Writing a Science lab report

Many of your Science units will require you to write a formal laboratory report. The
purpose is to report on what you did, what you learned from an experiment and why the
findings matter.

The marker is looking for evidence that you:

 understand what happened, why it happened and what it signifies in relation to

the experimental aims
 can structure and present your lab report in accordance with discipline
conventions.

Disclaimer:

Please note that many units require students to record notes and observations in
logbooks in the laboratory. These have their own purpose and conventions and are
different from lab reports.
Lab report structure
Lab reports can vary in length and format. These range from a form to fill in and submit
before leaving the lab, to a formal written report. However, they all usually follow a
similar basic structure.

1. Judul

Your title needs to reflect the purpose of the experiment. Check with your demonstrator
or lecturer for specific requirements.

PHS1022Week 5 Laboratory

The Period of a Simple Pendulum

Back to top

Judul praktikum, tanggal praktikum, kelompok, nama anggota kelompok,

nama institusi

2. Pendahuluan

The Introduction should:

 provide the context and motivation for the experiment

 briefly explain relevant theory in sufficient detail
 introduce any relevant laws, equations or theorems
 clearly state the aim or research question that the experiment is designed to
address.

Tip

 Always write the introduction in your own words; don’t just copy from the lab
notes.
 Always check with your lecturer/demonstrator if you’re not sure what is expected.

3. Alat dan Bahan

Your description of the experimental set-up should be sufficient to allow someone else
to replicate the experiment themselves. You will usually begin with a description of the
materials used and/or the apparatus set-up accompanied by:

 an image showing the relevant features of any object or material under

investigation
 a diagram of the experimental setup, with each component clearly labelled

4. Cara Kerja

When you carry out an experiment, you usually follow a set of instructions such as
these, which may include extra information to guide you through the steps.

Lab handout example

Week 5 Laboratory instructions

Procedure

1. Use a clean pipette to measure 25ml of HCl(aq) into the conical flask.
2. Rinse a burette with standardised NaOH(aq).
3. Fill the burette to the 0.0ml marking with standardised NaOH(aq).
Remember to take the reading from the centre of the meniscus, and from
eye level. Record the actual reading in Table 1.
4. Place a sheet of white paper under the burette. This is to make it easier to
observe the colour change during the reaction.
5. Place the conical flask onto the white paper...

Lab report example

Procedure

The equipment was arranged as shown in Fig. 2.

25.0ml HCl(aq) was pipetted into a 100ml conical flask. A burette was clamped to a
retort stand and filled with standardised NaOH(aq) and the initial measurement
was recorded. The conical flask was placed below the burette, on top of a piece of
white paper. Five drops of universal indicator solution were added to the flask...
Figure 2. Experimental set-up for titration (taken from Carroll 2017)

Tip

When writing up the procedure, you must report what was actually done and what
actually happened, and omit any extra information such as helpful hints included in the
instructions. Your goal for this section should be to include enough detail for someone
else to replicate what you did and achieve a similar outcome. You should also explain
any modifications to the original process introduced during the experiment.
Tip

In the Procedure section you should use:

 the past tense when you are reporting on something you did.

While most science units require that you report in the passive voice, some require
the active voice. In the example below, the first person is used e.g. "we initiated". This
is accepted in some disciplines, but not others. Check your unit information or talk to
your unit coordinator.

Instruction Your report

Initiate the bicarbonate feed pump. We initiated the bicarbonate feed pump. (active voice)

The bicarbonate feed pump was initiated. (passive voice)

5. Hasil

In this section, you present the main data collected during your experiment. Each key
measurement needs to be reported appropriately. Data are often presented in graphs,
figures or tables.

This section often also includes analysis of the raw data, such as calculations. In some
disciplines the analysis is presented under its own heading, in others it is included in the
results section. An analysis of the errors or uncertainties in the experiment is also
usually included in this section.

Tables, graphs and figures

Most numerical data are presented using tables or graphs. These need to be labelled
appropriately to clearly indicate what is shown.

Titles and captions

 Tables should be labelled numerically as Table 1, Table 2, etc.

