This tutorial is intended to
give you a general idea of what a lab report for an introductory science
class should be like. It especially focuses on introductory chemistry.
It will tell you about the organization of a lab report, the various
parts of the report, and what each part should do. It will give you
rules of thumb about what should and what should not go into your
report. However, you should make sure to follow the specific guidelines
for writing lab reports that might be provided by your science instructor,
especially where they might be different from the general guidelines
provided here.
To illustrate what a lab report
should look like, this tutorial uses a modern version of an experiment
that was done a long time ago . The example is one of a series of
experiments done by Volta around 1800 to show that two different metals
could produce an electrical current. If you click on "HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND" below, you will find information about the historical
context of the original experiment. If you click on "NEXT",
you will find a description of the particular experiment that we will
use as our illustration throughout the tutorial. The remaining pages
use the experiment to talk about how to write a lab report. You should
proceed through the tutorial from the beginning to the end, clicking
on "Next" at the bottom right of each page to move through
the tutorial. You may also move back to the opening page by clicking
on "Home."
HOME HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND NEXT