Professional and practical skills

Question 1

What should the title of a lab report be?

Answer 1

Succinct, descriptive, often written last

Question 2

What should the abstract of a lab report be?

Answer 2

-Brief account of the problem, methods, results and conclusions.
-Avoid technical and methodological detail
-Should contain key results (numerical) not just trends

Question 3

What should the introduction of a lab report be?

Answer 3

-Background information to the scientific problem under investigation
-Background information on the technique or preparation used
-Rationale behind the investigation
-Statement of aims!

Question 4

What should the methods of a lab report be?

Answer 4

-Not a step-by-step protocol
-Should be a succinct description of the methods used in the experiment, avoiding repetition
-In sufficient detail to allow an “informed” reader to repeat the experiment without lots of trivial information
-Include: source of tissues/cells used, solution composition, methods used to obtain results, hardware/software manufacturers, statistical analysis used, data analysis (e.g. equations)
-Not bullet points

Question 5

What should the results of a lab report be?

Answer 5

-Text-based description, incorporating figures and tables as appropriate to better illustrate trends
-Avoid repetition
-No conclusions or explanations
-Include statistics

Question 6

What should the discussion of a lab report be?

Answer 6

-General discussion of results
-Explain mechanisms, key findings, gaps in knowledge, contradictory results
-Reference to the literature
-Propose future work
-Conclude

Question 7

What should the references of a lab report be?

Answer 7

-Full list of work cited throughout the report
-Must be correct, consistent, in full and using the Vancouver format

Question 8

What must figures be/have?

Answer 8

-Axes labelled
-Data points shown
-Appropriate scale
-Key(s) explained
-HAVE THE LEGEND BELOW, including figure number and concise description.

Question 9

What must tables be/have?

Answer 9

-Columns/rows labelled (with units)
-Appropriate size
-LEGEND ABOVE, including table number and concise description

Question 10

Describe how you reference lecture notes in Canvas

Answer 10

Author surname author initials. Title of lecture (Format). Module name, Institution; year month date [cited year month date]. Available from: URL