you initially recorded the data in your Lab Report (you may place it at the end of the Lab Report, entitled “Raw Data Collected during the Experiment/Lab Exercise”).
• Both visual (graphs, tables, drawings) and verbal (words) representations may be necessary to present the data.  If calculations are required, include the equation and a sample calculation (don’t forget to include the unit of measurement!)
• This section SHOULD NOT contain any explanations of the experimental findings or in any other way interpret or draw conclusions about the data.  Stick to the facts as they have been observed.  

E. Discussion and Conclusions: What does it mean?  (This is the most important part of the report to demonstrate whether you understand the purpose of this experiment and can interpret your results)

THIS SECTION IS TO BE COMPLETED AT HOME AND IS DUE AT EITHER MIDTERM OR THE END OF THE SEMESTER WHEN YOUR LAB NOTEBOOK IS SUBMITTED FOR GRADING. 

• NOTE:  The Lab Report Template for each Lab Exercise provides questions posed to help you summarize and interpret your Results. To “interpret” means to analyze and explain the meaning of the Results.
• In general, the goals of this section are to :
  • Briefly summarize, in paragraph form, the results you reported in Section D.
  • Discuss whether your results supported your hypothesis or were the expected results.  Explain how you came to that conclusion.  If there are discrepancies between the expected and actual results, explain why the discrepancy may have occurred. 
  • Explain the meaning of the Results.
  • Explain the importance of doing the lab exercise (for example, how are such procedures and the data generated used in scientific investigations, clinical settings, etc) 
  • When appropriate, discuss the sources of errors.  These errors are the result of mistakes that may have occurred in carrying out the procedure.   In other words, these are “human errors”.

Lab Grading

Lab constitutes 30% of your total lecture grade:

• Safety goggles and proper attire (see the Laboratory Safety Rules) are required for each lab session; students who do not have goggles or are dressed inappropriately will not be allowed in lab and will be listed as “Absent”.
• A non-programmable scientific calculator is required for all classes.
• A Lab Report for each of the ten Laboratory Exercises is required.