City Tech’s WAC Program Presents: WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

38

description

City Tech’s WAC Program Presents: WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP With special guests in order of appearance:. -Peter Spellane: Chemistry: Lab Reports in the Real World, pt. 1. -Luz Amaya-Bower: Mechanical Engineering: Clear and understandable expectations. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of City Tech’s WAC Program Presents: WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Page 1: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP
Page 2: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:

WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

With special guests in order of appearance:-Peter Spellane: Chemistry: Lab Reports in the Real World, pt. 1.

-Luz Amaya-Bower: Mechanical Engineering: Clear and understandable expectations.

-Daniel Newsome: WAC (with Jay Deiner and Diana Samaroo from the Chemistry Department): Goals and expectations using the web.

-Mark Schiebe: WAC: (working with Armando Solis) A report on lab reports in Biology.

-Elizabeth Schaible: Hospitality Management: Lab Reports in the Real World, pt. 2.

Page 3: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Warm Up Exercise

Please take out some paper.

Think of a lab situation that you have participated in or witnessed.  In one or two

sentences, describe the purpose or goal of this lab.  Start your

sentence with…

“The goal of this lab was to...”

Page 4: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Peter Spellane from the Chemistry Department

Why Lab Reports?

Page 5: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

What is the key to ensure students know how What is the key to ensure students know how to write in a report?to write in a report?

Laboratory ReportsLaboratory Reports

Luz Amaya-Bower,Mechanical Engineering

Page 6: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

What is the key to ensure What is the key to ensure students know how to write in a students know how to write in a

report?report?Key is to provide them with CLEAR idea of what you are expecting.

-Professor must provide detailed explanation of what is expected.-Professor must provide examples.-Professor must emphasize that successful report writing is a technique that takes practice and consistent improvement.

Page 7: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Key: Provide Clear Key: Provide Clear ExpectationsExpectations

1) List of ALL the components of the reportCoversheetIntroduction or Objective Equipment and Materials ProcedureResults Analysis DiscussionConclusionsReferences

Page 8: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

2) Provide details of each component, examples if possible.

Cover sheet: Include school’s name, student’s name, professor’s name, class and section, title of the experiment, date of the experiment. Please avoid graphics in this page.

Introduction:Discussion of the purpose of the experiment: Your task is to explain to your readers the importance of what se you are testing and to give them any theories or other background information that they will require in order to understand your results. The introductory section should state what you hoped to find out by doing the experiment.

Equipment and Materials:This is the part of your report where you describe how you performed your experiment. The description should be presented in sufficient detail so that another researcher would know how to repeat your experiment if he or she desired to do so.

Key: Provide Clear Key: Provide Clear ExpectationsExpectations

Page 9: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Results :This is where you report the data and findings generated by your experiment. This section will generally feature tables, charts, graphs, and figures. Even though these tables and figures should have sufficient information to be comprehensible on their own, the text accompanying these representations should also describe the most important data and findings.

Discussion:Many scientists regard this as the most important part of a scientific report. It is where you interpret and explain the significance or meaning of your results to your readers. Your discussion should address questions such as: Did your experiment accomplish its purpose? Why or why not? Did you find anything unanticipated? The key to a well-written discussion is to link your interpretation back to the issues raised in your introduction.

Conclusion: Finally, the concluding section should summarize the main finding of the experiment in relation to the purpose. This should include a brief summary of what you found and what you expected to find. Include some theoretical discussion(s) as to the specific topic.

Key: Provide Clear Key: Provide Clear ExpectationsExpectations

Page 10: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

3) Provide details of structure of report, for example:

The lab report should be typed, using 12 pt. Times New Roman text and double spacing. Margins must be 0.75” in all four sides.

The body of the report should be written in the third person, passive tense. (In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is neither a do-er or a be-er, but is acted upon by some other agent or by something unnamed (The new policy was approved)). The procedure is written in the past tense.

Label and number your figures, tables, equations, and graphs.

Hand calculations are not acceptable, use Microsoft Eq. Editor to write equations.

Use Matlab or Excel for plots and Interpolation.

Key: Provide Clear Key: Provide Clear ExpectationsExpectations

Page 11: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Questions?

How about some hot coffee or a snack…

Maier-Alchemical

tract from 1618

Page 12: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Daniel Newsome, WAC Fellow,Working with Jay Deiner and Diana Samaroo from the Chemistry

Department - both have schedule conflicts with this workshop.

Our basic approach and format is quite similar to that of Prof. Amaya-Bower’s. We have settled on 8 sections for the

Chemistry Lab Report.

1. Title2. Abstract 3. Introduction4. Experimental5. Results6. Discussion7. Conclusion8. References

The issue: How to get good lab reports from the students.

Page 13: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Goals for the Students

1. We want to give a sense of purpose to each section of the lab report so that students will have some idea of what they are doing and why.

2. We want to explain each section as clearly and succinctly as possible so that students will know what is expected of them.

3. We want to formulate questions and examples that will guide students through each part, without patronizing them.

4. We want our lab report resource to be short and sweet so that students will actually use it.

5. We want our students to be able to write a lab report without stress and anxiety. Lab reports are standard operating procedure in the real world, and a student who can write one confidently will have a leg up on the competition.

Page 14: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Goals for the Students

1. We want to give a sense of purpose to each section of the lab report so that students will have some idea of what they are doing and why.

2. We want to explain each section as clearly and succinctly as possible so that students will know what is expected of them.

3. We want to formulate questions and examples that will guide students through each part, without patronizing them.

4. We want our lab report resource to be short and sweet so that students will actually use it.

5. We want our students to be able to write a lab report without stress and anxiety. Lab reports are standard operating procedure in the real world, and a student who can write one confidently will have a leg up on the competition.

