Formal lab guidelines (same as what was emailed to you); Questions are forthcoming.

Formal Group Lab - Optics

 (largely lifted and slightly modified from Wagner, T. and R. Sanford. 2005. Environmental Science: Active learning laboratories and applied problem sets. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ; special thanks to Jeff Jennings.)

This formal lab write-up will follow the explicit format that most scientific papers follow.  Scientific papers are not literary works - instead, they are meant to transmit information effectively and concisely.  There’s no option, for example, for surprise endings in scientific papers—the answer is always given in the first section.  

Your group’s paper will be broken down into the following sections.  Every section, except the title, should be labeled.  

Laboratory reports are your tool for expressing what you did, why you did it, and what you learned in the process.  Even if your understanding of the procedure, techniques, and results is perfect and your results are error-free, a poorly written report will suggest that you did not understand what you have done.  Writing reports is not difficult if you remember a few guidelines about writing and the structure of a good report.  An excellent resource to help you prepare, organize, interpret, and write you formal laboratory report is Labwrite.  Labwrite is an instructional project originating from North Carolina State University and sponsored by the National Science Foundation.  The Labwrite site is: http://labwrite.ncsu.edu

Your formal lab report must have the following components in the following order.

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Literature Cited (or References)

Note:  Metric measurements are used in science for presenting facts and figures.  When presenting information to the general public (i.e. not in a formal lab reports or scientific conference), English units are often used.

Title   

“What did you study?” 

The title of a lab report should indicate exactly what you studied.  The title should give the reader a concise, informative description of the content and scope of the paper.  For example, not “Wave Lab” but rather “An investigation into harmonics on a string.”

Abstract  

“Summarize, please.”

This is a concise summary of the major findings of the study. It is generally no longer than 9–10 sentences, or half a page.  It should state the purposes of the study, briefly summarize the methods, major results, and major conclusions of the study. The abstract should stand alone: do not refer to any figures or tables, or cite any references.  Generally scientists write the abstract last, because you need to know exactly what is in the paper before you can summarize it.

Introduction        

“Why did you study this phenomenon?”  And don’t just say, “Because Sean told us to.”

This is where you give a brief background to your experiment.  It usually includes background information, including the work of others, and a description of your objectives.  Normally, you would state the specific hypothesis/predictions you will be testing and give theoretical justifications for them.  In this optics lab, however, I did not give you any choice before the lab – change your writing accordingly.  Since I did not ask you to generate a hypothesis, so there is no need to include one.

Note:  You may want to refer to other work in the field (be sure to cite your sources!).  Direct quotes are rarely used in scientific writing; instead state the findings of others in your own words. We will not be using footnotes but rather be citing the author by last name, and the year that the source was published (Lally, 2008).  At the end of the paper you will then need to have the complete bibliographic listing for the reference.  See reference section for further explanation.

 

Materials and Methods  

      

“What did you do?  How did you do it?”

This section is a very concise summary of the subjects, equipment, and procedures used.  This section should contain enough information so that someone else could duplicate your experiment. It is not a list, but a narrative description.  However be careful that you don’t go over board and include superfluous information that is not relevant, such as, “then go over and pick up the following supplies…”  If you are following the methods of another paper or a lab manual, cite the source.  Also remember that these are not cooking directions but should be in the passive past tense as in, “We filled six petri dishes with 20 ml of tap water in each.”  It is also critical to include all relevant details such as lengths, number of trials, time intervals…etc.  A common mistake is to let results creep into this section.

Results         

“What did you find?”

In the results section, you present your observations and data with no interpretations or conclusions about what they mean; that is for the discussion.  Tables and figures should be used to supplement the text and to present the data in a synthesized, more understandable form.  Use the past tense to describe your results.  Think of this section as a simple description of your major results.  This is also where you include relevant sample calculations (such as experimental focal length) with your data (and related statistics such as percent error).

Do not present your raw data.  Instead, present data in an easy to read form.  You will probably use a figure or a table to present your results.  All tables and figures must be numbered and have self-explanatory titles so that the reader can understand their content without the text (e.g. Table 1.  Displacement of falling ball versus time).  Assign numbers to tables and figures in the order they are mentioned in the text.  Tables and figures are numbered independently of each other (i.e. Table 1 and 2, and then Figure 1 and 2).  Tables are labeled at the top and figures at the bottom.  Tables are referred to as tables; all other items (graphs, photographs, drawings, diagrams, maps, etc.) are referred to as figures.

