This is the outline for what a lab report should contain. Refer to your rubric for what you need to turn in.

1. Time Remaining www.SummitStudies.com

2. What does a lab report need to have? THE PARTS Title Introduction Materials & Methods Results Discussion Conclusion Literature Cited

3. Ideas for a title for this lab

4. What is a scientific title? A scientific title generally has: 1. The environmental factors that were changed (light, temperature). 2. The thing that was measured (growth). 3. The specific organism that was studied (the bacterium, Escherichia coli). "The Effects of Light and Temperature on the Growth of Populations of the Bacterium, Escherichia coli "

5. Introduction The Introduction is the statement of the problem that you investigated. Include background information Hypothesis You will not be writing an introduction for this lab.

6. Materials & Methods Do not write a list! Do not say: “First get a bean seed. Then weigh it. Next put the bean in a Petri dish. Describe what you did: Twenty five beans were divided into five groups. Each bean was massed using an electronic balance. The initial mass of the bean was recorded.

7. The good news is, you don’t have to write a methods & materials for this lab report.

8. Results Present summarized data Do NOT include raw data Wait. What is “raw data?” Raw data is the data you collected in your experiment. Data that hasn’t been ‘cooked;’ ‘Cooked’ data is data that you have manipulated. Averages, graphs, tables, REMEMBER TITLES!

9. Dealing with Data Click through the PowerPoint “Making an X Y scatter plot” for details on how to create your graph. Remember that your graph should display the averages for the beans in each group.

10. Discussion Interpret your data What patterns did you see? What happened that was strange or unexpected? Give at least three sources of error or things you would change in the experiment next time. You should explain how each of these sources of error could have affected your experiment.

11. Conclusion This section simply states what the researcher thinks the data mean, and, as such, should relate directly back to the problem/question stated in the introduction. This section should not offer any reasons for those particular conclusions

12. Headings Each section should be clearly identified.