Lab Write-Up Requirements

As a high school student, especially an AP student, you should be fairly familiar with the concept of writing. In the very near future, in work or college, you will be expected to put together a coherent thought on a regular basis. This is your chance in my class to do some intelligent writing. What does that mean? Frankly, I want to know why you did the lab, how you did the lab, what you found, and what that means.

I am not concerned with your spelling (unless it is a vocabulary word from this class) or your grammar (but at least try!).

I cannot emphasis enough that I do not want to read about "human error". This has become a catch-all phrase as some random source of all humanity's problems. If you know of an error in the lab, please be specific about what it is and what data it affected. Draw some conclusions from this specific erroneous situation.

The most crucial part of this whole thing is the conclusion. This is where I can tell if the lab helped you learn. You're going to discuss your most important pieces of data and what that data means (including the data numbers), and if anything went wrong, how you know it is wrong (scientifically/factually, not just 'because').

I always use the following rubric to grade your labs and make grading as objective as possible:

You will write your labs in the notebook you purchased at the beginning of the year. Please write only on the front of the page and tear out/staple the copy pages and give them to me.