what to talk about in discussion lab report
How To Write A Lab Report | Stride-by-Pace Guide & Examples
A lab study conveys the aim, methods, results, and conclusions of a scientific experiment.
The main purpose of a lab report is to demonstrate your agreement of the scientific method by performing and evaluating a easily-on lab experiment. This type of consignment is unremarkably shorter than a research paper.
Lab reports are commonly used in science, engineering, engineering science, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This commodity focuses on how to construction and write a lab report.
Structuring a lab study
The sections of a lab report can vary between scientific fields and course requirements, but they usually contain the purpose, methods, and findings of a lab experiment.
Each section of a lab report has its ain purpose.
- Title: expresses the topic of your report
- Abstract: summarizes your research aims, methods, results, and conclusions
- Introduction: establishes the context needed to empathise the topic
- Method: describes the materials and procedures used in the experiment
- Results: reports all descriptive and inferential statistical analyses
- Discussion: interprets and evaluates results and identifies limitations
- Determination: sums up the main findings of your experiment
- References: list of all sources cited using a specific style (due east.g. APA)
- Appendices: contains lengthy materials, procedures, tables or figures
Although nearly lab reports contain these sections, some sections can be omitted or combined with others. For example, some lab reports contain a brief section on research aims instead of an introduction, and a separate conclusion is not always required.
If y'all're non sure, information technology'southward all-time to bank check your lab written report requirements with your teacher.
Championship
Your championship provides the first impression of your lab report – effective titles communicate the topic and/or the findings of your study in specific terms.
Create a title that directly conveys the main focus or purpose of your report. It doesn't need to exist creative or thought-provoking, just it should exist informative.
- The effects of varying nitrogen levels on tomato superlative.
- Testing the universality of the McGurk result.
- Comparing the viscosity of common liquids found in kitchens.
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Abstract
An abstract condenses a lab report into a brief overview of about 150–300 words. It should provide readers with a compact version of the research aims, the methods and materials used, the main results, and the final decision.
Think of it every bit a way of giving readers a preview of your full lab report. Write the abstract terminal, in the past tense, after you've drafted all the other sections of your written report, then you lot'll be able to succinctly summarize each department.
To write a lab written report abstract, apply these guiding questions:
- What is the wider context of your study?
- What research question were you trying to respond?
- How did y'all perform the experiment?
- What did your results show?
- How did you interpret your results?
- What is the importance of your findings?
Nitrogen is a necessary nutrient for loftier quality plants. Tomatoes, one of the nearly consumed fruits worldwide, rely on nitrogen for healthy leaves and stems to grow fruit. This experiment tested whether nitrogen levels affected tomato plant height in a controlled setting. It was expected that higher levels of nitrogen fertilizer would yield taller tomato plants.
Levels of nitrogen fertilizer were varied betwixt three groups of tomato plant plants. The control grouping did not receive any nitrogen fertilizer, while one experimental group received low levels of nitrogen fertilizer, and a second experimental group received high levels of nitrogen fertilizer. All plants were grown from seeds, and heights were measured fifty days into the experiment.
The effects of nitrogen levels on plant height were tested between groups using an ANOVA. The plants with the highest level of nitrogen fertilizer were the tallest, while the plants with low levels of nitrogen exceeded the control group plants in height. In line with expectations and previous findings, the effects of nitrogen levels on institute acme were statistically significant. This study strengthens the importance of nitrogen for tomato plants.
Introduction
Your lab report introduction should set the scene for your experiment. I style to write your introduction is with a funnel (an inverted triangle) structure:
- Start with the broad, general research topic
- Narrow your topic downward your specific written report focus
- Stop with a articulate research question
Begin by providing background information on your inquiry topic and explaining why it's important in a wide real-globe or theoretical context. Describe relevant previous research on your topic and annotation how your study may confirm it or expand it, or fill a gap in the research field.
This lab experiment builds on previous research from Haque, Paul, and Sarker (2011), who demonstrated that tomato found yield increased at college levels of nitrogen. All the same, the present research focuses on plant height as a growth indicator and uses a lab-controlled setting instead.
