Lab Report Biology Design Lab

[Yohann]

Hey Everyone

I have a design lab due for biology and i'm a bit concerned as to how i'm supposed to properly write it up...

I did not fare too well on my previous design lab :/ ..so I thought i'd just look for some help

Does anyone know where I can find a sample biology design lab? or does anyone have a design lab that they've done really well on, and is willing to share it

help would really be appreciated

Thanks!

[khimberleigh]

I recently got full marks on a design lab for physics, I'm pretty sure the structure of all science IAs are the same. I do chem as well, and physics and chem seem to have the same structure.

I can't share it because I'm going to be officially submitting it later this year but I have some tips I can give you.

A design lab should be something like this:

Topic/heading/research question

-You have to come up with this on your own. If your teacher tells you which variables you should change then you cannot receive full marks. It actually says this in the criteria.

-Your topic should be something like 'How does X affect Y.' Eg. How does the concentration of HCl affect the rate of reaction of HCl and CaCO3

Intro/hypothesis

-keep this brief!

-It's not like an English or History style intro!

-include:

-The aim

-clarification of anything that may be unclear in your topic

-Hypothesis (This isn't actually in the criteria but it'll give you something to talk about in your evaluation if your results are different to what you predicted) Eg. I believe that as the concentration increases the rate of reaction will increase exponentially

-Literary value which is the official value for what you are testing, for example, if you were trying to finding the human body temp. the literary value would be 37 degrees Celcius (again, not mandatory for the design aspect but it'll give you something to talk about for your conclusion and evaluation).

Variables

-One of the more important aspects

-Independent

-dependent

-controls

-make sure you state how you will keep the controls constant, how you will measure everything, the uncertainty of any measurements, units of any measurements, and give numbers such as 'The water temperature will remain constant at 25 degs C' or the concentration will begin at 5mols/dm^3 and increase in increments of 5mol/dm^3 until 40mol/dm^3.'

-Don't be too pedantic with controls. Obviously mention the ones that may actually affect your experiment but don't say things like air pressure in the room if you're measuring people's reaction rate because it is clearly unnecessary.

Materials

-list of materials

-be specific, such as 500ml beaker or 8 test tubes

-also include any datalogging software and even spreadsheet programs like excel

Method

-Keep. It. Simple (but not patronizing)

-continually mention how you are controlling your variables

-mention safety precautions too

-have a look at pracs that are in your textbook and look at how they wrote the method.

-mention how you will do things. Don't just say 'record temperature' instead say 'measure the temperature of the water with the thermometer and record in a table

-Say to repeat the experiment X times for each trial (usually three times). This is explicitly mentioned in the criteria so make sure you do it.

-include a labelled diagram or photo if necessary.

That's all there is to it!

Now for some general tips:

-Read the criteria

-Don't leave it to the last minute

-Read over it. It sounds basic but in one of my other pracs I recently submitted I accidentally wrote 'Trail' instead of 'Trial,' and I stupidly submitted it.

-As for finding samples, there are some on this site but you need to be a VIP to access them otherwise you're just going to have to search the internet for some.

Good Luck

Edited February 1, 2013 by khimberleigh