Garrett Darden
Bio 1105-Section 31
Dr. Adair
10/26/2018
Cili-CURE Lab #10: Reflections on the Lab Report
Objective: The objective of this lab was to thoroughly go through ever aspect of a scientific report in order to understand why each section is included in the writing process. We learned how to improve our rough drafts of multiple sections as well as some tips on how to improve the overall quality of our lab reports.
Purpose: The purpose of this lab was to help us begin to assemble our lab report and create a rough draft of all of the information/data that we have been gathering throughout this semester. This lab was also meant to introduce us to how to properly string all of the sections together in a smooth and cohesive manner in order to make the overall report as coherent as possible for not only those of us who are informed on the topic but for newcomers to the topic as well
Abstract: The abstract is meant to be a concise summary of the whole report, so it should state all of the main points of your paper. These points would be items like stating the problem that you are researching, the general methodology used during the experiment, the highlights of the main findings, and the main points of your conclusion. The reader should be able to glean the overall point of the entire experiment from this section of the report, just not in as much detail as if they had read the entire report.
Introduction: The introduction should serve as the point in where the reader begins to learn the intricacies behind the experiment as well as the background information behind the research. The writer has to treat this section like they are teaching someone everything about there line of research and should explain the topics involved and generalize them so readers can better understand the. Once the writer has explained the general topics involved they need to begin raising questions about gaps in research and ultimately indicate the question and overall scope of the research as well as the structure of the rest of the report. This section is also a good place to add primary resources in order to help explains various topics and to give your work an extra degree of credibility.
Materials and Method: This section should outline the materials used in this experiment as well as the process that you and your team took to not only collect the data that you will later present, but how you and your team analyzed and chose to present it as well. Any other group of scientists should be able to completely recreate the experiment from this section alone, so you should go into immense details about every aspect of this experiment in order to make the process behind this experiment as clear as possible for not only the readers but other scientists as well.
Results: The results section of the report should include all of your data and statistical analysis that was performed by you and your group, and you do this so that you can display your work and actually be able to glean information from your work. Presenting the data in a clear and precise manner will also allow the readers to be able to learn something from your work because know they can see actual numbers tied to your work and can begin to see the effects of whatever topic you and your team is researching
Discussion: This is the section where you talk about the results of your experiment from more of a application viewpoint and begin discuss what your data means in the real world and what this could mean for your topic of research. This should be where you explain why the data might have come out this way while referencing the literature and staking an overall claim about what exactly your data means in regards to your research topic. At the end of this section you should discuss what were limiting factors during the experiment, how you could have avoided potential error and how you would recommend to improve the experiment if it is ever run again by your team or by other groups of scientists.
Conclusion: In conclusion, this lab helped me to truly analyze all the aspects of a well written lab report and learn some points that I will have to keep in mind while writing the lab report for this lab as well as all future lab reports that I write. I also learned how to improve the graphs that I designed for the lab report and I received multiple pointers on how to format my report which I will be taking to heart while constructing my rough draft.
Future Goal: My goal is to be able to continue improving my skills as a presenter as I did stumble over a few of my lines and I felt like I had difficulty properly explaining the points I was trying to make during the presentation. I also want to keep improving my skills when it comes to making analytical graphs that are able to properly convey the intended meaning that I had originally want them to convey to everyone who listened to my presentation.