 Everything else (graphs, images, diagrams etc.) is labelled numerically as Figure
1, Figure 2, etc. (References to figures in the main body of the text are usually
written in abbreviated form, e.g. ‘see Fig. 1’).
 Table captions appear above the table. Figure captions appear below the figure.
Note that in Fig. 3, above, the student has omitted error bars on the data points.
For most experiments an error analysis is important, and errors should be
included in tables and on graphs.

Also, it is always best to draw figures yourself if you can. If you do use figures
from another source, indicate in the citation whether you have modified it in any
way.

Data can be presented in other formats, such as images:

Calculations

When showing calculations, it is usual to show the general equation, and one
worked example. Where a calculation is repeated many times, the additional
detail is usually included in an appendix. Check the requirements given in your
unit information or lab manual, or ask your tutor if you are unsure where to place
calculations.

In some disciplines, if formulae are used, it is common to number them as

equations:

Lecturer's comment

In some schools, like Biology, calculations that are too detailed to go into the main body
of the report can be added in an appendix. The purpose of such appendices is to
present the data gathered and demonstrate the level of accuracy obtained.

Results

A chromatogram was produced for the unknown compound U, and each of the
known compounds, A-E. Rf values for each substance are listed in Table 1.
Table 1: Rf values for known compounds (A-E).

Compound Rf value Present in U?

A 0.95+/-0.03 Y

B 0.75+/-0.10 Y

C 0.88+/-0.04 N

D 0.45+/-0.06 N

E 0.33+/-0.05 Y

6. Pembahasan

The discussion section is where you:

 comment on the results you obtained

 interpret what the results mean
 explain any results which are unexpected.

Your discussion section should demonstrate how well you understand what happened
in the experiment. You should:

 identify and comment on any trends you have observed

 compare the experimental results with any predictions
 identify how any sources of error might impact on the interpretation of your
results
 suggest explanations for unexpected results, and
 where appropriate, suggest how the experiment could have been improved.

The discussion example below is from a first-year Biology unit. The aim of this
experiment was to identify decomposition rates of leaf breakdown to establish rates of
energy transfer.

Discussion

It was expected that the leaves would show a far higher rate of decomposition in
the shore zone, where there are more chances for sediments to rub against them.
However the two zones show no significant difference in leaf breakdown,
although these results are non-conclusive due to the limitations of this
experiment. The two zones of leaf decomposition were physically too close, and
over the incubation period reeds were observed growing close to the limnetic
zone. This may have negatively affected the accuracy of the results by reducing
the differences in habitat at these sites, as seen in other experiments (Jones et al.
2017). The results also had large standard deviations, possibly due to these
physical constraints or human error in weighing leaves. Further studies with
more diverse zones and precise procedures should be undertaken in order to
explore leaf decomposition and rates of energy transfer more effectively.

7. Kesimpulan

The conclusion section should provide a take-home message summing up what has
been learned from the experiment:

 Briefly restate the purpose of the experiment (the question it was seeking to
answer)
 Identify the main findings (answer to the research question)
 Note the main limitations that are relevant to the interpretation of the results
 Summarise what the experiment has contributed to your understanding of the
problem.

Lecturer's tip

In brief lab reports, the conclusion is presented at the end of the discussion, and does
not have its own heading. This type of conclusion can also be thought of as the
sentence that answers the question “So what?”. Note that a conclusion should never
introduce any new ideas or findings, only give a concise summary of those which have
already been presented in the report.

Click the icons next to each paragraph to show the lecturer’s comments. Click again to
hide the comment.

Back to top

References

It is quite possible that you may have in-text citations in your lab reports. Typically these
will be included in the introduction to establish evidence of background for current
theories or topics. Your discussion section will often include in-text citations, to show
how your findings relate to those in the published literature, or to provide evidence-
based suggestions or explanations for what you observed.
When in-text citations are incorporated into your lab report, you must always have the
full citations included in a separate reference list. The reference list is a separate
section that comes after your conclusion (and before any appendices).

Check your lab manual or unit information to determine which referencing style is
preferred. Carefully follow that referencing style for your in-text references and
reference list.