Titration lab abstract

How to Write a Formal Lab Report The purpose of lab experiments is to provide “hands-on” demonstrations of topics covered in the chapters of the textbook. Lab experiments are a way to support the lecture material by providing the students with invaluable, firsthand experience. Often, following a lab experiment, the student will be asked to write a formal lab report. The formal lab report allows the student to present his or her understanding of the procedures performed in lab and to provide thoughtful insight regarding the meaning of the results obtained. There are variations to the structure of formal lab reports, but they all follow a basic format, which contains the following: Title Page Abstract Introduction & Background Methods Results Discussion A detailed description of each heading may be found below. *It is important to note that the formal lab report should be written in the 3rd person, using past tense (e.g. Do not write: “First, you add 5.0 mL of concentrated HCl to the test tube” but, rather: “Initially, 5.0 mL of concentrated HCl was added to the test tube”). Title Page Title your lab report here. The title from the lab handout is sufficient. Lab partners (if applicable) should be listed on the title page, as well as the date of submission. Abstract The abstract summarizes four essential aspects of the report: the purpose of the experiment, key findings, significance and major conclusions. The abstract often also includes a brief reference to theory or methodology. The information should clearly enable readers to decide whether they need to read your whole report. The abstract should be one paragraph, generally 100-200 words long. Introduction & Background Introduce your topic by describing the question, concern, variable, etc. that you will be testing. An Introduction also clearly defines the purpose of conducting the experiment, and states the hypothesis. Include any background or previous research you have conducted which affects the experimental concepts. This may or may not include previous experiments, scientific theories, emerging changes, etc. Remember to include in-text citations in APA format when referencing previous studies or background information retrieved from outside sources. Methods Describe how you performed the experiment. This section is very detailed. It should include information such as materials used, procedural steps, key instructions, data collection technique(s), participants, controls, variables, the environmental setting, etc. The Method section should be thorough enough for an outsider to replicate your experiment without requiring any additional information. Results This section presents the data you collected from the experiment. Major findings are revealed here, but data analysis should not be included. For example, patterns may be pointed out but the implication(s) of the patterns should not be interpreted in this section. All data should be displayed clearly. Tables, charts, statistics, etc. should be included in this section. Discussion An analytical response to the data comprises the majority of the discussion. Begin with a summary of the results you obtained; and, indicate if the results confirm or refute your hypothesis. Did you obtain the results you expected? How do your results compare with the industry standard? If your results are not what you expected, speculate why. What variable(s) would you like to test next? Identify any sources of error, and assess how you could mitigate or remove these sources in future experiments. ...