In this course, you will be given the tools and time to carry out labs both individually and with your partners. We plan for you to be able to post your reports on the world wide web. On reporting days, you will use these web pages to present your results to your fellow ESS students.

Your report should include the following basic sections:

Title

The title should accurately summarize the topic of your investigation, the name(s) of the investigator(s) and the date of the investigation.

Introduction

This section will summarize important facts about what is known about the system under study. Explain why it is of interest or important,and propose an hypothesis about the results of the experiment to be studied in the report.

Equipment

List all equipment (with model numbers) that was used to do the investigation.

Procedure

Explain, step-by-step, all the activities that were performed to complete the investigation. Pictures taken during the lab should be downloaded off the web and included in this section to clarify and enhance the description. Write the procedure in past tense.

Data

List all data that was measured for the investigation. The data should be organized in a clear table or column format. For data images, you could describe the patterns you see in each one.

Graphs and Calculations

Provide examples of calculations and graphs of data or results that can help the reader derive conclusions from the data.

Results

Describe the patterns you found in the data. Summarize what your data, graphs and calculations prove about the system under investigation. Tell any problems you had (sources of error in your measurements or data gathering). Are your results accurate? Why or why not? Are the results resonable? Compared to what? What do your results mean? How do your results fit with what is generally known about this topic? Demonstrate your understanding of the science concepts you have been studying.

Conclusions

State what your investigation has proven. Did you experiment support or deny your hypothesis? Generalize: How do your results fit with what is generally known about this topic?

Follow-Up Suggestions

Explain what studies should be done next to extend and improve your investigation. What new questions did you think of after doing this lab? For example, suggest another experiment you might do like this one, but slightly different.