I know I tagged several threads about writing Lab Reports, but the new search options are not capable any longer to search on tags. Dd started Physical Science Last week, and has to write a Lab report this week about her practicum this day. I got a very funny story in my mailbox but not a report ;) Anybody links to older threads or links to examples / templates or other 'must know' topics? I've done highschool exam in chemistry but I can't remember I've ever written a lab report. So I can't teach her what to do. We don't have lab requirements here in Belgium neither for 8th grade or 12th grade exam, but I can't Imagine doing Physics and Chemistry without labs/demonstrations...

My dd really liked this explanation of how to write up a 'Formal' lab report... http://webs.wofford.... Lab Report.pdf Just wondering what others favorites are? Joan

Next year is 9th grade biology w/ Science Shepherd. The lab manual that comes with is spiral bound and has pages which can be filled in (or copied). By the end of the manual the student is expected to write a formal lab report from scratch which obviously cannot be added to the existing spiral book. When I did high school labs it was always a big deal that they were done in a bound notebook with no erasing allowed. I think we added pages by glueing them in, although I do not remember doing any formal lab reports. How do you have your students do their reporting? Can we use a 3 ring binder? What would be best in case ds needs to show it to someone? I am linking a copy of a sample pdf of one of the reports just to give you an idea of what I am talking about. http://www.scienceshepherd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/BiologyCh5LabManualOnline.pdf

Since I'm in the last year or two before my older kids hit high school, I'm starting to work them toward being able to write up science lab reports. Does anyone have any particular suggestions for this? I have found some good instructions at chemistry.about.com and at this cool science blog, but it seems like my kids need some examples of what the final product should look like. I used to be good at this, and I think that I could still do a good write up, but I'm not sure that I'm getting across the main points very well.

Do you require your dc to keep a lab notebook? If you do, what are your requirements for this notebook? I'm working on what my expectations will be for dd with regard to this. Would you include the keeping of this notebook and meeting the requirements as part of the overall grade for the year?

Is it just me, or do you sometimes wonder if science is "dumbed down" for all of us homeschool parents who have trouble understanding it? I think homeschoolers have a reputation for being really bright in the English/literature area but severely lacking in the sciences. I bought RS4K Chemistry this year thinking it would be a great program. My husband took one look at the book and said, "I could teach this whole book to ds in about a week." Granted, I was only expecting it to last 1/2 a semester, but boy that was an expensive program to be so "meatless"!! Has anyone found a science program for the middle grade that you feel is competitve with what the public schools are using?

I've seen a LOT of science books talk about the importance of carefully writing the materials list and procedure, because in "real" science, being able to replicate an experiment is important. This is the first activity I've seen though that has the students actually attempting to replicate other experiments. http://sciencespot.net/Media/consumerchall.pdf Is this an important part of learning the scientific method, do you think?

ds13 is doing Apologia Physical Science with The Potter's School. He's enjoying this and mantaining strong grades. The teacher has assigned two complete lab reports per semester as graded work. She's requesting that an abbreviated report be completed for each and every experiment - not to be handed in just tallied up for credit. These shorter reports include only the observation and conclusion portion. I'm finding this is be busy work. The experiments aren't complicated and the text provides a fine discussion of them. There are ususally 3 to 4 experiments per module done over two weeks. What do you think? Can we forgo these and only do the complete reports that are handed in and graded? How many and how necessary are lab reports for an 8th grader? Thanks, Stacy

My daughter has not written a formal lab report yet. She is in 7th grade this year and I would like her to take her lab notes and turn them into a formal report. I'm looking for a good resource to teach this. Most of what I've seen is way more complicated than she needs (high school and college level reports). It has been awhile since I've done them myself. I have found a couple of good general guides. I would love to find a good sample report though written on a middle school level so she knows what it should look like. Thanks!

I can make my own, but does anyone have a science lab sheet that they really like? This is for my sixth grader and third grader who are doing chemistry this year with a chemistry set in the basement. Hopefully, they won't blow us all to kingdom come! I'm looking for something that will fit onto one page. Thanks!

http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/

Can anyone recommend a book, or website, which explains how to do lab reports. It's been a few years since I've done them myself, and we haven't done formal write ups for labs yet. We do discuss what the lab is trying to prove or disprove, what the expected outcome is - hypothesis and all of that, but I'd like more formal reports next year. We'll be doing Apologia physics but I don't have the book yet. The physical science one didn't address how to write up the labs, but I don't know if the others do. I'm thinking of maybe making a form which she can fill out with each experiment. From what I remember years ago, it involves listing materials needed, what is being tested, hypothesis, procedure, results and conclusion. Does anyone know of a form already available online? Thank you!

