Lab reports: handwritten? worksheet? typed?

[Garga]

I have the book the Illustrated Gide to Home Biology Experiments.  There are 33 labs in there and, by gum, I plan on doing them all. The book tells us that we should do 33 lab reports of course.

 

It also tells us that "even if you score a 5 on the AP Biology exam, many college and university biology departments will not offer you advanced placement unless you can show them a lab notebook that meets their standards."  Wow!  This lab notebook sounds super important!

 

It tells us that the book must be handwritten in a bound book where pages cannot be removed, or if they are, you can tell that they were ripped out.  And by the time we're done with all 33 labs, we'll have filled out several composition notebooks.

 

Uh oh.  My son really hates the physical act of writing.  I'm looking over what should be included in the lab report and it's a lot (lot, lot) of writing.  It will probably take my son a full hour just to write up the report.  That's on top of these lengthy labs and all the reading and review questions and worksheets, etc.

 

However!  I have bumped into templates for "lab notebook pages" online.  So...it looks like people don't always use composition notebooks.  Someone out there is printing out sheets of lab notebook pages and putting them in binders.  (But maybe they're all getting rejected from colleges because they couldn't produce a proper lab report?)

 

And, my dh insists that scientists do not scribble away in notebooks but that they type things up on computers, so we should do it the way that scientists do it.  But I don't know for sure if my dh knows what he's talking about.

 

So....what to do? 

 

1.  Should I go with the stack of composition notebooks and make my son fill them out by hand, which will completely suck all the joy of out biology for him.

 

2.  Should I print out a template for him to fill in which is a lot like the composition notebooks but not quite as intimidating because he won't be staring at an empty page, but instead will have areas to fill in the information (boxes for supply lists, boxes for adding a graph, lines for paragraphs)

 

3.  Should I let him type his lab notes, because that's how it's done (maybe.)

 

4.  Something else?

 

 

Edited July 28, 2016 by Garga_

[EKS]

Worksheets are helpful to organize and focus the notes.  I recommend them.

 

I would only require 8 formal reports for the year.  I'd allow him to choose which lab activities he would like to write the reports for.  Formal lab reports should be typed.

Edited July 28, 2016 by EKS

[theelfqueen]

We did a mixture of typed, handwritten, and worksheets but had no intention of keeping them all to present to anyone. But we weren't planning to do the AP exam. I put a few in my work samples binder.

[Arcadia]

My kids haven't done high school lab reports but I am letting them do a mix of (1) and (2) since one of my local community colleges has templates (see links below) for students to fill in. One of my local community college's Physics course needs a lab book (see link below)

 

E.g.

Biology lab manual

http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/reisenauerann/bio11/pdf/Sp12_lab%20manual.pdf

 

Chemistry lab reports

https://www.deanza.edu/chemistry/pdf/1A/Experiments/

 

Physics lab book instruction

http://nebula.deanza.edu/~newton/2A/2alabmanual.pdf

 

My hubby who works in R&D handwrites his lab notes. He does make powerpoint slides from his lab notes for business meetings.

[lllll]

nm

Edited November 9, 2016 by cathey

[JanetC]

DD did Spectrum chem with a fill-in-the-blanks lab workbook, physics with handwritten-to-a-template reports, and AP Chem with typed formal scientific reports (from either handwritten notes or from a spreadsheet of data, or some combination, depending on the lab).

 

Use the method that best matches the skills they have at the time you are doing the work, working towards creating typewritten lab reports from scratch and getting ready for college.

 

Have you read that book yet? I can't imagine anyone doing the whole thing in one school year.

[Garga]

 

Have you read that book yet? I can't imagine anyone doing the whole thing in one school year.

Haven't delved into it yet, no. I was just starting to sketch out my biology schedule today. Have you used it? I briefly skimmed some of the labs and they seem time consuming. Are you saying they're over-the-top time consuming? Edited July 28, 2016 by Garga

[JanetC]

Have you used it? I briefly skimmed some of the labs and they seem time consuming. Are you saying they're over-the-top time consuming?

