SECTION THREE : Introduction

Establishing a context for the lab

You HAVE done the PreLab for this lab

Step 1: Revise your answer to PreLab question 1 in one or two paragraphs. Begin the Introduction with 1 or 2 sentences clearly stating
what scientific concept the lab is about. Then use the rest of your answer to question 1 to complete the paragraph with information about
the scientific concept. Revise your answer so that it includes only the information that relates specifically to this lab. If you have a lot of
information, make two paragraphs. Note any citations you use here for including in the References section of your report.

More Help:
• If you are having trouble writing a good opening sentence for the lab report, you can say something like: "This laboratory experiment
focuses on X…"; "This laboratory experiment is about X…" ; "This lab is designed to help students learn about, observe, or investigate,
X…." Or begin with a definition of the scientific concept: "X is a theory that…."

• Once you have your opening sentence, you are ready to complete the opening paragraph by telling what you know about the scientific concept. The point is
to show your lab instructor that you have a good grasp of the scientific concept. Revise the rest of Question 1 by:
o Focusing it so that it contains information about the concept that is most clearly related to the lab procedure (not everything there is to know
about the concept)
o Incorporating additional relevant information about the concept you may have learned since doing the PreLab.
o Changing it so that the scientific concept is appropriate to the lab (this would apply if all or parts of what you wrote about the scientific concept
in the PreLab are wrong for this lab).
• If you have a lot to say about the scientific concept, use more than one paragraph.
• This part of the Introduction is typically written in present tense.

For more advanced labs:

If you are writing a lab report that is more like a full scientific paper, you may need to do more research using the Internet and library. With your teacher's
guidance, you should search the recent scientific literature to find other research in this area of study. Summarize that research in a paragraph or so, stating
what the general findings have been and using those findings to describe the current knowledge in the area (such a "review of the literature" is typical of
scientific journal articles). This summary should come after your initial sentence about the scientific concept. For help with citing references, go to Citations and
References.
Step 2: Revise your answers to PreLab questions 2 and 3. Write the main objectives of the lab in sentence form. Then complete the paragraph by describing
how the achievement of these objectives helped you learn about the scientific concept of the lab.

More Help:
• If your response to Question 2 was a list of objectives, revise it by summarizing the primary objectives in your own words. The point is to demonstrate your
understanding of what you were supposed to do in the lab. With most labs, you should be able to do this in 1 or 2 sentences. You can begin by saying
something like: "The main objectives of this lab were to…"; "In this lab we were asked to …." This will be the beginning of the paragraph.
• Continue the paragraph by revising your answer to question 3, showing that you comprehend the purpose of the lab. Revise your answer by making it clear
how accomplishing the objectives of the lab helped you to learn about the scientific concept of the lab. You can start by saying something like this: "The
objectives of this lab enabled me to learn about X by…"; "Performing these objectives helped me to understand X by…."
• This part of the Introduction is usually all in past tense.
• If you have redefined the scientific concept of the lab since the PreLab, revise your answer to question 3 accordingly.

Step 3: Revise your answers to PreLab questions 4 and 5 in a paragraph or two. First, state your hypothesis clearly (even if it was not supported by the data).
Then rewrite the explanation for your hypothesis so that your reader understands how the reasoning behind your hypothesis is based on the scientific concept
of the lab.

More Help:
• Revise your original hypothesis from PreLab question 4 so that it is clear that it is a hypothesis: "The hypothesis for this lab was…"; "My hypothesis was…";
"We predicted that…"; "I hypothesized that…."
• Finish the paragraph by revising your response to PreLab question 5, explaining how you came to your hypothesis. As you are explaining the reasoning you
used to come to your hypothesis, be sure to make a direct connection between the hypothesis and the scientific concept of the lab. Rewrite it so that your
reader can clearly see how you used your understanding of the scientific concept of the lab to make a prediction about the outcome of the lab. Refer to
what you said in the first paragraph of the Introduction.
• One way to make your explanation clear is to use words that show causal links: because, since, due to the fact that, as a result, therefore, consequently,
etc. For example, Since X happens in order to maximize energy, we hypothesized that . . .
• If your explanation is relatively long, use more than one paragraph.
You HAVE NOT done the PreLab for this lab
Step 1: Begin the Introduction with 1 or 2 sentences clearly stating what scientific concept the lab is about. Then finish the paragraph by writing down details
about this concept relevant to the lab that you can find in the lab manual, textbook, class notes, handouts, etc . . . Revise your answer so that it includes only
the information that relates specifically to this lab. If you have a lot of information, make two paragraphs. Note any citations you use here for including in the
References section of your report.

