How to write a lab report for Exercise Physiology

*** All lab reports MUST be turned in typewritten, double-spaced, and

stapled together
Organization of lab report:

Cover page with the following information:

o
o
o
o

Your name
Title of lab
Day you attend lab
Name of lab TA

Title of lab
Purpose of lab

o Tell what you did, how you did it and why you did it

Methodology

o List all materials, equipment, and machines that were used for
each specific lab.
o When appropriate, explain the procedures for completing the
lab. Not all labs will require the procedures, but when you are
asked to complete them, make sure that you include each step
and all equipment needed for the lab. If you were to mail your
procedures to an Exercise Physiology student in Florida, they
should be able to perform the lab with only your instructions, no
other documents.

Results
o Tables, graphs and charts if required
o Answers to questions

1. Answering questions:

When answering questions, be as specific and concise as possible.

Your grade depends more on your ability to answer the given
question than the amount of information you include. Use your
own words.
Use your text and lab manual to answer the questions. Nora said
or Sara said does not constitute a proper source and will not
count as a reference.
To answer questions completely, you may have to look in chapters
other than those assigned. (Hint: use the index to look up key
words)

Do not plagiarize the authors work. Cite where appropriate and

give page numbers where you found your information.

2. If question involves data:

All tables must be presented in tabular format (see rank order

table).
Label tables clearly
Include a title for each table

3. Graphs:

Graphs must be on graph paper or a computer printout (ex. Excel)

Label the graph (title, y-axis, and x-axis)
Include units with you axes labels (beats per minute, Liters per
minute, seconds, etc.)

4. DO NOT TURN IN THE GROUP DATA SHEETS; YOU WILL NEED

THEM FOR FUTURE LAB WRITE UPS. TURN IN YOUR PERSONAL
DATA SHEETS ONLY.
IF PERSONAL DATA SHEETS ARE NOT
TURNED IN WITH THE LAB, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE FULL CREDIT
FOR THE LAB REPORT.

5. General Calculations:

Most of the lab write-ups you will do require mathematical

calculations. Using Microsoft Excel is an acceptable program to
help you with these calculations.
Showing your work is
imperative, so if you use a calculator, make sure you write down
the numbers you used to find the answers.
There is a small statistical component for most labs known as the
correlation coefficient. This measure indicates the extent of which
two variables are related.
The following shows how to do the calculation for the correlation
coefficient using the Rank Order Method:

Subject
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Predicted
VO2 Max
41.3
47.5
35.6
61.3
47.5
50.8
41.3
35.4
40.2

Rank
7.5
5
11
1
5
3
7.5
12
9

Actual
VO2 Max
44.7
50.3
34.2
58.6
47.0
53.9
39.5
40.1
40.9

Rank
7
4
12
1.5
5
3
11
10
9

d
0.5
1
-1
-0.5
0
0
-3.5
2
0

d2
0.25
1
1
0.25
0
0
12.25
4
0

10
11
12

55.9
38.0
47.5

2
10
5

58.6
41.2
45.9

1.5
8
6

0.5
2
-1
d2 =

0.25
4
1
24.0

d = the difference between the ranks

n = number of subjects
n = 12

Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient ( r ):

R=1-

6 d2
n (n2 - 1)

r=1-

6 * (24.0)
12 * (144 - 1)

R = 1 - 0.08392
r = 0.916

1. Create the table with data organized by columns.

2. Determine the ranks for each data column (rank highest to lowest). If

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

two values have same rank, average the two ranks and give each
value the average rank (ex. If two values are tied for sixth place,
assign each of the tied values the rank of 6.5 which is the average of
the ranks 6 and 7. If they were tied for third place, then you would
assign each of the tied values a rank of 3.5. The same is true when
you have three or more tied values, just take the average of the ranks
and assign the average for the ranks to each value.
Calculate the differences between the ranks of the data columns. This
will be included under the heading d in the table.
Calculate the square of each difference. This will be included under
the heading d2 in the table.
Calculate the sum of the squared differences. This will be d2.
Using the formula given above, calculate the value for r.
Using the following table, determine whether the calculated r-value is
statistically significant (rcalculated > rcritical for the number of subjects
included in your data set).
For each rank order calculation, include whether the
relationship is significant or not significant, a direct or indirect
relationship, and a weak or strong relationship. The range of
values for r can go from -1.00 (indirect) to +1.00 (direct). The closer
the value is to 1.00 (negative or positive) the stronger the relationship.
A negative correlation indicated that the two variables are inversely
related.

Critical Values of the Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient at the 0.05 Level of
Significance:
n
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

r
0.886
0.786
0.738
0.683
0.648
0.623
0.591
0.566
0.545
0.525
0.507
0.490
0.476
0.462
0.450
0.438
0.428
0.418
0.409
0.400
0.392
0.385
0.377
0.370
0.364