Ideas for Lab Reports

 Our Co-op science classes write four formal lab reports each year.  Why four?  We are a Catholic Co-op; many of the kids subscribe to various online home study schools.  These schools require a minimum total of four, formally written, lab reports.  Here is my lab rubric.  (Our kids submit observation reports, complete lab analysis with spreadsheets, and do various calculations, too.)  There are many options for writing lab reports.  Here is How to Write a Lab Report by Sherri Seligson, an Apologia author.  

You may want to keep a lab notebook.  Getting Nerdy’s Free Lab Notes can be glued into a composition notebook.  Have you tried Storyboarding?  Here is a Mentos and Coke Storyboard, part of this lesson.  I’m thinking about doing more Modeling Chemical Reactions, beginning with Reaction in a Bag.  Another technique is to let your kids explain the lab in a video, like this one I made for Measure a Molecule.  Sometimes, my kids do calculations instead of a lab report, such as the energy calculations in Flinn’s Flame Test Lab.  Instead of a lab report for Flame Tests, you might substitute a lab quiz with  Color Flame Candles—especially if the kids do this lab first.  (Scroll down to the answers.  There are several correct answers for the colors.). I let the kids use their lab notes.  I let the lab dictate the type of report.  For example, my kids hate the Stoichiometry lab and hate writing formal, lab reports.  So, the kids write report for their least favorite labs.  Don’t worry.  Next Fall, I’ll start,posting loads of samples.