Stereolithography based 3D printing

Lab Report Guidelines

Title Page Include the lab title, lab number, your Lab Group number, experiment date(s), course,

instructor, University, team member names, and a brief summary of team member

contributions. Format it so that it is centered in the page.

Formatting

• Font: 12-point Times New Roman

• Text alignment: Justified

• Indentation: 0.3” First line

• Other formatting: see attached image below

• Abbreviations and Acronyms: Define abbreviations and acronyms the first time they are used in the text.

• Figures and Tables: All figures and tables should be legible. Make sure that all figures and tables your own works. Don’t copy and paste them from lab instructions.

• Heading: Bold 14-point Times New Roman (Subheadings are bold 12-point and should not be numbered).

• Reference style: IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (I highly recommend to use EndNote software to manage references, which is free to WSU students!)

An example of the reference style:

[1] D. J. Gottlieb et al., “Sleep deficiency and motor vehicle crash risk in the general

population: a prospective cohort study,” BMC Med., vol. 16, no. 1, 2018, Art. no. 44.

Introduction

• Successfully provides background information and establishes the scientific concept of the lab

The introduction serves to provide the reader with the necessary background information

needed to understand the experiment, establishes the scientific concepts, and provides the

rationale for doing the experiment.

Background information - In this paragraph you provide the reader with information on

what has been done in the past regarding your objective. It is your opportunity to inform

the reader of the theory and/or key concepts the experiment will demonstrate or examine.

It is also the place where you demonstrate your credibility by showing that you have done

the necessary research to understand the topic. The background information paragraph of

the Introduction can be thought of as a sales pitch. For example, “Previous work in the

field of XYZ has shown that . . . These findings indicate that . . . An area that warrants

further examination is. These statements should be leading up to your objective statement.

Establish the scientific concept for the lab - State what the lab is about, that is, what

scientific concept (theory, principle, procedure, etc.) you are supposed to be learning about

by doing the lab.

• Effectively presents the hypothesis/objectives of the lab The objective is the most important component to any experiment and lab report. It is a

statement of the objective, goal, or purpose of the experiment. It is a one or two sentence

answer to the question: “What do you hope to accomplish with this experiment?”

Formulate your objective statement before you begin writing the report - invest some time

In a paragraph, or more, write out the objectives of the lab in paragraph form and then

describe the purpose of the lab: what it is that accomplishing the objectives will help you

learn about the scientific concept of the lab.

The objective(s) are what it is you are supposed to accomplish in the experimental

procedure itself. The objective(s), therefore, is usually presented in terms of a specific verb

that describes what you are supposed to be doing in the lab, such as to measure, to analyze,

to determine, to test etc. Often, the objective(s) for the lab is given in the lab manual. If

you are having trouble phrasing the sentence about objectives, try something like: "The

main objectives of this lab were to…"

• Effectively presents the rationale/purpose of lab Provide the reader with the reason for performing the experiment (not ”because the teacher

told me too”). Identify what will be learned and why it is important. Focus your

explanation on the science and how it relates to your objective.

The purpose/rationale of the lab is different in significant ways from its objective(s).

Purpose provides the wider view; it answers the why question, why you are doing the lab

in the first place. Instead of focusing just on the specific actions of the experimental

procedure, purpose looks at the experimental procedure within the context of what you are

supposed to be learning. Go back to what you have written about the scientific concept

and look for a link between it and the activities you are expected to perform in the lab:

what specifically about the scientific concept were these activities designed to teach you?

Materials & Methods

• A good Methods section describes what you did in the lab in a way that is easy to understand and detailed enough to be repeated but is not written as a set of instructions. Record what

you did to meet the Objective.

• Be specific enough such that someone could read your methods and have enough information to repeat your experiment. However, you don’t want to provide too much detail such that

you overwhelm the reader with trivial information. Include information that might be unique

to the experimental methodologies.

• The Procedures should be written in the past tense and the passive voice – e.g. “the sample was added to the test-tube”, and not “I added the sample to the test-tube”, nor “Add the

sample to the test-tube”. You are reporting what was done, not giving instructions on how

to do something.

• Images can help to deliver visual information (e.g., experimental setup) you are trying to convey.

• Don’t copy and paste sentences and/or images from lab instructions.

Results • opens with effective statement of overall findings

Results sections typically begin with a brief overview of the findings. This is where you sum

up your findings. Such a statement is typically a sentence or two. This summary will act as

the opening sentence for the Results. If you had trouble getting the first sentence started, here

are some possibilities: "The results of the lab show that …"; "The data from the experiments

demonstrate that…"; "The independent variable X increased as Y and Z were….". The

Results section is text based. Tables and figures do not comprise the Results section, they

enhance it. In the Results section, you need to tell the reader what data you have collected,

what the data means, and what the data shows. You should refer to figures and tables to aid

in your presentation.

• present visuals clearly and accurately

Figures and Tables should be numbered (figure should have captions, while tables should

have headings) and should be referred to in the text before they appear in the report. Graphs

should have the x- and y-axes labeled and units designated along those axes. Images should

have important parts of the image labeled or annotated.