Next, go into detail on the theoretical basis for your study and describe whatsoever direct relevant laws or equations that you'll be using. State your primary research aims and expectations by outlining your hypotheses.
Based on the importance of nitrogen for tomato plants, the primary hypothesis was that the plants with the loftier levels of nitrogen would grow the tallest. The secondary hypothesis was that plants with low levels of nitrogen would grow taller than plants with no nitrogen.
Your introduction doesn't need to be long, but you may need to organize it into a few paragraphs or with subheadings such as "Research Context" or "Enquiry Aims."
Method
A lab study Method department details the steps you took to gather and analyze data. Give enough detail so that others can follow or evaluate your procedures. Write this section in the past tense. If y'all need to include whatsoever long lists of procedural steps or materials, place them in the Appendices department simply refer to them in the text here.
You should describe your experimental blueprint, your subjects, materials, and specific procedures used for data collection and analysis.
Experimental design
Briefly notation whether your experiment is a inside-subjects or between-subjects blueprint, and describe how your sample units were assigned to atmospheric condition if relevant.
A between-subjects blueprint with 3 groups of tomato plants was used. The command group did not receive any nitrogen fertilizer. The commencement experimental grouping received a low level of nitrogen fertilizer, while the second experimental group received a high level of nitrogen fertilizer.
Subjects
Draw human subjects in terms of demographic characteristics, and beast or plant subjects in terms of genetic background. Note the total number of subjects as well every bit the number of subjects per condition or per group. You lot should also country how you recruited subjects for your study.
Materials
List the equipment or materials you used to assemble data and land the model names for any specialized equipment.
Listing of materials
35 Tomato seeds
Soil
15 plant pots (fifteen cm tall)
Water
Calorie-free lamps (50,000 lux)
Nitrogen fertilizer
Measuring tape
Describe your experimental settings and conditions in detail. You can provide labelled diagrams or images of the exact prepare-up necessary for experimental equipment. Country how extraneous variables were controlled through restriction or past fixing them at a certain level (east.g., keeping the lab at room temperature).
Light levels were fixed throughout the experiment, and the plants were exposed to 12 hours of light a day. Temperature was restricted to between 23 and 25℃. The pH and carbon levels of the soil were also held abiding throughout the experiment as these variables could influence plant superlative. The plants were grown in rooms free of insects or other pests, and they were spaced out adequately.
Procedures
Your experimental procedure should describe the exact steps yous took to gather data in chronological society. You'll need to provide enough data and so that someone else can replicate your procedure, but yous should also be concise. Place detailed information in the appendices where advisable.
In a lab experiment, yous'll often closely follow a lab manual to assemble data. Some instructors will allow you to but reference the transmission and state whether you changed any steps based on practical considerations. Other instructors may want you to rewrite the lab manual procedures as consummate sentences in coherent paragraphs, while noting any changes to the steps that you applied in practise.
If yous're performing extensive data analysis, be sure to state your planned analysis methods as well. This includes the types of tests you lot'll perform and any programs or software y'all'll use for calculations (if relevant).
First, tomato seeds were sown in wooden flats containing soil about two cm below the surface. Each seed was kept iii-5 cm apart. The flats were covered to keep the soil moist until germination. The seedlings were removed and transplanted to pots 8 days later, with a maximum of two plants to a pot. Each pot was watered once a day to keep the soil moist.
The nitrogen fertilizer treatment was applied to the plant pots 12 days after transplantation. The control group received no treatment, while the first experimental group received a low concentration, and the second experimental group received a loftier concentration. There were five pots in each group, and each establish pot was labelled to indicate the group the plants belonged to.
50 days later the start of the experiment, plant height was measured for all plants. A measuring tape was used to record the length of the plant from ground level to the top of the tallest leafage.
Results
In your results department, you should written report the results of any statistical analysis procedures that you undertook. You should clearly state how the results of statistical tests support or refute your initial hypotheses.
The chief results to study include:
- any descriptive statistics
- statistical examination results
- the significance of the test results
- estimates of standard mistake or confidence intervals
The hateful heights of the plants in the command group, depression nitrogen grouping, and high nitrogen groups were xx.iii, 25.i, and 29.6 cm respectively. A one-mode ANOVA was applied to calculate the effect of nitrogen fertilizer level on establish peak. The results demonstrated statistically meaning (p = .03) height differences between groups.
