How to Introduce LabWrite

Introduction to Lab Reports

Oftentimes, treatments of the parts of the lab report are very dry, consisting of a list of the parts with brief descriptions of each. The problem is that students don't have a sense of the context of the parts of the lab report, why they are important and what significance they have for the laboratory experience.

The goals of this introduction are to:

• establish the function of lab reports in the science laboratories,
• define the parts of the lab report,
• compare the lab report to a scientific journal article,
• give students the opportunity to analyze the parts of a sample lab report.

Activity:
Use the annotated PowerPoint presentation to meet the goals for this introduction, and follow the instructions in the note field of the presentation to guide you through this activity (you will have to save the PPT presentation to your compuer in order to view the notes field). For teaching suggestions, go to Basic Teaching Strategies.

Handouts you’ll need to give your students:

1. A Sample Lab Report (choose one from this link)

2. Guide for Analyzing a Lab Report

NOTE: If you don’t want to use PowerPoint or you don’t have access to it, see the materials that follow.

Introduction to Lab Reports (for those without access to ppt)

1. Brainstorm with your students what they think the purpose of a lab report is.

2. After discussing the purpose, ask students to list and describe the parts of a lab report. You may use the “Parts of a Lab Report” overhead and/or the handout during this discussion.

3. Have students brainstorm the differences between a lab report and a scientific journal article. Click the following link to show them a sample journal article,
   http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v66n6/991447/991447.html or find one of your own. Use “A Comparison of the Scientific Article and the Lab Report” as an overhead or handout during this discussion.

4. Pass out a sample lab report and “Guide for Analyzing a Laboratory Report” handout.

5. Put students into groups and either assign each group analyze one part of the lab report, or have each group analyze the entire lab report.

6. Have an open discussion where groups share what they learned during this activity.

Handouts you’ll need:

1. OVERHEAD/HANDOUT: Parts of a Lab Report with Brief Descriptions

2. OVERHEAD/HANDOUT: A Comparison of the Scientific Article and the Lab Report

3. A Sample Lab Report (choose one from this link)

4. Guide for Analyzing a Lab Report

Lab Activities For Instructor-Guided Use of LabWrite

You can use any of the following labs to give students an opportunity to use LabWrite before they have to use it officially. These experiments are very simple labs that you can do quickly with your students as they use all the components of LabWrite.

Click on an experiment:

Experiment #1— Heat Energy
Experiment #2— Properties of Water

Teaching Strategies:

1. Have students read the question and background material and then direct them to the PreLab. Have them answer the questions on the PreLab and discuss in groups or as a class.

2. Have students do the experiment while they use InLab. If you do not have computers in your classroom, have the InLab Handout available to students. If you have a computer set up with a projector, you may display InLab as students work through the lab.

3. Once students complete their lab, they can write the lab report in groups using the PostLab.

4. Have groups exchange lab reports, and have them use the LabCheck Evaluation Guide to grade each other’s reports.

5. Give students a chance to discuss their experiences. Ask students to list the parts of LabWrite they used.

6. If you have a computer with a projector, you can access these parts as they come up.

Introduction to Science as an Inquiry-Based Process

One of the chief values of writing a lab report is that it provides students the opportunity to be active participants in the most fundamental aspect of science--scientific inquiry. It's important, then, that students understand what scientific inquiry is. In the Introduction to Writing Lab Reports, scientific inquiry becomes the foundation for helping students to see the value of writing good lab reports.

The goal of this Introduction is to acquaint students with the idea of science as an inquiry-based process by having them consider the concepts of science and scientific inquiry.

Activity:
Use the annotated PowerPoint presentation to meet the goal for this introduction, and follow the instructions in the note field of the presentation to guide through this activity (you will have to save the PPT presentation to your compuer in order to view the notes field). For teaching suggestions, go to Basic Teaching Strategies.

Additional Activity:
Further Exploration into Hypotheses—The hypothesis plays a central role in the scientific method. It is worth exploring the concept of the hypothesis further.

1. Divide students into groups and give each group a scientific scenario from the “Science Scenarios” handout.

2. Ask them to formulate hypotheses and design an experiment that is both feasible and efficient for testing the hypothesis.

3. Ask them to think about how the data would look and how they would represent it.

4. Let them report back to the class using the “Science Scenarios” overhead.

HANDOUT/OVERHEAD: Science Scenarios

Introduction to Science as an Inquiry-Based Process
(for those without access to ppt)

1-Exploring Science:

Brainstorming Activity: Begin by reminding students that this is a science lab. When they are in this lab they are expected to think like scientists and act like scientists. So it's a good idea from the start to talk about what that means--to think like scientists and act like scientists.