I read enough of the book to decide to do something easier. Not sure what you mean by over-the-top. The labs didn't seem busywork time consuming to me, but yes, they seemed to be very time consuming.

[regentrude]

I prefer that students learn to keep a proper lab notebook that is bound, has numbered pages, and contains ALL data gathered during the experiment.

This is good practice that will teach students not to pick and choose and safeguards against omitting and falsifying. Also, in real research it happens quite frequently that the data one considered wrong or insignificant contain important information and may even lead to ground breaking discoveries.

This is the background behind the recommendation to keep bound books.

 

I do not consider it necessary to do 33 experiments for a high school course. The quality of an experiment is far more important than the quantity. My kids did few, but thorough experiments with a detailed analysis; I consider this more valuable than large numbers of superficial experiments. 

 

ETA: I do not understand the remark that using composition notebooks "sucks the joy" out of biology. The student has to record his observations and setup somewhere. If you were to require a typed lab report, that would typically be in addition to the handwritten notes taken during the experiment. 

Edited July 28, 2016 by regentrude

[Anacharsis]

I have the book the Illustrated Gide to Home Biology Experiments.  There are 33 labs in there and, by gum, I plan on doing them all. The book tells us that we should do 33 lab reports of course.

 

It also tells us that "even if you score a 5 on the AP Biology exam, many college and university biology departments will not offer you advanced placement unless you can show them a lab notebook that meets their standards."  Wow!  This lab notebook sounds super important!

 

It tells us that the book must be handwritten in a bound book where pages cannot be removed, or if they are, you can tell that they were ripped out.  And by the time we're done with all 33 labs, we'll have filled out several composition notebooks.

 

Uh oh.  My son really hates the physical act of writing.  I'm looking over what should be included in the lab report and it's a lot (lot, lot) of writing.  It will probably take my son a full hour just to write up the report.  That's on top of these lengthy labs and all the reading and review questions and worksheets, etc.

 

However!  I have bumped into templates for "lab notebook pages" online.  So...it looks like people don't always use composition notebooks.  Someone out there is printing out sheets of lab notebook pages and putting them in binders.  (But maybe they're all getting rejected from colleges because they couldn't produce a proper lab report?)

 

And, my dh insists that scientists do not scribble away in notebooks but that they type things up on computers, so we should do it the way that scientists do it.  But I don't know for sure if my dh knows what he's talking about.

 

So....what to do? 

 

1.  Should I go with the stack of composition notebooks and make my son fill them out by hand, which will completely suck all the joy of out biology for him.

 

2.  Should I print out a template for him to fill in which is a lot like the composition notebooks but not quite as intimidating because he won't be staring at an empty page, but instead will have areas to fill in the information (boxes for supply lists, boxes for adding a graph, lines for paragraphs)

 

3.  Should I let him type his lab notes, because that's how it's done (maybe.)

 

4.  Something else?

 

Lab notebook guidelines were traditionally low-tech because you didn't want anything malfunctioning during an experiment that you might only get to do once. This is similar to how field scientists in remote areas were long-time technophobes, since a broken laptop if you are thousands of miles from anywhere to repair it can be a big problem.

 

Of course, for less extreme circumstances, there's really no reason to ignore the convenience of recording your experiment. It's sort of like the decision on whether to do math by hand or with a calculator; it's good to know how to and be able to do it without one, but once you've got that down, the convenience factor of a calculator is pretty significant. :)

 

 

[Alessandra]

I prefer that students learn to keep a proper lab notebook that is bound, has numbered pages, and contains ALL data gathered during the experiment.

This is good practice that will teach students not to pick and choose and safeguards against omitting and falsifying. Also, in real research it happens quite frequently that the data one considered wrong or insignificant contain important information and may even lead to ground breaking discoveries.

This is the background behind the recommendation to keep bound books.

 

I do not consider it necessary to do 33 experiments for a high school course. The quality of an experiment is far more important than the quantity. My kids did few, but thorough experiments with a detailed analysis; I consider this more valuable than large numbers of superficial experiments.

