Describe briefly and in an organized fashion the techniques and procedures used in a lab.

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The sections are as follows:
1) Title page
2) Abstract
3) Introduction
4) Materials and methods
5) Results
6) Discussion
7) References
In this lab, you will break down each of the sections of a lab report. It is helpful if you use the data from the previous lab as you think about and write each section. This lab is intended to introduce you to the process of scientific writing, and provide helpful steps along the way.
1) TITLE PAGE
Writing a title page should be rather straight forward. The following is what you should include:
The title: Is it insufficient to simply write: “Biol 4110: lab X”. Or “Biol 4110: Sensory lab”. A good title should be descriptive, informative, and in some rare cares ‘catchy’.
Some Examples: i) Sensory systems in biology: a touchy subject.
ii) An introduction to the senses in Biology, a human perspective. ii) Exploring the senses in homo sapiens. (basic, but to the point)
Next, you should include:
i) Your name,
ii) Your partner (s) names (when applicable) iii) Lab day, sections.
iv) The due date of the lab
v) Your laboratory instructor
There are many different ways to format a title page. This is one of the only places when a little bit of artistic freedom is appropriate. In general, the title of the lab report should be larger font, top of the page and centered. The remaining information should follow below, typically in size 12 font, times new roman.
2) The abstract – 1⁄2 page
In our experience, students will often complete this section of their lab report last, and as an after-thought. However, in practice this is one of the most challenging and critical sections of a laboratory report or piece of scientific writing.
When reading a scientific paper (published literature), most other scientists read the abstract as quick way of ‘skimming’ through research papers, to decide whether to read in full. If your abstract is not well-written, clear, concise, and clearly identifies the objective(s), hypothesis (es), findings, results, and highlights the major impacts; then it is very unlikely people will read your work. This would be a real shame, if all the years of hard work and sacrifice (and good science) went underappreciate, due to a poorly written abstract.
For most, this is often the most difficult section of a paper or report to write well. What makes it especially challenging is that you are often limited to 150-250 words in total.
For this course, you will be asked to write an abstract which addresses these main points.
The ‘hook’. The first sentence should be something ‘catchy’ to draw your reader in and
‘catch’ or grab their attention. E.x. “In this article/assignment we use cutting-edge scientific approaches to solve the age-old question: what’s more sensitive, the hands or feet?
Next you should address the question/problem/topic you are exploring in the assignment.
While not always necessary, you can briefly explain ‘the how’, or the methods.
This should be quickly followed by your scientific hypothesis.
Next you should clearly but concisely state the findings/results of your work.
Finish your abstract with your main findings, the ‘why should someone reading this care’ sentence. Ultimately, what do you want your reader to take away from your writing/report.
For your lab reports, you should aim to write your abstract in no more than 1 paragraph. At most 1⁄2 a page.
3) The introduction. 1-2 pages
The introduction, should be, as the name indicates, a way to introduce your reader to the topic, and gradually guide them to the question/topic you are intending to address in your report/scientific writing. Your first 1-2 sentences should again seek to ‘hook’ your reader in and quickly identify what the topic area is.
Many well-written introductions, will start off using one of two approaches: i) A brief historical account of the topic. Ex. Studies of the senses of humans began in (insert year) with (insert scientist/ or scientific study). ii) A general but brief outline of your topic, quickly identifying a lack of understanding in the scientific community. Ex. Of the 5 major senses in biology, touch is the most poorly understood.
The next 1-1 1⁄2 pages should explore and summarize relevant scientific articles related to this subject area. You should provide sufficient background on the subject, tell your reader what is known about the subject (every sentence should be properly referenced). All information in your introduction should be based off other scientists/ researchers work/scientific findings. There is time for sharing your thoughts and ideas (but that comes later, in the discussion section).
The last 1⁄2 page of your introduction should clearly explain: what is the gap in our knowledge, or understanding in this field, and how is your work/study seeking to address it, You may also:
• Briefly describe the experimental preparation you are using, highlighting the specific area (ie: nerve or muscle) of interest, its function in the organism, and importance to the researcher scientifically.
• Utilize previous work in the field and highlight any relevant theory and/or relevant knowledge which will be of direct importance to the current lab experiments.
• Clearly state what was done in the experiment, its importance, and briefly mention the tools/techniques used to achieve your goals.
4) Materials and methods
When writing this section of your lab report, you should have one idea or thought in mind; if someone else wanted to or intended to reproduce or recreate your study and your findings what would they need to know. Once you are satisfied you have addressed this, your methods section should be complete. Things you must address: what was the test subject, what equipment did we use, what reagents (chemicals) were used, what computer software/ hardware did I used to analyze/graph/compute/run statistics on (excel was used to make figures). If previous data were used, make sure that you tell your reader where that information was obtained.
• Describe briefly and in an organized fashion the techniques and procedures used in a lab. See any current scientific journal to use as reference for the organization and layout of this material.
• Specific to lab reports: Make sure you include any changes that were implemented in the procedure that differ from that stated in the manual (no point forms).
5) Results – Length depends on the amount of figures/data collected.
This part of the lab report we have discussed in some detail in the previous lab. It is important to consider that this section includes both 1) a WRITTEN section detailing the observations made throughout the experiment, measurements taken, calculations and transformations of all data as well as 2) a VISUAL section illustrating the results of your measurements/calculations in the form of figures, graphs and tables.
Your data should be compiled and summarized into tables and graphs when applicable
Use a computer program such as Excel to generate graphs; they can be incorporated
into the body of the text or as separate full-page graphs.
If full page graphs are used figures MUST be inserted into the text rather than placed
at the end of a lab report.
Provide a title for each table or graph in your report (figure headings below a figure, table
headings go above). As a general rule, a figure or table with its heading should be able to ‘stand-alone’. Can this figure with the heading be understandable if it was submitted/read
on its own, without the rest of the assignment/scientific writing assignment along with it. Titles and legends should clearly describe the data the reader will find in the table or on the graph.
Make sure suitable units are clearly marked.
Include sample calculations here or in an appendix (they can be hand-written).
Read any scientific paper to get an idea for how the results section of a paper are written.
You can state what the results show, including general statements about the trends shown in these figures/tables but do not go into extensive discussion explaining them.
6) Discussion
This is the final section of your lab report. You will generally begin this section by re- starting what the purpose of the report/ laboratory exercise was. Then you can sequentially go through the experiments, what you found, and how you interpret your scientific work supports or
refutes
other scientific studies and your hypotheses.
Summarize final results in reference to the initial objective of the experiment.
Interpret the results with respect to the objective. What happened and why? What is the
significance of it? What does it tell you?
Discuss how your work relates to that known in the literature. Are your data consistent or
different from that previously reported? If different why?
You should discuss ALL results not just those that are explicitly outlined in discussion
questions
Discuss any problems and errors that were encountered during the experiment, and
possible solutions to these problems.

Incorporate into your discussion any specific questions asked for each laboratory.
Ask what other questions your work raises. What other experiments would you do to
address these questions? 7) References
• Reference all the literature that was used to prepare the report.
• All ideas that are not your own need to be referenced (ie. If it is not an original thought then it needs to be referenced).
• Use an acceptable reference format (See current scientific journals for examples).

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