I have been searching the boards for a post with a link to a "how to write a lab report" page. I thought I subscribed to the thread, but nothing there. Dis I dream this? Does any one have a link? My science classes were a looooong time ago! TIA!!!

For those of you that use a science text, do you have your student outline or take notes on the text? We have been taking notes -maybe jotting down 3-4 important facts from each lesson. Do any of you do this or is it not really necessary at this stage? Also, my older dd reminded me that in 6th grade my ds should be doing lab write-ups. Ugh. That is the part of science I don't like. We do 2-3 labs per week and I resent the time it takes to do a lab write-up, especially the relisting the supplies. I would rather have ds do a short research paper like those suggested in TWTM maybe every other week, rotating it with the short history report. (I think this was the ever-helpful Colleen in NS's idea.) My proposed plan for writing in science: brief notes for each lesson (4-6 lessons per week), 2 lab write-ups per month to be rotated with 2 short research papers per month. Is this sufficient? Overkill?

I have decided what I want to do about our weaknesses in tech/sci/math (for those who helped me through my panicky spot last week). Among other things, I think my son needs to formally record and write up his experiments. He designs his own. They are usually fairly simple like seeing if he can discover the right sort of whistle to get the crows talking. The crow experiment is something which would work better written up informally in his nature journal, but sometimes he comes up with something which could easily be turned into a formal experiment. I would like to help him learn to record these properly, at a high school level. Is there a book or a website or can someone explain how to keep a lab notebook, write up an experiment, and then write a formal lab report? I can find things that explain it at a college level, with lots of information about statistical error and using excell, and I can find things that explain how to do it at an elementary school level, but I am having trouble finding something which explains how to do it at a medium level. I should be able to wade through the highest level explanation and adapt it, but somehow, I can't. I also need examples to show him. A few samples would probably be just as useful as lots of explanations. And it would help him to rise to the occasion instead of giving me a few punctuationless hen scratches and lots of question marks. Thank you lots, Nan

Does anyone know where I can find a sample lab report for middle school? Dd is working on her first one and, although I have instructions, it would be so helpful to actually see one completed. thanks so much! Lisa

My son is in the 3rd module of Apologia Advanced Physics on Newton's Law's of Motion. He is finding the problems very tedious and is frustrated by the time it is taking. He thinks he needs to change his intended major from engineering. I know he is probably exagerating his need to change his major, but I don’t want him to hate physics. He likes math and does well in it, it isn’t that. I want to ask you all if he is doing what he should be or if he there is a quicker way. Because of the instructions about significant figures, if he needs to say multiply 3 numbers and then add that to another prodcut of 3 numbers you have to multiply, round, write it down; repeat with the second set and then add them together. So he can’t write down the entire equation and then enter it into the calculator. If he does that without the intermediary rounding, then his answers are off by small amounts. Does he have to stop and round every time he switches operations? The second negative in physics is that he dreads the labs because of the lab write up. Should I let him just enjoy doing them for awhile with only minimal writing to renew his enjoyment or should we plod on as is. Any ideas? Thanks in advance, Kendall

How do you give a grade for lab work? We will be using Physical Science, Apologia this year for my science challenged son. Just looking for ideas.

Could someone please link me to a lab report proforma for chemistry. I would really like something on a college level as we may need to save the reports for an admissions process. Thank you, Pam.

I'm guessing that a dissection would fall into the "descriptive lab" category, i.e., no hypothesis or experiment. Is there a good sample of a report I can use to help my ds do his? Thanks, P.S. We're using Apologia Biology

I am planning out my daughters year with GS. This is the first year for me with this kind of curriculum. I am using the schedules from the Donna Young site. She mentions having them draw some of the pictures in the book...do you have your children draw them in their lab book, or do you have a separate note book for things like that? Also, how did you decide which illustrations they needed to reproduce? Was it just ones they needed to label on a test...or all of them? I also have the same/similar question for the "On Your Own" questions. Did you have your children write down the answers for these...and if you did...where? (Lab book or separate notebook?) Thanks

My neighbor girl did 1 lab last year in her 10th grade Bio. Some folks here do 30+. What is standard -- and ethical to put on transcript? Thanks in advance. Picking the labs will be another question for a different day...:)

Is there a grading rubric somewhere that breaks down a lab (for example, Participation- x points, neatness-x points and so on)? Do you just give them 100% if they do their best? How do you know what deserves a certain grade? BTW, we will be using Apologia for the first time this year. Thanks.

I'm looking for a nice template for the kids to record their experiments. What are your favorites?