 

ETA: I do not understand the remark that using composition notebooks "sucks the joy" out of biology. The student has to record his observations and setup somewhere. If you were to require a typed lab report, that would typically be in addition to the handwritten notes taken during the experiment.

I'm not a scientist, alas, but I can add that ds had to use a composition book in his Chemistry Honors class last year. They were doing standard labs, not research, but the comp book was about developing a habit.

 

The lab book was for recording what was done, and it HAD to be brought to the weekly labs (2 period class). Then, for homework, there was typed lab report, often quite long and with some challenging questions.

 

I think there were about 30 labs. Well, fewer, because beginning ones were about safety, and stupid statewide standardized testing wrecked a few weeks.

[Garga]

I prefer that students learn to keep a proper lab notebook that is bound, has numbered pages, and contains ALL data gathered during the experiment.

This is good practice that will teach students not to pick and choose and safeguards against omitting and falsifying. Also, in real research it happens quite frequently that the data one considered wrong or insignificant contain important information and may even lead to ground breaking discoveries.

This is the background behind the recommendation to keep bound books.

 

I do not consider it necessary to do 33 experiments for a high school course. The quality of an experiment is far more important than the quantity. My kids did few, but thorough experiments with a detailed analysis; I consider this more valuable than large numbers of superficial experiments.

 

ETA: I do not understand the remark that using composition notebooks "sucks the joy" out of biology. The student has to record his observations and setup somewhere. If you were to require a typed lab report, that would typically be in addition to the handwritten notes taken during the experiment.

 

For this kid, the physical act of writing can be overwhelming to him. I mean, for me, I'd love to sit down and create a gorgeous lab report by hand. But when I'm bored, I sit around and fill entire sheets of paper with doodled words. But for him, the act of writing is a terrible chore. So, parts of the lab report, like the supply list would drive him nuts to physically write out, whereas if he types it, I'd let him cut and paste the supply list and the title.

 

You're the second person on this thread to indicate that doing all the labs might not work. I wasn't planning on doing them superficially, but apparently my ignorance about biology labs is showing, because I had honestly thought we could do all 33 and do them well.

 

Hmmm. I will need to re-think these labs. I was looking forward to doing a lab a week, but now I just don't know if that's doable. I wish the book had a time estimate for each lab. I was thinking we could do labs for 2 hours a week, but I'm getting doubtful.

 

I'd hoped that all the reading and vocabulary memorizing and worksheets (which seem valuable and necessary to retaining the knowlegde), would have been balanced out by the "fun" of labs, but maybe the labs will be just one more source of stress.

[regentrude]

You're the second person on this thread to indicate that doing all the labs might not work. I wasn't planning on doing them superficially, but apparently my ignorance about biology labs is showing, because I had honestly thought we could do all 33 and do them well.

 

Hmmm. I will need to re-think these labs. I was looking forward to doing a lab a week, but now I just don't know if that's doable. I wish the book had a time estimate for each lab. I was thinking we could do labs for 2 hours a week, but I'm getting doubtful.

 

 

You certainly CAN do that many labs if you want to make it a lab centered course and if your student enjoys, and learns through, hands on activities.

 

 

I'd hoped that all the reading and vocabulary memorizing and worksheets (which seem valuable and necessary to retaining the knowlegde), would have been balanced out by the "fun" of labs, but maybe the labs will be just one more source of stress.

 

I approached our biology course from a different angle and did not make my kids memorize oodles of vocabulary because I do not believe this will be retained in the long term. We focused on mechanism and conceptual understanding. You also don't have to do worksheets.

For some students, the labs may be a source of fun. Others loathe anything hands-on. You should just try it out and be prepared to shift focus if what you started does not work.

[Alessandra]

I should add that ds's two other high school science courses, both honors, did not require lab notebooks. Students recorded data wherever the wanted and then had to complete lab reports that asked for the data and included both direct questions and more difficult questions to assess deeper understanding.

 

Personally, I think you should do the course in the way that allows your ds to learn best.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Alessandra

[EKS]

I wanted to add to my previous post to say some thing about lab notebooks.

