I am a part of the group that will be teaching the class to write lab reports. I am not familiar with how to write up professional lab reports, and fellow members in my group are also not totally familiar with the process, so this should be an experience. We are learning just as much as the rest of the class will be learning. We all get along well and haven't had any disagreements of any sort.
Through research we have found that all lab reports follow the same sort of structure. The group has split the portions of a typical lab report up so we can each research on our own over the course of the week. There is a title, an introduction, methods and materials, and more. Essentially, what I've learned so far that is most important is that the lab report should make the experiment easy for other scientists or interested parties to repeat on their own.
I have got the pieces that include the results (sort of the numerical data), analysis and discussion. This is the part of the report that summarizes what happened over the course of the experiment, why it's important, and whether or not the results support the hypothesis. These reports are super meticulous and detailed, and done for almost every experiment. I've discovered through this research that I am glad I did not choose the path of science, because I've never been accurate with numbers. It stresses me out just reading about it.
I did find a good resource on how to make an accurate and concise lab report:
https://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/scientific-reports/
It sounds like you all have done a great job organizing and deligating your presentations information. I think this is a great opportunity for your group to learn about something completely new and different. Hopefully your are also enjoying the process.
ReplyDeleteMaking sure an experiment can be repeated by fellow scientists is absolutely the most important part of a lab report! Results mean nothing to science if they aren't reproducible or don't provide anything of value to science as a whole. You always want to stress in the Discussion why you're results are important and why science should care about them. A really great resource for how to write lab reports is "Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences" by Victoria McMillan. I believe parts of it are available for free online. I also always have the book in my backpack, and would be happy to lend it to your group if you wanted to use it as a resource. It breaks each part down to the basics well, and is surprisingly easy to read considering it's written for science majors!
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