What is expected out of Chem 1A03/1E03/1AA3 laboratory reports.

Before coming to the experiment Read the procedure and any instructions for special equipment/techniques. Prepare your laboratory notebook. Students should have written in the title, name, date, purpose and procedure before coming to the lab. It is also very helpful to prepare a flow chart and tables before coming to the lab. Procedures are often written in a way that maximize clarity, however the often do not take into account the most efficient method to complete the entire lab. A flow chart is an organized set of notes made by the student that allows them to manage their time efficiently, while getting a grasp on everything that is to take place during the experiment. A flow chart is not the re-written procedure. As example: Boiling water may be need in the 5th step of an experiment. While the procedure will tell you to obtain boiling water at this point, you will have to wait and waste 10 minutes to get the water boiling. It would have been helpful to start boiling the water at the beginning of lab. Therefore, the first note in a flow chart might be; get water boiling, proceed to step 1. Complete the pre-lab questions. They are designed to be very similar to the calculations/concepts that will be needed when completing the report.

During your experiment Students should note any changes made to the referenced procedure. Clear and detailed observations and data should be taken. These should always be tabulated for organization and clarity. This is where tables made before the lab come in very handy.

Writing up reports Overall, a lab report should be one thing: A clear, concise, organized and correct communication between the author and reviewer describing the experiment that was completed. There are two essential components to a good laboratory report: 1) The science is correct. Remember, just because the outcome of an experiment was not as you expected, this does not mean the science was wrong. Even the most ordinary experiments can go fascinatingly wrong. Incorrect science is failing to give a logical explanation for the results you observed. If you think your observations are incorrect, you must justify why they are incorrect and why you would have expected a different result. 2) The report must be easy to understand Not only in laboratory reports, but in any written communication, it is the obligation of the author to make the message easy to understand for the reader. If this does not occur, the content will never be fully appreciated. Often great science is diminished by improper communication. Make sure a report is well laid out. Sections should be well labeled or headed and easy to find. Writing should be legible. Calculations should be apparent, do not introduce numbers or formulas (or numbers already inserted into formulas) without some form of statement of where these numbers came from. Other notes: Observations/data and/or calculations are simply that, nothing more. There should always be a discussion section that refers back to the observations and justifies/explains the results. If a number of trials are done for an experiment, only one sample calculation is needed. Every experiment needs a conclusion which states what was learned/observed/deduced from the experiment.