• Questions to generate brainstorming:

  • What is science?
  • What are scientists?
  • What do scientists do?
  • What does it mean to think like scientists?
  • What is inquiry?
  • How is inquiry used in science?

Conclude the brainstorming activity by summing up the various ideas about scientists that have been suggested. Help students find different patterns in their answers that give an overall conception of what a scientist is. For example, they may describe scientists as Truth-finders, as laboratory technicians, pure objective observers of the world, or as mad scientists.

• Here are some points you can use during the discussion:

  • The word “science” comes from the Latin verb “scire” which in English means “to know.”
  • Scientists’ primary goal is to know, to uncover, to discover, to find out something.
  • Scientists wonder, explore, observe, predict, investigate, infer, reflect, and communicate what they learn.
  • Scientists gather observable evidence, and from that evidence they arrive at a general conclusion through logical reasoning.
  • Inquiry is the act of asking questions and seeking answers to those questions.
  • Scientific inquiry is a special form of inquiry that asks very precise questions about the physical world and uses rigorous observations of physical phenomena to answer those questions.
  • Inquiry reflects the curiosity about the world that is the essence of science.
  • The specific questions that scientists ask and the means they use to find the answers to those questions are specific to the field of study.

2-The Scientific Method:

Small-group activity: The classic way of understanding scientific inquiry is to see it as a form of inquiry that is grounded in the scientific method. Your students have probably been introduced to various formulations of the scientific method. This exercise is intended to start with what they know about the scientific method and bring it into focus.

1. Divide the class into small groups of 3 or 4 and ask each group to explore the scientific method by discussing it among themselves and agreeing on the steps that comprise the method. They should write the steps.

2. As each group finishes ask them to put their steps on the board.

3. Ask the class to identify the general steps that the group responses have in common and then write down those common steps on the board or on a blank transparency.

4. Place overhead “The Scientific Method: An Overview” handout on the projector and read it aloud or ask students to read it aloud. (You may choose to project the Handout, if you have a computer with projector)

5. Ask students to point out the similarities and differences between the class version of the scientific method and the standard version on the overhead.

OVERHEAD/HANDOUT: The Scientific Method: An Overview

3-Looking at the Hypothesis:

Class Discussion:

• Questions for initiating discussion

  • Review the scientific method and ask students to point out the various places in which the hypothesis appears. What role does it play in each of those places?
  • What does it mean to say that hypotheses can only be supported or rejected, never proved.
  • What is the difference between a hypothesis, a theory, and a law?
  • What are some theories or laws you have heard about?
  • What is the relationship between hypotheses and theories and laws?
    
• Here are some points you can use during the discussion:
  
  • Even though they may not refer to it as “the scientific method,” most scientists go through a series of steps similar to those described in the scientific method when conducting their investigations.
  • As mentioned above, scientists usually start out with a problem or question that can be phrased as a hypothesis or series of hypotheses.
  • Once a hypothesis is formulated, a scientist will usually design an experiment or study to test the hypothesis.
  • A hypothesis can only be supported or rejected, never proven. It may be distinguished from a scientific theory or a scientific law:

For Comparison:

Scientific theory—An explanation of why and how a specific natural phenomenon occurs. A lot of hypotheses are based on theories. In turn, theories may be redefined as new hypotheses are tested. Examples of theories: Newton’s Theory of Gravitation, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Mendel’s theory of Inheritance, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Scientific law—A logical, mathematical statement describing a consistency that applies to all members of a broad class of phenomena when specific conditions are met. Examples of scientific laws: Faraday’s Law of electromagnetic induction, Coulomb’s Law of electrostatic attraction, Dalton’s Law of partial pressures, Boyle’s Gas Law.

4-How the Scientific Method is Reflected in Scientific Writing:

Small-group activity: The parts of the scientific paper provide a good way to understand scientific inquiry and the scientific method. In fact, one of the reasons that the scientific paper has this format is that it reflects the way scientists think. Here is an activity that helps students to see the relationship between the steps of the scientific method and the parts of the scientific article.

1. Divide the class into groups of three or four.

2. Quickly review the steps of the scientific method using the handout from the previous section.

3. Pass out the handout "Parts of the Scientific Article" and ask the groups to decide on which steps of the scientific method are associated with the parts of the article. They are to write the steps beside the appropriate part.

4. Have a class discussion, and if possible, get the class to agree on one version. It may look like this:

   • Introduction: "Identify a problem" and "Formulate a hypothesis"
   • Materials and Methods: "Test the hypothesis with an experiment"
   • Results: "Report the data of the experiment"
   • Discussion and Conclusion: "Make conclusions from data"

OVERHEAD/HANDOUT: Parts of the Scientific Article

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