• presents verbal findings clearly and with sufficient support

The presentation of findings in words should be ordered according the order of the visuals,

each visual being described in words. Each description should include a sentence or so

summarizing the visual and then any details from the visual pertinent to the data from that

visual. To make the verbal part of your Results better, follow this general outline:

• Summary of overall findings of lab

• Paragraph related to visual 1 o Sentence of overall finding from visual 1 o Sentence(s) with key details from the visual 1

• Paragraph related to visual 2 o Sentence of overall finding from visual 2 o Sentence(s) with key details from the visual 2

• Paragraph related to visual 3

o Sentence of overall finding from visual 3 o Sentence(s) with key details from the visual 3 Etc.

• successfully integrates verbal and visual representations

The verbal representation of each visual should refer explicitly to the visual (Table 1, Figure

2, etc.). You should create the sense that the visual and the word representations of data are

working together. The primary way of doing that is to cite the visuals in your verbal findings.

Discussion • opens with effective statement of support of objectives

The Discussion section is where you explain the meaning and significance of the results

presented in the Results section in terms of your Objective. The Discussion should start with

a sentence or two in which you make a judgment as to whether you have met your

objectives (from the Introduction), supported with qualifications, or not supported by

the findings. You have gathered and presented the data to meet your Objective – now you

need to organize the data and present it in a logical/clear way to lead the reader to your

conclusions.

• backs up statement with reference to appropriate findings

After stating the judgment about meeting the objectives, you should provide specific

evidence from the data in the Results to back up the judgment. The first key to this part of

the Discussion is finding specific evidence reported in the Results that you can use to back

up your judgment about meeting your objectives. The second key is to describe the evidence

in such a way that the reader can clearly see that there is sufficient evidence that supports

your judgment about meeting the objectives. Be specific. Point out specific evidence from

the Results and show how that evidence contributed to your judgments.

• sufficiently addresses other issues pertinent to lab

A low rating in this area means that the instructor thinks that there are other

interesting issues you could have discussed about your findings. Other issues that may be

appropriate to address are (1) any problems that occurred or sources of error in your lab

procedure that may account for any unexpected results; (2) how your findings compare to

the findings of other students in the lab and an explanation for any differences; (3)

suggestions for improving the lab.

Conclusion • convincingly describes what has been learned in the lab

A good Conclusion takes you back to the larger purpose of the lab as stated in the

Introduction: to learn something about the scientific concept, the primary reason for doing

the lab. The Conclusion is your opportunity to show your lab instructor what you learned

by doing lab and writing the lab report. You can improve your Conclusion first by making

a clearer statement of what you learned. Go back to the purpose of the lab as you presented

it in your Introduction. You are supposed to learn something about the scientific concept or

theory or principle or important scientific procedure that the lab is about. If you are not sure

if you have stated what you have learned directly enough, read your first paragraph to see if

your reader would have any doubt about what you have learned. Simply saying you learned

something is not necessarily going to convince the reader that you actually did learn it.

Demonstrate that you did indeed learn what you claimed to have learned by adding more

details to provide an elaboration on the basic statement. Read over the Results and Discussion

and jot down some notes for further details on what you have learned. Look carefully at the

statement of what you have learned and underline any words or phrases that you could

"unpack," explain in more detail. Use this brainstorming as a way of helping you to find

details that make your Conclusion more convincing.

If you think you need to do more to convince your reader that you have learned what you say

you have learned, provide more details in the Conclusion. For example, compare what you

know now with what you knew before doing the lab. Describe specific parts of the procedure

or data that contributed to your learning. Discuss how you may be able to apply what you

have learned in the lab to other situations in the future.

Presentation of your Report • citations and references adhere to proper format

You need to properly cite your references both in the text as well as a reference list at the

end of the report.

• format of tables and figures is correct

Tables and figures should be done to professional standards, such as proper headings and

captions and numbering. Figures should be numbered and have a caption below the figure.

Tables should be numbered and have a caption above the table. Images should have

important parts labeled, marked, or annotated.

• report is written in scientific style: clear and to the point

Style in this case refers to your choice of words and sentence structure. The style of science

writing strives to be clear and to the point. You should avoid using grand thesaurus words

and long, artfully convoluted sentences. As to choice of words, science writing uses words

that its audience (other scientists in the field) will readily understand. To outsiders, the

scientific vocabulary of this language looks like a lot of jargon. But the point is that scientific

words that are obscure to outsiders are usually not obscure to the insiders that comprise the

scientific audience. Your writing should sound like scientific writing. This means that you

should go ahead and use proper scientific terminology, but you should also choose plain,

everyday words for non-scientific terminology.

Your sentences should be clear and readable for your educated audience. Avoid excessively

long and meandering sentences. But don't use a lot of very short sentences, either. Vary your

sentence length. If you have difficulties with making your sentences readable, read over them

aloud, noting the sentences that seem to be too long or are hard to read. Rewrite those

sentences so that they flow more easily.

Also, avoid using quotations. Scientists very rarely quote from source materials; they do so

only when a particular wording is important to the point they are trying to make. Using direct

quotations is appropriate to English papers, but not to lab reports.

• grammar and spelling are correct

Double check and re-read your report before submitting.