Page 15: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Goals for the Students

1. We want to give a sense of purpose to each section of the lab report so that students will have some idea of what they are doing and why.

2. We want to explain each section as clearly and succinctly as possible so that students will know what is expected of them.

3. We want to formulate questions and examples that will guide students through each part, without patronizing them.

4. We want our lab report resource to be short and sweet so that students will actually use it.

5. We want our students to be able to write a lab report without stress and anxiety. Lab reports are standard operating procedure in the real world, and a student who can write one confidently will have a leg up on the competition.

Page 16: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Goals for the Students

1. We want to give a sense of purpose to each section of the lab report so that students will have some idea of what they are doing and why.

2. We want to explain each section as clearly and succinctly as possible so that students will know what is expected of them.

3. We want to formulate questions and examples that will guide students through each part, without patronizing them.

4. We want our lab report resource to be short and sweet so that students will actually use it.

5. We want our students to be able to write a lab report without stress and anxiety. Lab reports are standard operating procedure in the real world, and a student who can write one confidently will have a leg up on the competition.

Page 17: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Goals for the Students

1. We want to give a sense of purpose to each section of the lab report so that students will have some idea of what they are doing and why.

2. We want to explain each section as clearly and succinctly as possible so that students will know what is expected of them.

3. We want to formulate questions and examples that will guide students through each part, without patronizing them.

4. We want our lab report resource to be short and sweet so that students will actually use it.

5. We want our students to be able to write a lab report without stress and anxiety. Lab reports are standard operating procedure in the real world, and a student who can write one confidently will have a leg up on the competition.

Page 18: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Goals for the Instructors

1. We want all instructors to have access to an easily adaptable resource so that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every class.

2. We want instructors to receive lab reports that have a predictable format so that grading them will be easier.

3. We want instructors to get what they want in the lab reports so that they can focus on teaching chemistry, not endless corrections of style and format.

Page 19: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Goals for the Instructors

1. We want all instructors to have access to an easily adaptable resource so that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every class.

2. We want instructors to receive lab reports that have a predictable format so that grading them will be easier.

3. We want instructors to get what they want in the lab reports so that they can focus on teaching chemistry, not endless corrections of style and format.

Page 20: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Goals for the Instructors

1. We want all instructors to have access to an easily adaptable resource so that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every class.

2. We want instructors to receive lab reports that have a predictable format so that grading them will be easier.

3. We want instructors to get what they want in the lab reports so that they can focus on teaching chemistry, not endless corrections of style and format.

Page 21: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

The Lab Report Web Site Currently Under Development

You can peruse this site at your leisure any time at

www.mifami.org.

Just click on the link Writing Chemistry Lab Reports at City Tech.

Page 22: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

A few typical problems in the Abstract.

Page 23: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP
Page 24: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

What is an Abstract?

Why is there an Abstract?

Style of the Abstract.

What is the passive voice?

Page 25: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

1. What was done and why?

 2. What results were

found? 3. What conclusions can

be drawn from the results or how could the results be applied?

Page 26: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

We seem to be heading in the right direction.

Page 27: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

PDF form for Abstract

Page 28: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

The Lab Report in BIO 1101

The Lab: “Quantitative Determination of Proteins”

Mark Schiebe: WAC FellowWorking with Armando Solis in the

Biology Department.

Page 29: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Problems Professor Solis Encountered

• Confusion about audience, purpose and formatting

• Who is my potential audience?• Why am I writing this report?• Why is formatting important?

Page 30: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Sample Student “Introduction”

We did an experiment to figure out the amount of proteins in substance in a test tube. To do this, we used a spectrophotometer along with the beer Lambert law to measure the light absorption of each test tube. Also, there were five unknown substances and using the data we collected from the five known substances and beer Lambert law in graph form we were able to determine concentration.

Page 31: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Professor Solis’s Margin Comments

• What about the biuret reagent? How is this useful?

• How does the spectrophotometer work?• What is the Beer-Lambert Law? Explain

in greater detail.

Page 32: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Breaking Down the Components

• Introduction, Materials, Methods, Data & Results, Conclusion & Discussion, Graphs & Tables, References

• What information goes in each of these sections?

• What is the appropriate writing style for each section? (Full sentences vs. bulleted lists, verb tense, active vs. passive voice...)

Page 33: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Issues: General and Lab-Specific

• Should I define and explain general concepts in my introduction?

• Should I state the general purpose of the lab in the Introduction?

• Where should I explain how I used the Beer-Lambert Law to construct a standard curve?

• What goes in the “Discussion” section?

Page 34: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Sample Student Conclusion

Because the data of this experiment was used to create a standard curve graph for absorption/protein concentration of known solution, it is possible to accurately identify protein concentrations of known solutions. One implication of these results is that protein concentration and absorbance are linked, and correspond to each other, as was initially predicted. By using this data to graph a standard curve, it is not only possible, but easy to determine the protein concentration of any substance by first determining its level of absorption.

Page 35: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Elizabeth Schaible, Hospitality

Management

Page 36: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

Warm Up Exercise

Please take out some paper.

Think of a lab situation that you have participated in or witnessed.  In one or two

sentences, describe the purpose or goal of this lab.  Start your

sentence with…

“The goal of this lab was to...”

Page 37: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP

City Tech’s WAC Program would like to thankPeter Spellane, Luz Amaya-Bower, & Elizabeth Schaible

for their participation in this workshop…and also

special thanks to Armando Solis, Jay Deiner, & Diana Samaroo.

Page 38: City Tech’s WAC Program Presents:  WRITING LAB REPORTS: A WORKSHOP