Writing a Lab Report

Title

Be descriptive!

Include your name (English + Family Name), Chemistry 10, Section X, Date

Determining the Formula of a Hydrate

Katie BoiteauChemistry 10 Section Z10 March 2009

1. Question

What is the aim or goal of this experiment? Why do you want to investigate this question?

2. Hypothesis

None for this lab.

You can give background information.

What is a hydrate? Anhydrous? % composition? What are hydrates used for? Etc.

3. Variables

None

4. Protocol

Give a summary of how you will answer the question from step 1.

What kind of method will you use?

What kind of data will you collect?

What kind of calculations will you do?

Procedure

5. Diagram (or photo!), label equipment!

6. Method: Past tense, passive voiceFind mass = mass was foundAdd water = water was addedStir = was stirred

Try not to use “I” or “we”

Past tense, Passive voice

Add 2 mL water to the test tube.Two mililiters of water was added to the test tube.

Stir the compound as you heat it.

The compound was stirred while heating.

Find the mass of the crucible on the electronic balance.

The mass of the crucible was found using the electronic balance.

Grind the CuSO4 in the mortar and pestle.

The CuSO4 was ground using the mortar and pestle.

Continue to heat, cool and mass the compound until the change in mass is less than 0.01 g.

The compound was heated, cooled and massed until the change in mass was less than 0.01 g.

7. Equipment

Do not make a list.

Just make sure you use names of equipment and their sizes (if necessary) in your procedure.

Ex: Three mL of water and 1.0 g CuSO4 were mixed in a 40 mL beaker.

8, 9, 10 Variables

None in this lab

11. Enough Data

Make sure your procedure describes WHEN and HOW you recorded data.

What data did you record?

How did you know the water was evaporated?

Ex: After heating for about 2 minutes, the mass of the crucible and the CuSO4 was found on the electronic balance and recorded.

Your assignment – Due next Weds.On a fresh, nice piece of paper (in complete sentences,

in paragraphs):

Write a title and heading

1. State aim or goal and explain

2. Write background information: what does your reader need to know to understand your lab report (optional)?

4. Summarize how you will answer your goal/question from 1.

5. Draw a diagram of your equipment set-up and label.

6. Write your method in the past tense. Include ALL the steps that YOU did!

How do you know you collected enough data? When and how did you collect data?

12. Raw DataQuantitative data should be in a table.

Tables should have titles (Not “Table”), labels, units and uncertainty.

Qualitative data in paragraphs

Do not do any calculation yet!

Item Name Mass (g, ±0.005 g)

Crucible (empty) 23.58

Crucible + copper (II) sulfate hydrate

25.63

Copper (II) sulfate hydrate

2.05

Table 1: Masses of copper (II) sulfate before, during and after evaporation

13. Processing Data

Explain how you will process your data. Give sample calculations.

Do your calculations. Show all the math.

% composition of water and CuSO4

Mass and moles of water and CuSO4

Calculate X.Calculate % error for water.

14. Graphs

None for this lab!

15. Interpret results

Make a summary of your data collection and your calculations. What did you discover?

16. Compare

How did your results compare to the given value for % composition and X? What was your % error?

17-19. Evaluation

Describe three errors and weaknesses (in a paragraph!)

How did they affect your data and % error?

How could you fix them next time (improvements)?

Your assignment – Due next Weds.12. Make a raw data table with a title.

Use labels, units and uncertainty.

• 13. Explain how you processed your data and show ALL your calculations for % composition, mass, moles, X, and % error.

• 15. Summarize what you found out in a paragraph.

• 16. Compare your % composition for water, and X to the real ones.

• 17-19. Evaluate: Describe three errors/weaknesses, how they affected your data and how to improve them.