Lab Report

Experiment 1: Descriptive Title of Lab Report

BSC 110L Section H001

September 31, 2019

TA: Jane Doe

ABSTRACT

This section is usually written last and summarizes the entire lab report. The general formula for writing the abstract is as follows:

First sentence = Summary of the introduction

Second sentence = Summary of the hypothesis and methods

Third sentence = Summary of the results and if the hypothesis was supported or not.

Fourth sentence = Summary of the discussion.

Fifth sentence = Summary of the conclusion (that is in the discussion).

Be sure to include your hypothesis, statement of purpose, materials and methods, results, and major conclusions. Total, this section should be between 100 and 200 words.

INTRODUCTION

The introduction and discussion should be the longest sections in your lab report. In this section you will spend a minimum of three paragraphs describing the science behind the experiment, state a hypothesis and explain your expectations and purpose behind doing the experiment. Remember that the introduction is where you put all of the information so that the reader will be able to understand the experiment, results and discussion. You should give enough background in this section that a person would reasonably come to the same hypothesis as to yours. There should be a lot of in-text citations in this section, which means you will be summarizing an idea from a primary source, paraphrasing the content and then giving credit through the in text citation. If you need help paraphrasing, use the guide in your lab manual on page 119 – 120.

To have an awesome introduction be sure to provide accurate background information using relevant vocabulary. From that relevant information, create a clear and well written hypothesis. Provide predictions and expectations of the experiment, and provide justification based on background your introduction provides. Discuss how the background information you provide ties into the purpose and hypothesis of the lab report. Use recent information, no older than a decade as science moves fast and some articles before 2009 may be out of date now.

As an extra note, when you include an organism in your introduction you should first mention the common name, species name, and then refer to it as the G. specific epithet name if in the same paragraph or within a sentence. The caveats to this are that you cannot start a sentence with an abbreviation (i.e. cannot start a sentence with G. species). When you mention the species in a new paragraph you need to restate the genus. I’ve included an example in grey below:

The Atlantic cownose ray, Rhinoptera bonasus, and the Brazilian cownose ray, R. brasiliensis, have overlapping morphological features that have resulted in their misidentification in the field.

Rhinoptera rays have been documented in the western Atlantic ranging from…

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This should be short and sweet, but given with enough detail that the experiment could be recreated. The first paragraph should include the materials used in the experiment, written as a sentence opposed to listing. The second paragraph should include the procedure, and should be a chronological account of the steps you took to test your hypothesis, while avoiding unnecessary details. You should write in past tense, third person and summarize the procedures from your lab manual.

Ideally, you would include all quantities of each material and the purpose of each material. A descriptive account of procedure and control groups, and the types of data that was collected.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

NO RAW DATA!

Raw data is a term that refers to numbers that are not given context. For example, raw data would be several measures on a ruler (2”, 4”, 5”, 6”, 3”, 1”) over the course of 60 seconds. Because the reader would not easily be able to see the pattern, these measurements would constitute raw data. Instead, you should transform your raw data into a graph or chart.

Figure 1: The movement of a startled cockroach was described as if first advanced towards the disturbance (and away from its home), then retreated back towards its home.

Describe the trends in the data you found, linking to figures at the end of each sentence (when appropriate). Think critically about what way best illustrates the trends found in your data visually. Bar graph? Line graph? Pie chart? Be sure to give units of measurement, and any calculations you preformed.

DISCUSSION

Restate your hypothesis and state if it was supported or if it was not supported. Explain how you came to that conclusion by interpreting your results. Critically examine the results you found without mentioning limitations, biases, etc. Why do you think your hypothesis was supported or not supported? Explain the physiological reason or mechanism behind your findings. Use specific examples from the data to expand on this.

Explain the data with scientific concepts and vocabulary, and reflect on the errors or limitations from the experiment and how you would improve them. Discuss a question that still needs to be investigated for the experiment and apply the concepts you discovered to real life.

Example to choose a title:

If I wrote:

Rhinoptera brasiliensis were historically documented as a resident species, endemic to 180 kilometers (km) along the southern coast of Brazil (Schwartz 1990). The resident status of this ray was brought into question in 2007, when three individuals of the species were found in Mississippi Sound, approximately 7,500 km outside their previous range (Jones et al. 2017). Rhinoptera sampled in the Gulf of Mexico (n = 474) consisted of approximately 20% R. brasiliensis, supporting the suspected extension of their documented range, and altering their status from resident, to migrant.

Key words: Rhinoptera brasiliensis, Gulf of Mexico, Resident, Migrant, Range extension, Mississippi Sound, Genetics (although it was not mentioned in the few sentences I wrote, it is my method, so I always include it).

Possible titles:

1. Re-evaluating the documented range of the Brazilian cownose ray, Rhinoptera brasiliensis, in the Gulf of Mexico with genetic tools

2. Started from the bottom, now Brazilian cownose rays are here: investigating the range expansion of a benthic ray, Rhinoptera brasiliensis, into the Mississippi Sound

I hope that helps your come up with an idea for a title!

You will format your literature cited this way, for journal articles:

Smith, T., Jones, K. and Taylor, R. 2007. Article title. Journal. Volume: Page – Page.

This way for books:

First Authors Last Name, A., and Second Authors, A. Year published. Book title. Publisher name, Publishing city, Publishing state. Page – Page.

LITERATURE CITED

Catlin, P. 2009. Extinction and the importance of history and dependence in conservation. Biodiversity. 2: 2 – 13.

Mangol, A., Verra, T., and Lotus, F. 2010. Biological history and demography of ferns. Fernwood Conservation. 12: 1 – 19.

Weaver, H. 2018. The importance of conservation. Conservation and Society. 1: 10 – 15.

Cockroach Advance and Retreat

Movement over time 10 20 30 40 50 60 2 4 5 6 3 1

Seconds

Distance Moved From Home (Inches)