Assessment 2 (Lab Report 1 and 2) Help Guide

Assessment 2 includes two lab reports (Lab Report 1 and 2) each worth 20% of your final mark. The
main purpose of this assignment is you learn to work in a team environment and present your findings
from the practicals you perform in the laboratory. The report needs to be presented in a scientific
manner as it would be presented in a journal article. Please use the Rubric (Rubric for Assessment
2) to understand the marking criteria (Content/Assessment 2/HSN204_Assessment 2_Rubric)

Note: Although the Practical will be conducted in pairs, each student has to make an individual
submission for Lab Report 3 and Lab Report 4

ULOs linked to Assessment 2

The main ULOs linked to this assessment are

ULO3: Describe the characteristics of foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms, methods
for their isolation and detection

ULO5: Demonstrate the ability to interpret and communicate new data relevant to safe and
sustainable food production

ULO6: Demonstrate the ability to provide feedback and work in a team environment to solve,
analyse and interpret issues in safe and sustainable food production

How to obtain the data for the reports?

Acquiring Results for the practical

Lab Report 1: All results for this report will be acquired during Practical-3 Enumeration of microbes
from food.

Lab Report 2: All results for this report will be acquired during Practical-4A and 4B Detection of
foodborne pathogens from food samples

Class results will be made available on CloudDeakin under

Content/Assessments/Assessment 2

Layout of lab Report

The lab report needs to be structured as a journal article with the following sections;

Report details: Provide a suitable title for the laboratory exercise you conducted, a list of authors
(your name followed by your partner’s name) and the date and time of your practical class.

Abstract (Approximately 100 words)

In a concise manner the abstract should state briefly the purpose of the laboratory exercise, the key
results and the main conclusions. References are usually not required in the abstract.

Introduction (Approximately 300 words)

Using scientifically relevant literature, provide a background to the laboratory exercise and state the
main objectives of your work. You may use figures (from literature or make your own) to provide a
better understanding of the information you want to convey.
Some of the points you can try and expand include,

-What is the background behind this practical?

-Why is this study important?

-What are the main techniques/tests being used?

-What are the principles, advantages and disadvantages behind using these techniques?

-What are the main objectives of the work being done?

Materials and Methods (You do not need to write this section, please cite your practical manual for
this section)

Results (Approximately 200 words)

You should use the word templates for the Results Tables provided to you on Cloud Deakin to copy-
paste the results table. There is no need to re-draw the tables. You have to record your own results
and the class results (when instructed to do so).

You may create graphs/figures to present any trends in the data collected.

Discussion (Approximately 300 words)

This section should critically discuss the results you have obtained and not re-state them. Here you
are trying to interpret the results you have obtained and discuss their significance.

Some of the points you can discuss in this section include

-Overall significance of the results when compared with relevant literature.

-Any results that were different from what was expected. Why were they different?

-Whether they agree or disagree with class results? If they disagree, why do they disagree?

-Any sources of errors? Shortcomings in the current methodologies used.

-Alternative methodologies that could be used to satisfy the aim.

Conclusion (Approximately 100 words)

This section should include a summary of results and a statement stating whether the aims and
objectives of the practical were met.

Figures/Graphs/Tables

Figures may be used in the introduction or discussion section to replace relevant text. Graphs/Tables
may be used in the Results/Discussion section to present certain trends observed in the data.
Figures/Graphs/Tables should be presented in a scientific manner;

Figures: Figure number should be stated along with a legend describing the figure at the bottom of
the figure, if the figure has been obtained from a reference, then it should have the correct in-text
citation.

Graphs: Figure number should be stated, there should be a title for the graph and a key describing
the graph, there should be a legend describing the graph at the bottom of the graph, each axis in the
graph should be labelled.
Tables: Tables should have a table number and a title, correct units must be specified for the
quantities described in the table E.g. for colony counts use cfu/mL or cfu/g.

Find below an example of a graph from a publication to help you understand how you need to
present your graphs.

Effect of Yarrow Essential oil on preformed biofilms of Listeria

Referencing

Your in-text citations and reference list should be in Vancouver style of referencing. Please refer
to the Deakin University Guide to Vancouver style of referencing
(https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/study-support/referencing/vancouver)

Please note: You should be paraphrasing the content in the references in your own words. Do not
copy paste any content from the references, as this would be picked by the Turnitin software when
you submit your work.

Report Submission

Lab Report 1-Due date: 25th August 2022, 8:00 pm AEST

Lab Report 2-Due date: 19th September 2022, 8:00 pm AEST

The Reports will have to submitted as a word document or PDF via the dropbox link available on
CloudDeakin.