Writing a lab report

• Biologie
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 1

Scientific research - Writing a lab report

Lesson goals

 

• You know what steps are taken in scientific research
• You can follow these steps en use them when writing a lab report

What is needed to do a good experiment?

Writing a lab report while doing research

• Scientific research always follows the same set of steps
• When you report on an experiment you use these steps.

1. What am I investigating?

Research question

• Question you try to answer by doing the experiment

Example:

• What happens if I cut off the leaves of a young plant?

2. What do I already know?

Background information

• Text that shows supporting theories for the subject you are researching
• Make use of sources: Book and internet

Example:

• Plants need their leaves to perform photosynthesis, without them plants do not have food.

3. What is my hypothesis?

Hypothesis

• What answer do you expect for your research question?
• Why? support you expectation with theories. 

Example

• I expect the plant will die, it needs food and without leaves it is unable to do photosynthesis.

4. What am I going to do?

Workplan

• Step by step list of how you are doing the experiment
• Why in this way?

Example:

1. Take to cups and fill them with 5 beans, earth and water.
2. When the beans have germinated I cut off the leaves of all beans in cup 1. Beans in cup 2 keep their leaves, so I can compare them.
3. I check both cups every day and note down any changes.

5. What do I need?

Requirements

• List of everything needed to perform the experiment

Example:

1. 2 cups filled with earth
2. 10 beans
3. Water
4. Scissors

6. What are my observations?

Results

• Summarize what happened during the experiment.
• Only facts!
• Use table and/or graphs to organise your data.
• Add photos 

Example:

• The stems of the plants in cup 1 lose their rigidity.
• The plants in cup 1 died after 4 days.

7. What is my conclusion?

Conclusion

• Answer your research question
• Summarize important results that led to the conclusion.
• Compare conclusion and hypothesis

Example:

• A young plant doesn't live for very long without its leaves. It dies after 4 days. My hypothesis was correct.

8.List of sources

List of all used sources: books, sites, people, etc.

• Add complete url's
• Google is not a source!

Put these in the correct order

Research question

Hypothesis

Conclusion

Workplan & reguirements

Results

List of sources

Backgroundinformation

8. Is het experiment goed uitgevoerd?

Discussie

• Is het experiment helemaal volgens werkwijze uitgevoerd?
• Zijn er dingen anders gelopen/mis gegaan?
• Welke invloed heeft dit op het experiment?

Reflectie

• Wat vond je van je eigen werkhouding tijdens het experiment?
• Waar ben je tevreden over?
• Wat zou je anders doen?

End

• Je kunt de 8 stappen benoemen die je zet tijdens een onderzoek
  
• Je weet hoe je een verslag in elkaar moet zetten.

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