What to require for Chemistry lab reports

[Cindy in Indy]

I will be teaching Apologia Chemistry to high schoolers in our co-op this fall. I am trying to determine what I should require for lab reports. I remember very strict guidelines from my own high school science days: name, date, title, list of supplies, purpose statement/hypothesis, procedure, raw data, data analysis (calculations), summary of results and conclusion. The author recommends a less structured approach: title, data, and calculations, followed by a brief summary of what was done and what the results show/mean.

 

What do you experienced moms/teachers require? :confused:

 

TIA,

Cindy

[langfam]

This is what we used for Apologia Chemistry.

 

Title/Objective: (name of experiment/purpose of experiment)

Materials: (used)

Method: (describe procedure)

Hypothesis: (Educated guess)

Data/Observation: ( List data/what actually happened)

Inference: (What you learned)

 

words in parentheses----reminder for my kids.

[Robin in DFW]

there used to be some lab forms on there for the Apologia books.

 

hth,

Robin

[mooooom]

I think as long as the basics are included, you should be fine. Hypothesis, Theory, List of Supplies, How the Experiment is set up, and then the Results, and maybe an explanation at the end if the results do not reach your expectations.

 

I did want to share what a lab book should look like, according to a friend of mine who is a chemistry teacher - she showed me some of her kids' books.

 

They were graph paper composition books, usually about 2 pages per experiment. There were diagrams showing how the experiment was set up (maybe some kids won't appreciate that step). Also, she said graphs should be at least the size of your hand - no teeny tiny graphs of results. The ones I saw were so neat and "pretty", I was inspired.

[MyThreeSons]

I teach Apologia Physics at our co-op.

 

For lab write-ups, my main concerns are the summary of data collected, the calculations performed, and the conclusions reached. The conclusions are most important, especially any explanation of why the results deviated from the theoretical expectations.

 

The text isn't really set up such that it's appropriate to follow the whole Hypothesis model of experimentation. Right after the lab procedure in the text, he tells them what they should have experienced. And our schedule is such that it's not practical to have the students read up to, but not beyond, the experiment before each class meeting.

 

I specifically tell my students to NOT spend time re-writing the procedure. And I'm not a stickler for form -- I need their name at the top along with Experiment Number or Title. I want it to be neat and understandable. I tell them that when they get to college, there will likely be very specific requirements that they need to follow.

[Cindy in Indy]

Thank you all for your responses.

 

Laura, your approach is similar to what I was going to try with my students. Thank you for articulating it so clearly!

 

Cindy

:)