4700 Lone Tree Way
Deer Valley High School
Antioch, California
Lab Report Format
We're dedicated to providing our students with the experience and knowledge necessary to make science useful in their lives and to enable our students to improve the lives of others by learning how to discover new things.
This format represents the basic structure of a lab report which all Deer Valley High School science teachers agree must be the basis for a good lab report. Because all of our classes are different--some mathematical, some more observational, some more strict in safety requirements-- individual teachers will add extra requirements to those listed below.
You can copy the headings below into a word processor and use them as an outline to construct your report.
Name, class, teacher, period, date (in upper right corner)
Title
Purpose
Equipment
Procedures
Results
Conclusion
Title
This should describe what the experiment is about. Try to avoid generic titles like "Tom's Experiment" and "Lab Number 12" unless specifically directed to do so. Better titles are: "The effect of increasing the proportion of acid in a solution on a reaction," and "Relationship between brightness of light and distance."
Purpose
In two or three sentences, say why you did the experiment--what you were trying to find out. If the experiment is intended to verify a hypothesis, the hypothesis should be included here.
Equipment
List all the equipment you used to complete the experiment. Include tools used to modify equipment or obtain samples.
Procedures
List a step-by-step set of instructions detailing how you got your data. Make sure you list enough detail that an intelligent, but inexperienced person can repeat your results.
Results
This section includes all observations, measurements, data, and graphs summarizing data. For observations, detail the equipment settings used (microscope magnification, field of view, etc.). For measurements, list units of measurement and pay attention to the appropriate level of significant figures. Graphs should have both axes labeled, including measurement units, or a key describing how to interpret the symbols.
If you have large amounts of data, some effort should be made to make the data fit into as small a space as possible without wasting space on the page or screen.
Conclusion
If your experiment had a hypothesis, the conclusion is the answer to that question based on your data. Make sure you make specific references to your graphs or data when explaining your conclusion. Avoid simply saying, "The experiment confirmed our hypothesis," without stating how you know that is true.
If an experiment disproves a hypothesis, state why you think your hypothesis was wrong. Please note, getting an unexpected result is not necessarily wrong, although you should certainly try to eliminate sources of error before drawing conclusions.
If your experiment was a series of observations, any trends or patterns in the data should be described.
Most conclusions end with a statement about what sorts of experiments would be appropriate as a next step, or how the results obtained could be applied. Critiques of the procedures are also appropriate.
This page posted at: http://homepage.mac.com/dvhscience/lab.htm
Science
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UC vs. CSU-What's the difference?
Real People in math and science and what they took in High School
Antioch Unified School District
Our Mission:
We're dedicated to providing our students with the experience and knowledge necessary to make science useful in their lives and to enable our students to improve the lives of others by learning how to discover new things.
Department Goals:
1. Increase science enrollment in elective classes.
2. Prepare students to make career choices in science.
3. Get students excited about science by having them participate in relevant, realistic, hands-on science activities.
4. Improve scores on state-mandated standardized assessments.
5. Support each other in our efforts to become better professional science educators.
6. Connect all major activities and course descriptions to the California Science Standards, and analyze course descriptions and test results for standards we may not be meeting.