 

I would not keep a lab notebook if you are doing typical high school lab activities where you are following a set procedure and (presumably) getting set results.  I would use worksheets instead.  

 

Notebooks are typically used for work that is more original (for lack of a better term).  They would be used if student has designed his own protocol, for example.

 

I worked in a regulated lab where we had standard procedures and forms to record all important information.  We used forms because it ensured that standard information was captured every single time.  When we did research that did not conform to standard procedure, we used lab notebooks.  

 

Using worksheets will save your student time and scaffold the recording part of the process, which can be difficult for some students.

Edited July 28, 2016 by EKS

[creekland]

Remember, he's learning as you go along.  You can start more basic and add along the way once he has parts down.

 

My science guy tells me (told me to tell our school) that being able to do well written (typed) lab reports is essential if heading toward a research school in the sciences.  Keep track of notes in a notebook as others have said, but then make sure by the time your guy is done that he knows how to write reports and cite things.  I used to have links to online resources that were good to use, but google should be able to find you some.

 

I would NOT have him do official reports for all 33 labs, but he ought to be able to pick some to do them with.  I would have him keep data and basic notes for any he does - in that notebook.

 

If you want to break him in more slowly, start with some printed sheets so he can get an idea of what to do with the earlier labs.

 

Learning is a progression of steps - not a giant jump to see if he can clear the bar on his first attempt.

 

Even with doing labs, can he look at the book (I'm not familiar with it) and check off those he's really interested in, sort of interested in, and not that interested in just in case you decide to pick and choose?  You could say that he gets some picks and you get some picks just in case there are some you really like that he doesn't.  As you get going you might find that he really enjoys labs - or not.  He needs to learn how to do them.  He doesn't have to fall in love with it all.  The number he does could vary based upon how it goes.

[Haiku]

My dd placed into upper-level science classes in college. She did not have to show a lab book.

 

Thirty-three lab reports in one year is too many. Ten-twelve would be sufficient.

[Haiku]

You're the second person on this thread to indicate that doing all the labs might not work. 

 

If I remember correctly, this guy's kit for his honors bio, which has the 33 labs, is for a class that stretches over two years.

 

My daughter is a STEM major and went to an intensive college-prep high school. I'd be surprised if she did 33 labs over the course of her entire high school career.

 

She says that different professors want different formats for their lab reports, anyway, so becoming an expert at one format isn't really going to be all that helpful in the long run.

 

My dd is now a Student Lab Instructor for two different professors, and she says that learning to write the lab reports is not what students struggle with. It's knowing how to interpret results that gives them the most trouble. She runs one session at the beginning of each semester on how to write a lab report, and the students pick it up pretty easily.

[Garga]

 

I would not keep a lab notebook if you are doing typical high school lab activities where you are following a set procedure and (presumably) getting set results.  I would use worksheets instead.  

 

Using worksheets will save your student time and scaffold the recording part of the process, which can be difficult for some students.

That was what I had thought before reading the intro to the lab book. That intro really threw me. I mean, these aren't experiments. They're labs. There is no hypothesis. They're just a demonstration where the student follows a set of steps and gets to watch what happens. Basically, the entire lab report could be cut and pasted from the book. Before each lab there are notes about why the lab is being done and what you can expect to see. I really don't know why the introduction has all that scary stuff about lab reports for these labs.

 

  

 

Even with doing labs, can he look at the book (I'm not familiar with it) and check off those he's really interested in, sort of interested in, and not that interested in just in case you decide to pick and choose?  You could say that he gets some picks and you get some picks just in case there are some you really like that he doesn't.  As you get going you might find that he really enjoys labs - or not.  He needs to learn how to do them.  He doesn't have to fall in love with it all.  The number he does could vary based upon how it goes.

 

 

This is great advice. Until this thread, I really thought that doing all 33 labs would be just awesome. That it would bring our biology class alive. That it would be what we look forward to doing each week. But at the same time, I don't want to overwhelm him with too much work. And it sounds like people who are further down this path than I are skeptical that my plans are reasonable.

