The Introduction of the Lab Report in our Homeschooling

With our G7 Chemistry Block, we are introducing scientific writing through lab reports. Scientific writing is different than other academic writing in a few ways. First it uses a third person objective point of view. In some texts, first person point of view may be acceptable, using the pronouns ‘I’ or ‘we.’ This is not typically done in scientific writing. Nor is second person, ‘you,’ typically used.

Maybe more dissimilar though, is that scientific writing writes in past passive tense. Active tense begins with the subject that is doing the action. An example, “I threw the ball.” Passive tense centers the object receiving the action. “The ball was thrown.” This shift can be a challenging one that needs some practice. For instance, instead of saying, “I poured 300 mL into a beaker,” we would say, “300 mL of water was poured into a beaker.”

Scientific writing is specific, listing the exact amounts of what was added, the precise timing of the demonstration, and measurable observations. These are listed both in the methods and also in the data and analysis. A lab report is a report written, similar to a recipe, so that another scientist could come and use the same methods of materials and repeat the experiment and hopefully get the same results.

There is a definite formula for lab reports and accuracy, precision, explicit details are imperative in scientific writing. Having said that, we are teaching middle schoolers, and this is the first exposure. They are new to lab reports, so a lot of it is illustrating how things should be rather than demanding perfection. We are working together for lab reports in this block.

The formula for a lab report follows:

• Title
• Names and Date
• Illustration
• Materials
• Methods
• Data
• Analysis
• Discussion
• Conclusion

The following exert of my coming Chemistry guide has the information in this blog post as well as a couple of examples of main lesson pages of lab reports.