More Help:
• If you are having trouble writing a good opening sentence for the lab report, you can say something like: "This laboratory experiment focuses on X…"; "This
laboratory experiment is about X…" ; "This lab is designed to help students learn about, observe, or investigate, X…." Or begin with a definition of the
scientific concept: "X is a theory that…."
• Once you have your opening sentence, you are ready to complete the opening paragraph by telling what you know about the scientific concept. The point is
to show your lab instructor that you have a good grasp of the scientific concept. Revise the rest of Question 1 by:
o Focusing it so that it contains information about the concept that is most clearly related to the lab procedure (not everything there is to know about
the concept)
o Incorporating additional relevant information about the concept you may have learned since doing the PreLab.
o Changing it so that the scientific concept is appropriate to the lab (this would apply if all or parts of what you wrote about the scientific concept in the
PreLab are wrong for this lab).
• If you have a lot to say about the scientific concept, use more than one paragraph.
• This part of the Introduction is typically written in present tense.

For more advanced labs:

If you are writing a lab report that is more like a full scientific paper, you may need to do more research using the Internet and library. With your teacher's guidance,
you should search the recent scientific literature to find other research in this area of study. Summarize that research in a paragraph or so, stating what the general
findings have been and using those findings to describe the current knowledge in the area (such a "review of the literature" is typical of scientific journal articles).
This summary should come after your initial sentence about the scientific concept. For help with citing references, go to Citations and References.

Step 2: Write the main objectives of the lab--the specific actions you took in the lab, such as measure, analyze, test--in sentence form. Then complete the
paragraph by describing how the achievement of these objectives helped you learn about the scientific concept of the lab.

More Help:
• Objectives are typically actions you are being asked to perform for the lab. Often the objectives are listed in the lab manual. Writing the objectives of the lab in your
own words demonstrates your understanding of what you were supposed to accomplish in the lab. With most labs, you should be able to do this in 1 or 2
sentences. You can begin by saying something like: "The main objectives of this lab were to…"; "In this lab we were asked to…." This will be the beginning of the
paragraph.
• Continue the paragraph by addressing the purpose of the lab. This is where you make the all-important link between what you do in the lab (the objectives)
and the purpose for doing the lab: to learn something about the scientific concept of the lab. Read over the objectives again. In what way do you think that
doing the experiment, accomplishing the objectives, helped you learn about the scientific concept? You can start by saying something like this: "The
objectives of this lab enabled me to learn about X by…"; "Performing these objectives helped me to understand X by…."
• This part of the Introduction is usually all in past tense.
Step 3: State your hypothesis, what you thought the outcome of the experiment would be before you did it. This will be the first sentence of the hypothesis
paragraph. To write a scientific hypothesis, you first need to identify the independent and dependent variables in the experiment.

More Help:
• Write your hypothesis so that it is clear, such as: "The hypothesis for this lab was…"; "My hypothesis was…"; "We predicted that…"; "I hypothesized that…."
• Often hypotheses are stated in terms of variables, the elements that the experiment focuses on. Be sure to use your original hypothesis, what you thought
the outcomes of the experiment before you performed the experiment.
• A variable is what is measured or manipulated in an experiment. Variables provide the means by which scientists structure their observations. Identifying
the variables in an experiment provides a solid understanding of the experiment and what the key findings in the experiment are going to be.
• To identify the variables, read the lab procedure described in the lab manual. Determine what you will be measuring and what you will be manipulating for
each measurement. The value(s) you are manipulating is called the independent variable (also known as the "manipulated variable") and the value(s) you
are observing/recording is called the dependent variable (also known as the "response variable"). Write down the dependent and independent variables.
• In more advanced labs, you may have multiple variables, more than one independent and dependent variable.

Look back over all the stages of the experiment:

• How do these variables relate to each other?
• Are there more than one independent and/or dependent variable being recorded through the various stages of the experiment?
• How does the data being recorded in one stage help you in the proceeding stages?
• If there are more than one independent and dependent variable, which one(s) will be used to answer the question being asked in the lab? That is, which
variables will be used to formulate your hypothesis?

Step 4: Continue the paragraph you began with a hypothesis by explaining how you used your understanding of the scientific concept of the lab to arrive at
your hypothesis.

More Help:
• As you are explaining the reasoning you used to come to your hypothesis, be sure to make a direct connection between the hypothesis and the scientific
concept of the lab. Rewrite it so that your reader can clearly see how you used your understanding of the scientific concept of the lab to make a prediction
about the outcome of the lab. Refer to what you said in the first paragraph of the Introduction.
• One way to make your explanation clear is to use words that show causal links: because, since, due to the fact that, as a result, therefore, consequently,
etc. For example, Since X happens in order to maximize energy, we hypothesized that . . .
• If your explanation is relatively long, use more than one paragraph.

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