At a glance
Seven write-ups, spread from September to January · each written in class, in the period set aside for it · individually, from data your group collected · Format: the six sections on Writing a Lab Report
Seven of this course’s investigations get written up properly, and those seven write-ups are marked. They are the part of your mark that arrives steadily instead of in four large pieces — which is what lets a report card say something about your most recent and most consistent work rather than about four busy weeks.
The seven, and when they are written
| Write-up | Investigation | Written in class on |
|---|---|---|
| One | Measuring Abiotic Factors | Unit 2, Day 3 |
| Two | Investigating Photosynthesis | Unit 2, Day 7 |
| Three | Physical and Chemical Change Stations | Unit 3, Day 3 |
| Four | Testing Conductivity | Unit 3, Day 11 |
| Five | Ohm’s Law Investigation | Unit 4, Day 5 |
| Six | Efficiency of a Light Bulb | Unit 4, Day 11 |
| Seven | Sun Angle and Surface Temperature | Unit 5, Day 5 |
Every investigation page carries its own purpose, safety notes, procedure and analysis questions. The shape of the report is on Writing a Lab Report; the graphs are built with Making Graphs in a Spreadsheet.
Six of the seven are written in the period straight after the bench work. Testing Conductivity is the exception — it is quick enough to run and write in one period, which makes it the shortest report of the seven.
Written in class, and why
Each of these is written here, with your data in front of you and me in the room. That is deliberate, twice over.
A report written at home three days later is a report about what you can remember, and the thing actually worth marking — what you made of the numbers while they were still strange — has gone by then. And writing it here means the help arrives at the moment you need it, which is never the moment you are stuck at a kitchen table. Ask.
Individually, from data you shared
The bench work is done in pairs or threes, and the raw data belongs to the group. From the analysis onward the report is yours alone. Two people may hand in the same table of readings; two people handing in the same analysis have handed in one piece of work between them.
Success criteria
Seven rows, the same seven every time, so that by January you can run them from memory. Use them with Judging Your Own Work before you hand a report in. Two of the rows bend to the investigation — you cannot plot a graph of six stations, and nobody should pretend otherwise — but the list itself never changes, which is what makes improvement across seven reports visible.
| Quality | What it looks like in your work |
|---|---|
| A purpose and a prediction | The question in one sentence, and a prediction with a because in it — the reason, not the guess |
| Observations kept clean | Units on every column, the odd result written down rather than quietly dropped, and no interpretation in this section |
| A graph that carries the argument, where there is one to draw | Axes labelled and scaled, data plotted rather than joined dot to dot, and a line of best fit where the data supports one. Three of the seven end in a table rather than a graph — the stations, conductivity, and the bulb — and this row does not count against them |
| Analysis that reads what you collected | Where you have numbers: the calculation shown once in full, and the trend read off your graph. Where you have observations: the pattern across your rows named, and the row that would not fit it. Either way, the result set beside what the science predicted |
| Limits named honestly | The step that could have misled you, roughly how much it could have moved the result, and one change that would actually reduce it |
| A conclusion the data allows | One paragraph answering the purpose, with the uncertainty left in — including “nothing I can claim from this” where that is the truth |
| Safe practice, planned and then done | The only row that is not in the report. The hazard note you wrote before you started, the pictograms read off the container rather than guessed, and the disposal step done the way the investigation page writes it |
The fifth row is the one that separates a report from a recipe. “There may have been experimental error” is a sentence, not a finding; naming the step that could have gone wrong, and saying how far it could have moved your result, is a finding.
The seventh row, and why it is marked at all
Working safely is not a favour you do me, and it is not the same thing as behaving well. It is an expectation of this course — the curriculum asks you to apply what you know about safe practice while planning and while carrying out an investigation — so it is marked like anything else in the curriculum.
That wording is the whole of the boundary, and it is worth being exact about which side of it you are on:
- Marked, because it is knowledge applied: the hazard note in the safety section of Your Lab Notebook, written before you touch anything; the WHMIS and Lab Safety pictograms read off the container you are about to open; the disposal and handling steps carried out as written.
- Not marked, because it is conduct rather than knowledge: everything else in the Safety Contract — tidying your station, leaving equipment in the room, following instructions in general. Those matter, and they are reported with your learning skills.
The test is simple. If getting it wrong would show that you did not know a hazard, it is in this row. If it would show that you did not feel like it, it is a learning skill.
Curriculum connection
A1.2
apply a scientific experimentation process and associated skills to conduct investigations, making connections between their observations and findings and the scientific concepts they are learning
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A1.5
apply their knowledge and understanding of safe practices and procedures, including the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), while planning and carrying out hands-on investigations
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B2.3
compare and contrast the processes of cellular respiration and photosynthesis, and explain how their complementary relationship contributes to the dynamic equilibrium of ecosystems
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B2.4
investigate factors and processes, including biodiversity, air and water quality, soil health, and succession, and explain how they contribute to ecosystem sustainability
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D2.2
determine the conductivity of various materials by investigating their ability to hold or transfer electric charges
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D2.4
investigate the relationships between electric current, potential difference, and resistance in electrical circuits, and develop a mathematical model to represent the relationships
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D2.8
determine the efficiency of various electrical devices that consume or produce electrical energy, and identify the energy transformations in each device
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E2.6
conduct investigations to explain the causes of various astronomical phenomena that can be observed from Earth
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