Experimental Design Pt2

Experimental Design Pt2

​Over the last three days you have designed a variety of experiments altering abiotic factors to see how it impacts plant growth. Let’s zoom out from our experiments and think of how this might help us answer the question “Are humans an invasive species?”

Multiple Choice

Which of the following examples do you think best illustrates the concise language you should use in a lab report?

• The plants exposed to full sunlight showed amazing amounts of growth after a couple weeks.

• The entire lab group laughed when the water spilled out of the test tube.

• The plants exposed to full sunlight grew an average of 3 cm in 14 days, while the plants left indoors grew only 0.5 cm on average.

• The plants grew.

Multiple Choice

Lab reports are usually written in third person, past tense. You did an experiment in which you added 20 mL of water to a test tube.  How would you describe this in your lab report?

• I added 20 mL of water to a test tube.

• 20 mL of water is added to a test tube.

• 20 mL of water was added to a test tube.

Multiple Choice

Imagine that you are writing a paper for a lab in which you isolated caffeine from a cup of coffee. Select the sentence you would write in the materials and method section of a lab report.

• Coffee is a beverage enjoyed by millions of people around the world every day.

• The second attempt resulted in the extraction of 73 mg of caffeine.

• 200 mL coffee heated to 90°C.

• 200 mL of coffee was placed in a flask and heated to 90°C.

When using concise language:

• Replace weak words with strong, powerful words

• Omit unnecessary words

• Combine sentences 

When writing in third person, past tense:

• Use passive voice (“the experiment”, “the lab group”, “they”) 

• Refer to the subjects in general terms

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​Writing like a Scientist

Writing your Lab Report

Using the Capstone Lab Rubric and your Capstone Lab Packet, write the experimental design section of your lab report.