Discussion    

    

“What does it mean?”

This is the meat of your paper.  Here you are to give a reader the “take home” message of the study.  This section should respond to and echo concepts brought up in the introduction without being repetitive.  Begin by briefly summarizing the major findings of your study. Then discuss each finding one at a time (usually in separate paragraphs).  The support you provide for your ideas is very important.  Use your data, trends, statistical evidence and background information as support.  Remember that you rarely if ever “prove” something, but that your data can be used in support of a particular conclusion.  Do not make statements that cannot be supported by the data.  Discuss possible errors (threats to validity) in the experiment, but don’t make the common mistake that beginning writers often do, of focusing completely on potential errors in your work.  Not all potential errors may be significant.

Questions to consider

In this lab, I want you and your group to consider a few “extension questions” – things that are not obvious and may indeed be hard to prove.  These questions will be posted on the blog shortly.

Concluding remarks

Anything else worth remarking about that does not neatly fit into the “Discussion” section.

Acknowledgements

This is where you would typically thank those who funded a study or anyone whose expertise you found helpful.

References or Literature Cited

Sources must be credited if you obtain ideas or thoughts from them, even if you are not giving a direct quote.  There are a number of different formats used in science for citation.  Use the format below to cite any literature used in your report (e.g. a textbook, journal articles, books, internet and so forth).  In the text of your report cite references using the author’s surnames, and the year of publication in parenthesis (e.g. Botkin and Keller, 2003).  These sources then have full bibliographic listings in this section of the paper. 

Journal articles

Single Author

Connell, J.L. 1974. Species Diversity in Tropical Coral Reefs. Science 234:23-26.

Multiple Authors

O’Rourke, D., L. Connelly, and C.P. Koshland. 1996. Industrial Ecology: A Critical Review. International Journal of Environmental Pollution 6:89-112.

Books
Single Author

Forsyth, A. 2001. A Natural History of Sex: The ecology and evolution of mating behavior. Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY.

Multiple Authors

Starr, C., C.A. Evers and L. Starr. 2008. Biology. 7^th ed. Thomson Brooks/Cole, CA

Chapter in a Book

Rabe, G.B. 1999. Sustainability in a Regional Context: The case of the Great Lakes basin. P. 248-281. In D.A. Mazmanian and M.E. Kraft (ed.) Towards Sustainable Communities: Transition and transformations in environmental policy. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Internet

Citations for internet sites should be similar to print media citations, including author, publication date, article title, site title, URL, and date the information was posted (or when the address was accessed).

Internet article

Sanchirico, J.N. and R.G. Newell. 2003. Carching Market Efficicienceds: Quota-based fisheries management. Resources 150 [Online], 23 Sept. 2003. Available at http://www.rff.org/rff/documents/rff-resources-150-carchmarket.pdf. (verified 2 June 2004)

Web page (with no author listed)
Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) [Internet]. [updated 2007 Feb 27]. Columbus (OH): Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry; [cited 2007 Jul 24]. Available from: http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/forestry/health/eab.htm

In-Text:
(Emerald Ash Borer ... [updated 2007])

Government Website

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). 2004. Home Page [Online]. Available at http://www.epa.gov (verified 3 June 2004)

Laboratory Write-ups Check List

 

Title

• Title stated clearly and concisely.
• Includes the correct independent and dependent variables
• Title capitalized
• Names, in alphabetical order (assuming that there is no “lead author”)

Abstract

• Clear, succinct explanation of question being addressed
• Clear, succinct explain of research
• Includes conclusions of research
• Under 10 sentences

Introduction

• Introduction to conceptual framework of research
• Starts with broad background material and narrows to introduce this particular research
• Clear description of question being addressed

Material and Methods

• Protocol is written in essay form (not numbered steps) in past passive tense (“a transect was placed …”)
• Protocol clearly establishes proper set of procedures that would allow it to be replicated
• Superfluous steps NOT included

Results

• All figures and tables have appropriately descriptive legends
• Metric units used
• All figures have appropriate labels on axes and tables have appropriate column headings
• Figures and tables used to support written explanation of results
• Explicit use of data used in text

Discussion

• Analysis of results using explicit data and referencing figures and tables
• Proper use of references to information obtained from other sources
• Attempt to describe and explain trends and anomalies seen in data.

Questions

Concluding remarks

Acknowledgements

References

• Accurate and clear