With winter break fast approaching in Huntington Beach, your child may be deep in Chemistry labs or have take-home labs to complete over the break.  Lost?  Stuck?  We’ve created a handy Chemistry reference guide on how to set up a lab report.

Chemistry Lab Report

A Chemistry tutor can help create or edit a lab report.  A Chemistry tutor will remind the student to always check the Chemistry teacher’s instructions making sure all parts of the Chemistry lab report are covered.

Break down of an ideal Chemistry Lab Report, section by section –

Title Page/Title Section

This should contain, at least:

  • The title of the Chemistry experiment (usually given in class)
    • If the title is not given, it should be short and to the point.  For example, “Effects of Sunlight on Plant Growth Rate.”  It typically is not a complete sentence, and should be under ten words
  • The names of the person who did the lab (yourself and lab partners)
  • Teacher’s name
  • Lab date or the due date
  • Class Period, Room Number, or Class Name

Introduction

A paragraph that explains the objectives or purpose of the Chemistry lab. The first sentence is usually the hypothesis. This information is usually given or determined in class An introduction may include background information, an experiment summary, and a findings summary.  At the very least, it needs to include the purpose of the Chemistry experiment.

Chemistry Materials

Everything used to complete the experiment.  For the example above, this would include the seeds or plants, soil, pots, sunlight, water (assuming the plants were watered), a ruler, etc.

Chemistry Methods

The steps the Chemistry lab group completed during the investigation. This might also be called “procedure” or “steps.” The purpose is so that someone else (such as a parent) can read this section and duplicate the experiment. A Chemistry Tutor will confirm that all of the steps are there and correct.  If needed, figures or diagrams showing what to do can be added to the steps.

Chemistry Data

The numbers in a Chemistry experiment.  This is NOT the part to draw conclusions or opinions, just state the data found during the Chemistry experiment.  For the example, a  chart including the height of each plant, the number of leaves each plant has, when the seeds sprouted, etc., with the amount of sunlight for each.  There is usually a table, bar graph, pie graph, or chart in this section.  Check the Chemistry teacher’s instructions to confirm how the information should be presented.

Results of the Chemistry Experiment

This is where the data is explained.  A Chemistry tutor may prompt the student by asking, “What happened?”  “What does it mean?”

Discussion or Analysis

Data is discussed and opinions are formed.  It will include any calculations based on the data.  This is also the part where the Chemistry student can conclude if the hypothesis should be accepted or rejected, and why.  If an experiment is inconclusive, this is the part to explain any scientific error (or errors during the Chemistry lab) or conjecture why the lab is inconclusive.  The Chemistry teacher may also ask for the student to write how the experiment could have been improved in this section.

Conclusions in Chemistry

The conclusion is usually a paragraph that sums up what happened in the experiment, if the hypothesis was accepted or rejected, and what this means.  On a shorter lab, this may be incorporated as into the Results and/or the Discussion or Analysis section(s).

References for the Chemistry Experiment

Most Chemistry labs will not have references besides the lab procedures.  However, for longer labs, or assignments over winter break that included research, this section will act as a bibliography. 

Your Chemistry Tutor will make sure that every graph, table, or figure has a title and is labeled on both the x and y-axis with the correct units. Typically, the independent variable is on the x-axis and the dependent variable (the one being measured) is on the y-axis. These figures and graphs should be mentioned somewhere earlier in the report.

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Posted in Chemistry, Huntington Beach