Lab Report 2000

Zoo 1121 Lab Report
Note: This is a guideline of suggestions to make an ‘A’ paper. This handout is not all-inclusive of everything that needs to be in the paper. Other factors will be considered – like prose, word-choice, paper flow, good understanding of material, and so on. This guideline was abstracted from Sean Menke's work.

I.   General Rules
1. All sections Double Spaced. Write in complete sentences. This is NOT a rough draft!
2. You need to know by heart both Appendixes C & D for this paper. (I.e., the appendix on statistics and on writing a
        scientific paper.)
3. Before each section of the paper, there should be a heading label for each section (e.g., Abstract, Introduction, etc)
4. Remember that this lab report is about the flatworm choosing which colored background (black or white) it would
    choose after 30 minutes (the one I used statistical chi-square on.)
5. You need 3 sources listed in your paper’s Literature Cited
            1. Lab Manual
            2. Campbell's Biology
            3. Scientific Paper from a reputable Journal (see me or a librarian if you need
                help – but a hint is that it will follow the same format that you will use in
                your paper wirh Abstract, Introduction, etc, Headings. Lack of this
                scientific journal article results in 5 point deduction from the total 75
                points). Try using FIRSTSEARCH, with a librarian’s help if need be.
                Include a copy of the article when you turn in the paper.
6. Have it proofread by someone other than yourself for errors!!
7. Reports are to be computer typed and turned in at the beginning of class. All others will have 5 points per day deducted
        after the first 10 minutes of class – NO EXCUSUSES.
8. Save your work often so you don’t loose information. These papers need to be printed off at the Library, Dorms, or
        Physical Science Computer Centers only so that a person will be there to make sure it actually prints out. That is, no
        one will have any printing errors like running out of ink, jammed paper, etc.
9. Go to the Writing Center and have them read your work. It’s a free service your student fees pay for, so why not use it.
10. For those in Friday Classes, due to OU Texas Holiday, your papers must be placed in a box outside of RH 419 by
        1:40 PM October 6th, 2000. After 1:40 PM, there will be a late day assignment of 5 points per day. (Hence, Monday
         you will already be 15 points behind)

II. Sections
1. Heading
Put your name, date, and section number at the top right-hand side.

2. Title
Make sure you have a title that states explicitly and clearly the intent of the paper. It doesn’t need to be its own page, just at the beginning.

3. Abstract Section
This section you do lastly. It should have 1 –3 sentences that sums up each section of the paper (e.g., the Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, and so on) Have the Null hypothesis (NH) and whether you reject/retain NH. No need to include citations in this section.

4. Introduction Section
Start with the purpose of the experiment that follows from an observation. Then have relevant background information. At least -
        1. Information on P. Platyhelminthes, flatworms
        2. Information on sensory organs with examples of three receptors types.
        3. Information on receptor-mediated behavior
        4. Information on the specific experiment that your table did - A quick synopsis of what you did and what were the
                results of your experiment, NH, what did you expect to happen and what did you observe, why was there a
                difference (or no difference) in what you expected and observed, etc. No need for any statistics for this part.
        5. Other Information that you think will make this paper better.
        6. At the end of this section, you will need to list out your NH, for the main experiment we did.

5. Materials & Methods Section
Mention the materials used and write out a systematic experimental procedure. The procedure should be written in such a way that any scientist could read your paper, perform the experiment you wrote about, and get the same exact results. This should not be done like a cookbook recipie. This should include amounts of whatever you used. Moreover, remember to mention what statistical procedure you used and why. One last point- you did not devise the procedure, so give credit where credit is due. The last paragraph should contain all the variables and treatments. Use complete sentences.

6. Results Section
This section has two parts – written section and a graphical section. Written – these are sentences explaining what was the outcome of your procedure and not why you think the outcome like this occurred. Figures – These are tables. Tables of the data we obtained. Tables of chi-square. Any other figures or tables you can think of. In addition, these tables and figures need to be computer generated – i.e., no handwritten ones – and include labels for them. See “The Writing Center” in Physical Sciences Building for help.

7. Discussion Section
This is the “WHY” section of the paper. You will need to interpret your results section. One way to start this section in a scientific paper is to begin by stating what you expected to get (not your null hypothesis, but what you really think should happen – your educated guess or just your hypothesis). Then try to explain why your observed data came out this way. What can you say about your treatments or results? Next, you need to reject or retain your NH. Explain what was the justification for either rejecting or retaining? Hint: we did a statistical test to show the reasoning. Next, probably the hardest part of this paper is stating any problems with your experiment. What things need to be improved if you could re-design this experiment. State a trend in the results. What can you extract from these results and be applied to how or where the organism lives. State the significance of your study. Here you can compare your research to that done by others (e.g., the scientific journal article you got may be useful here) Lastly, think of further areas to take this research. Make up possible questions, based on your findings, where other scientists may take up in research.

8. Literature Cited Section
This is a separate sheet of paper at the end. Use correct citations, found in appendix D of lab manual. Anything that did not come to your brain must be cited or its plagiarism. Also, take note that other graduate TA’s may or may not read your paper so duplicate papers are quickly discovered – this happens every semester.