Adjacent, postal service-hoc tests were performed to assess the primary and secondary hypotheses. In support of the principal hypothesis, the loftier nitrogen group plants were significantly taller than the low nitrogen grouping and the command group plants. Similarly, the results supported the secondary hypothesis: the low nitrogen plants were taller than the command group plants.
These results tin can be reported in the text or in tables and figures. Use text for highlighting a few primal results, simply present large sets of numbers in tables, or show relationships between variables with graphs.
You lot should also include sample calculations in the Results department for complex experiments. For each sample adding, provide a cursory description of what it does and use clear symbols. Nowadays your raw data in the Appendices department and refer to it to highlight any outliers or trends.
Discussion
The Discussion section will help demonstrate your understanding of the experimental process and your critical thinking skills.
In this section, y'all can:
- Interpret your results
- Compare your findings with your expectations
- Identify any sources of experimental error
- Explain whatever unexpected results
- Propose possible improvements for farther studies
Interpreting your results involves clarifying how your results aid you answer your master research question. Report whether your results support your hypotheses.
- Did you measure what you sought out to measure out?
- Were your analysis procedures appropriate for this blazon of data?
Compare your findings with other enquiry and explain whatsoever central differences in findings.
- Are your results in line with those from previous studies or your classmates' results? Why or why non?
An effective Discussion section volition also highlight the strengths and limitations of a report.
- Did you have high internal validity or reliability?
- How did you establish these aspects of your study?
When describing limitations, utilize specific examples. For example, if random error contributed substantially to the measurements in your study, state the item sources of error (e.k., imprecise apparatus) and explicate means to improve them.
The results support the hypothesis that nitrogen levels affect plant top, with increasing levels producing taller plants. These statistically significant results are taken together with previous inquiry to back up the importance of nitrogen as a food for tomato plant growth.
Still, unlike previous studies, this report focused on constitute pinnacle as an indicator of plant growth in the present experiment. Importantly, institute height may not e'er reflect institute wellness or fruit yield, and so measuring other indicators would accept strengthened the report findings.
Another limitation of the study is the plant height measurement technique, as the measuring tape was not suitable for plants with farthermost curvature. Time to come studies may focus on measuring constitute height in unlike ways.
The main strengths of this study were the controls for extraneous variables, such as pH and carbon levels of the soil. All other factors that could affect plant height were tightly controlled to isolate the effects of nitrogen levels, resulting in high internal validity for this study.
Conclusion
Your conclusion should exist the final department of your lab report. Hither, yous'll summarize the findings of your experiment, with a brief overview of the strengths and limitations, and implications of your report for further research.
Some lab reports may omit a Conclusion section considering information technology overlaps with the Discussion section, merely you should check with your instructor before doing so.
Frequently asked questions about lab reports
- What is a lab report?
-
A lab written report conveys the aim, methods, results, and conclusions of a scientific experiment. Lab reports are commonly assigned in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Stem) fields.
- What's the divergence between a lab report and a research paper?
-
The purpose of a lab written report is to demonstrate your agreement of the scientific method with a easily-on lab experiment. Form instructors will often provide you with an experimental pattern and procedure. Your task is to write up how you actually performed the experiment and evaluate the effect.
In contrast, a inquiry paper requires you to independently develop an original argument. It involves more in-depth research and interpretation of sources and information.
A lab report is commonly shorter than a enquiry paper.
- What are the sections of a lab report?
-
The sections of a lab report can vary between scientific fields and course requirements, but it usually contains the following:
- Championship: expresses the topic of your study
- Abstract: summarizes your research aims, methods, results, and conclusions
- Introduction: establishes the context needed to understand the topic
- Method: describes the materials and procedures used in the experiment
- Results: reports all descriptive and inferential statistical analyses
- Discussion: interprets and evaluates results and identifies limitations
- Determination: sums up the primary findings of your experiment
- References: list of all sources cited using a specific style (e.g. APA)
- Appendices: contains lengthy materials, procedures, tables or figures
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