 

I wasn't always the most motivated student, but I was a fast student. I always finished every lab and test and reading assignment before the rest of the class and then sat there getting my real education, which was by reading classic novels for fun. My son isn't like that. He works at a more measured pace, so you guys are probably right that I'm aiming too high.

 

I'll probably still try, but if we just can't pull this off, I like the idea of each of us picking which labs we want to do and sticking with those.

 

 

 

 

My dd is now a Student Lab Instructor for two different professors, and she says that learning to write the lab reports is not what students struggle with. It's knowing how to interpret results that gives them the most trouble. She runs one session at the beginning of each semester on how to write a lab report, and the students pick it up pretty easily.

See, I think you're right. I just don't think it's very difficult to learn how to do this, especially when he's older and more mature than now. That introduction with its dire warnings of colleges turning kids aside based on their lack of 9th grade biology lab reports was just goofy.

 

After reading all this, my plan will be to have us write up one, maybe two, lab reports as outlined in the book on the shortest labs we do and just for the experience of it.

 

But for the rest of the labs, I'll make him some worksheets where he can fill in some blanks and add a chart or something. The book also has some questions to answer after each lab. We'll probably do those. But the lab report itself seems like overkill.

 

Lately I've started these high school level threads thinking I'll get one kind of answer and been surprised to get a different answer. You guys have been very helpful with this. Thank you!

[Haiku]

That introduction with its dire warnings of colleges turning kids aside based on their lack of 9th grade biology lab reports was just goofy.

 

Yep. I thought, "Oh, free lab book! Awesome!" I downloaded it, read the introduction, and hit delete. No way. That guy turned something that could be a lot of fun into something scary and ridiculous.

[Arcadia]

That introduction with its dire warnings of colleges turning kids aside based on their lack of 9th grade biology lab reports was just goofy.

If you are doing AP bio (or chem or physics), it has been highly recommended to me by online AP course providers to keep lab books if not in B&M schools because labs aren't validated by the AP exam. That is for AP credit in college.

 

Anyway read Margaret in CO's post #3

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/541108-how-do-you-keep-records-for-high-school/

 

And FaithManor's post #6

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/564715-okay-shes-in-college-now-when-can-i-toss-her-high-school-work/

[creekland]

By the end of 9th grade, none of our ps students are doing a college worthy lab report.  By junior or senior year some are - those heading to higher level colleges.

 

What specific model (report) you use isn't important.  As stated by others, each prof will have their own idea of what they want anyway (and which citation method to use).  What's important by that stage is that they are familiar with doing them in general. Then they can adjust to specifics pretty easily.

 

None of my guys needed any sort of proof of labs (like a lab book) to get into college, though my middle son (STEM guy) had a 200 level Microbio CC/DE class so they might have assumed he knew enough of what he was doing.

 

Meanwhile, try to make labs enjoyable.  That's what sparks real interest if it's in there.  Emphasizing "work" in "school" (schoolwork, homework) is often what turns students off.  Keeping the actual learning (concepts, etc) interesting while tossing in some of the other stuff is far better IMO.

 

As kids progress through high school they'll usually naturally get more/less interested in subjects and can delve into certain ones at that time. Then it's usually no longer "work."

[Reefgazer]

I would handwrite all lab reports in ink, with all data recorded and no erasures (only one slash mark over a mistaken entry), but I don't think it matters whether the report is written in a bound book or whether it is on pre-fab lab report paper.  I do know I would not be tackling 33 lab reports in a year; half that at most.

[Lucy the Valiant]

(Question from a rookie w/current 8th grader: Are there good places online to see some samples of good lab reports? We have done Apologia labs & kept a lab notebook (w/scientist teachers, but this thread is making me a little nervous.)

[foxbridgeacademy]

Do all 33 labs but only keep lab notes for about 1/2 of them, I'd try for the ones that most closely resemble the ones they usually do in AP classes.

