Understanding and Writing a Lab Report
A lab report is a piece of writing that contains information about how an experiment was conducted and
the information gathered by experimenting.
A lab report has the following sections,
Title Page
- only if it is a formal lab report and must have the following information
- Title of Experiment
- Course Code (e.g. SNC 1DI - 06)
- Your Name (plus any other group members)
- Date Due
Purpose
- a single sentence explaining why the experiment is being carried out
Hypothesis
- a single sentence that is an educated guess/prediction of what will happen in the experiment (must
contain both the dependent and independent variables)
Materials
- don’t list the materials just refer to the handout or text pages that the materials are listed on
Procedure
- don’t rewrite the procedure just refer to the handout or text pages that the procedure is on
Observations
- section that you record your observations in
- consists of tables and diagrams (each table and diagram must have a title)
- no graphs or calculations!!
-contains both quantitative observations (using numbers) and qualitative observations (using only words)
Analysis
- section where you discuss the observations you recorded and answer any questions that were assigned
- discuss if there is a link between the dependent and independent variables using your observations
- calculations and graphs are done in this section
Conclusion
- the following must be answered in the conclusion,
- was the purpose achieved? why or why not?
- was the hypothesis correct? Why or why not?
- use data to support your statements for the above
- where there any errors or limitations of the experiment (if no errors must state at least one
limitation)
- cannot be 2 or 3 sentences!!
Other important notes about a lab report…
- must be written in past tense
- cannot use personal pronouns such as I, we, us, me, etc…
- grammar and spelling will be marked
- full sentences and paragraph form must be used
Examples: Identifying the experimental variables and practice with writing the purpose and hypothesis.
Example 1
Pretend you will carry out an experiment that involves studying the growth of plants under normal light
and different coloured lights.
Dependent Variable(s) (variable(s) you are measuring)
______the thickness the time it took to grow the difference is the different colour of lights
Independent Variable (variable that you change to affect the dependent variable possibly)
_________________________________________________________________________
****How many Independent Variables should you change with each experiment/trial?****
Control Variables (variables that you keep the same)
_________________________________________________________________________________
Purpose
Hypothesis
Example 2
Pretend you will carry out an experiment that involves studying the growth of bacteria under various
conditions.
Dependent Variable (variable you are measuring)
_________________________________________________________________________
Independent Variable (variable that you change to possibly affect the dependent variable)
__________________________________________________________________________
Control Variables (variables that you keep the same)
_________________________________________________________________________________
Purpose
Hypothesis
