Using pictures in lab reports?

[Kate in Arabia]

Ds is in week five of his chemistry class at the university, and it seems to be going well!  However, today after his lab class he mentioned that as he turned in his lab report he noticed that another person in his class had, like, a five-page report (as opposed to the three pages he used) and had pictures.  Like pictures of the equipment in the Materials section.  I asked him if anyone took pictures during the lab and he said no, so these must be pictures from the internet.

 

It has been a long time since I have written a formal lab report for a class, meaning high school.  We didn't have the internet way back then, nor word processors, nor digital cameras, so even if you wanted to insert a picture in a report that would have been a laborious process involving scissors and glue, lol.  I can't really see the point in it, unless they were pictures you took of your actual equipment and/or experiment.

 

This professor has not returned or given evaluations of any of the lab reports given; ds specifically asked her this morning if perhaps she had posted comments on the student network (they did not give him access to this) and she said no.  So no one has gotten any feedback.  I don't know if he's supposed to be putting pictures, but I can't imagine using internet pictures in a lab report, except in certain specific circumstances.  Am I behind the times here? 

[lmrich]

At the high school level my kids have included pictures from their labs - from thier actual lab. Not stock photos.

[horsellian]

Photographs or diagrams?  I guess nowadays you could photograph equipment, but I certainly drew diagrams of equipment set-ups for some lab reports at school and at university (back when you would write all your work by hand, because it was way easier than trying to include equations word-processing).

[regentrude]

A hand sketch of the experimental setup should be part of the lab report, unless it is something trivial, like a beaker on a bunsen burner - no need for a sketch for that.

 

The professor should clarify expectations. Our lab report templates include the requirement for a sketch of the experimental setup.

[Arcadia]

I had pictures in my school lab report in the late 80s, early 90s but my engin dept had flatbed scanners and plenty of computer terminals loaded with desktop publishing software and also inkjet color printers for student use.

All photos had to be taken by us though so no stock photos allowed. My kids included photos of their experiments for their public school science fair reports for the past few years. Photos were expected.

[Teachin'Mine]

I would think it wouldn't be very noticeable if someone was taking a pic of their experiment as this can be done very simply with their phone.  It just sounds like an alternative to drawing a diagram of the lab setup.  Kate, your son can ask the student who included the photos and he can also ask the professor directly if photos or drawings are preferred.  But in thinking about it, there is a benefit to getting used to doing the drawings.  When it comes time that he wants to design an experiment, a photo op likely won't be available and he'll need to use paper and pencil.

[Kate in Arabia]

Thanks to everyone for your comments.  I will discuss them all with ds and encourage him to decide how he would like to handle this, it's been a goal of mine with this course to ease him into taking responsibility.

 

Thanks again..

[Teachin'Mine]

You could encourage him to stop in during her office hours and ask as it's good to get into the practice.   Lab report guidelines are usually fairly well spelled out for the students, so he could also review any information he received in class or online.

[Grantmom]

I would also think the person probably took photos with their phone.  I would encourage your DS to email the professor or stop by during office hours and ask.  It would be good to ask the student too.  Maybe she has experience from another class in which they did that.  My DS is taking an engineering class, and he has to do engineering memorandums in which he has to include figures, which may be either photos, scanned notes, scanned drawings, etc.  And he has to put links to the figure in the text. He is turning them in electronically.  It seems very professional to me and I was really impressed.  However, they completely spelled this out for them that this was required.

 

Did the professor give a template for writing the lab report?  Or any sample lab reports to see?  Is this the first one they have turned in?