[frogger]

IF he enjoys the labs then you could do more of them but just write out 6-8 of them. My son kept a lab notebook during the experiment but typed up lab reports. It was good for him because he learned how to make graphs and use excel and because he had never done those things he learned a useful skill for both science class and many other things.

 

Honestly, my son is a science guy. He soaks it up but writing is torture therefore I'm not so sure he would pick up writing lab reports easily even if most students typically do.

[creekland]

(Question from a rookie w/current 8th grader: Are there good places online to see some samples of good lab reports? We have done Apologia labs & kept a lab notebook (w/scientist teachers, but this thread is making me a little nervous.)

 

The University of Delaware came up on my google search.  They provide theirs with a written explanation with it.

 

https://www1.udel.edu/pchem/C446/example.pdf

 

Here's a good written explanation of parts too:

 

http://writing.engr.psu.edu/workbooks/laboratory.html

 

Many other colleges have samples online to look at.  I always recommend students look at a few.  Once they have, they get a decent overall idea of what they are doing.

 

I have yet to see a lab report hand written in any recent history.  They're always typed and sometimes even e-mailed in to teachers/profs rather than printed on paper if for a class.

 

Lab notes/data are always handwritten (at our school).

 

 

[Lucy the Valiant]

Oh, Creekland, thank you for that! I had googled, too, but such a wide variety of expectations (when looking at middle / high school levels - it makes sense to just target college level, as a goal).

[creekland]

Oh, Creekland, thank you for that! I had googled, too, but such a wide variety of expectations (when looking at middle / high school levels - it makes sense to just target college level, as a goal).

 

We target college level from 10th - 12th graders.  Prior to that, 9th graders have worksheets they fill out.  Those worksheets aren't just fill in the blank.  They can have sections where kids write a summary or similar, but in general, we work them up to doing the whole thing themselves.

 

By our junior/senior Level 3 (4 year college bound) classes, kids are supposed to be doing a couple of complete lab reports per semester.  As with college, some teachers are very specific in how they want theirs done and provide their own template.  We're trying to move to less specific though - getting kids to see more than one way (when it gets to details) - and to be able to look up how they are supposed to do them on their own with just some basic guidance.  This gets them to think more rather than just filling in the blanks with a set template.

 

Kids who aren't at that level get more hand holding to write theirs out - often still using exact templates.  Some teachers also accept a bit less in their reports or still use worksheets that just have to be filled out.  If a student isn't going on in science, they really don't have to go into super detail.  If they are, it's definitely helpful to have seen prior to college.

 

Bio (at a college level) is a junior/senior class at our school, so if one is doing AP earlier than that... one will have to decide what they plan on doing.  Bio as an "everyone takes it" level is a 10th grade class and there are no super formal lab reports.  They just do some basic ones - often with worksheets or questions they are supposed to answer (along with graphs, etc). 

 

They also need to produce some Power Point presentations based upon research they do.  I had to come up with one of these last year.  I recall posting it on here... yep... just looked it up.  It's on Post #4 in this thread (I may have modified it a little bit, but that's the gist):

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/564678-looking-for-bio-project-suggestions/

 

The kids did an excellent job on it - well, most of them did anyway.  I learned quite a bit from their research.  They told me they enjoyed it too.

 

[Mom22ns]

My oldest is dysgraphic. My youngest considers taking notes on labs to be joy sucking. I totally get where you are coming from. 

 

We did do lots of labs. We did about 1/week, but we do science in a semester block so that is 16 not 32 labs and we had 2 hours for each. There are plenty of simple labs that fit in an hour though. Some of the labs in biology are just demonstrating concepts and looking at things in a microscope. These are quick and easy. They don't require much in the way of note taking and full lab reports aren't needed. Some labs will have a lot of data to analyze and these are the ideal for an actual lab write up. It doesn't matter if they record the data in a spiral notebook or if they do it on worksheets. Worksheets can have prebuilt tables and help walk you though the lab which will be easier. A spiral is a good habit, but my kids haven't had to use one yet in a college science class. It isn't the end of the world if he doesn't use one in high school.

 

Keep it fun. Keep the labs. Don't stress over it.