Samples of College Lab Reports?

[steppingstonemomma]

Would anyone be able to send me (Or post) a sample of what a typical lab report looks like for a first or second year college student taking either a Chemistry 101 or Biology 101?

 

I just need some frame of reference to know what to expect my students to work toward. Even though I took those classes, surprisingly we never did lab reports!

[cbollin]

Here is one link to help out

 

http://www.union.edu/academic_depts/biology/ResearchReports.php

 

and another link with good and poor examples and why it fits each category

 

http://www.reed.edu/writing/paper_help/labreport.html

 

 

[Candid]

I don't know what they have now, but I took Chemistry at a top 30 school with a strong chemistry department. At that level classes were huge. We submitted absolutely no lab reports, and only one thing: a computer punch card with our number for a titration of an unknown substance. So I encourage anyone who is going to take Chemistry to a titration, maybe more than one. Fortunately for your student they won't have to submit their punch card three times before getting the computer to accept it. 

[klmama]

Would this be helpful?  http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/

[trulycrabby]

Here is one link to help out

 

http://www.union.edu/academic_depts/biology/ResearchReports.php

 

and another link with good and poor examples and why it fits each category

 

http://www.reed.edu/writing/paper_help/labreport.html

 

Excellent guides for lab report writing; I wish I had had them when I was in college!

[steppingstonemomma]

Now, a follow up question. How close to this kind of a lab report did you expect of your students in high school. Frankly, these links look terrifying and I have no idea how I'd teach my kids to do this. So what did a reasonable high school lab report look like in your house?

I'm going to cross post on the HS board....

[cbollin]

ours looked nothing like that.... :)   

 

like you....I got scared from the links I shared and the other one.   I know ours were nothing like that.   I called and emailed a friend of mine who used the same science (apologia) that we did.  His son was STEM major at an engineering school.   "did your son do high school lab reports like that????"  

no...  did them like the samples in apologia.  Required him to write.  His professors changed their minds each course what the standards were and he was ready.

 

I sent a few lab reports to my friend and said "am I requiring enough?"  Yes... except next year, have her use less first person narrative.

 

 

 

[AngieW in Texas]

My oldest has only taken lab sciences at the cc so far, but she is signed up for a lab science at her university this semester. She did not have lab reports for any labs. Instead she had a prelab worksheet she had to do before each lab and then she had to fill in the data tables for the lab and answer the questions.

 

My middle dd took chemistry for science majors at the cc and she also had a lab manual that she did her work in. She had to do the prelab questions before lab and then she filled in the data tables and answered the post-lab questions and tore the whole thing out of the lab manual to turn in. She is signed up for her first lab science at her university for next semester, so we will see how it works there.

[Candid]

 

 

Required him to write.  His professors changed their minds each course what the standards were and he was ready.

 

 

 

Yes, I suspect that different professors and departments will require different thinks. Many times a former good lab report might be passed out on the first day of class or a blank form. OR students may create a bank of such items. 

[Teacher Mom]

We use the labwrite link listed by poster #4 which is very similar to the ones outlined in the LabPaqs that we use for our labs. If you start adding a new section every second or third lab report, your student will be able to write a complete one by the end of the year. That is how my dd learned to write one - section by section.