Writing Lab Reports (format is taken from the grade 10 science text book) In the interest of saving paper, you do not need a title page. Instead, you can write the title at the top of the page, with your name, and the date of the lab. Your title should be clear and not 'chem lab', or 'science lab', because you will be doing a few 'chem labs' over the semester. Good titles are "Atomic Mass of Candium" or "Testing for Ions". Purpose - the purpose of the lab Question - what are you doing? Prediction/Hypothesis - what is your prediction of what will happen in the lab? Design - what are you observing or recording? What are your variable? What can you control? Materials - what you need Procedure - a step by step list of what you are doing. Someone else who is picking up your lab should be able to do exactly what you've done Evidence - your results Analysis - any calculations or observations Evaluation - your conclusion and sources of error Sample Lab Testing for Sugar February 11, 2010 By: Marly S. and ______ and ____ Purpose The purpose of this lab is to test for the presence of sugar in different foods Question What types of food have more sugar, vegetables or junk food? Prediction/Hypothesis According to my experience with food, junk food will have more sugar. Design The foods are good into 'vegetables' or 'junk food'. A taste-tester was blind folded and given a sample of the different types of food. Controlled variables are the amounts of food (all 10g). How sweet the food was from 0 (not sweet) to 7 (very sweet) was recorded. Materials blindfold scale carrots broccoli fudge chocolate Procedure 1. Blindfold the participant 2. Give the participant a sample of food, and have them rate it on a scale of 0 (not sweet) to 7 (very sweet) 3. Record the responses Evidence Food Sweet Scale carrots 2 broccoli 1 fudge 7 chocolate 5 Analysis Vegetables were mostly listed as 'not sweet' Junk food had values that were more 'sweet' According to this evidence, vegetables are not sweet and junk food is sweet. Evaluation This design is not adequate because there were not enough types of food tested. There are some obvious flaws in this design. The materials could be improved by adding more participants and more types of food. The procedure was satisfactory and no special skills were required, but more foods should be tested. Some possible sources of error could be that the vegetables were picked at a time when they were sweeter, and with one 1 partcipant, it doesn't take into account personal preference for sweetness. The hypothesis was verified.