Radish Lab Reports(How to make a perfect report)

Should be detailed! I should be able to tell what you tested – Fertilizer, Acid Rain or Crowding

Good example – “How does watering with different concentrations of fertilizer impact the growth of radish seeds?”

Bad example – “What does crowding do?”

Problem (done in pre-lab Q’s)

If…then…because statement

I should tell what you think is going to happen to the height and health of the radishes

DO NOT WRITE – I think that…

Good Example – If we water our radishes with different concentrations of acid rain, then the radish with 50% will grow the least and the control will grow the best, because acid rain is bad for plants.

Bad Examples – I think acid rain will effect radish growth.

or If acid rain effects growth, then …

Hypothesis (Done in Pre-lab Q’s)

(Pt 1)PARAGRAPH form – describe the independent variable, dependent variable, constants (at least 5) and control group. Describe why you need a control group!

(Pt 2)NUMBERED LIST – describe your procedures. Someone should be able to repeat your experiment EXACTLY based on what you wrote. ◦ Bad Example - Plant radishes. Water and

measure every day. Collect data

Experiment (Done in Pre- Lab)

You will turn in green data table – both front and back should be completely filled in

You need to make a graph (more details in a minute)

In the lab report, you need to describe qualitative data in sentences

DATA (half done – green sheet)

Describe trends in the data – related to your independent variable.◦ Good Example – As the number of seeds per

hole increased, the health decreased. More seeds cause the plants to be wilty, floppy and a little shorter.

◦ Bad Example – As the days increased, the height increased.

Compare with another group in the class who had the same environmental condition.

Data Analysis (do TODAY)

MOST IMPORTANT PART! WORTH 15 POINTS Includes three sections

◦ Evaluating the hypothesis◦ Describing errors◦ Science context

Conclusion

Re-state your hypothesis – what did you expect to happen?

Describe whether it was supported or not supported

Prove it with data. Don’t just say “my data table proves it” put actual data in the conclusion!

Evaluating Hypothesis

EVERY group has errors. There are two kinds – Mistakes (ex- over/under watering, pulling out a plant, putting the wrong water in, planting too many seeds, the control died)

- Human Error (ex – not perfect measuring of water, not perfect measuring of heights, skipping the weekends, touching it too much)

Describe what the error is, AND how it impacted the results

Errors

What did you learn and how does this relate to what we’ve been learning in class.

We are in our ecology unit. This should relate to pollution, competition, ideal growing conditions, producers, autotrophs…etc. Just saying this relates to ecology is not enough.

Science Context

Clean up radishes Calculate averages on data table Make graph Data Analysis – compare data with another

group Post lab questions

In class today