The Art of The Lab Report

Good morning, you lovely CHEMMAT-aspiring first-years! We’ve only got 2 weeks to go this sem. I don’t remember when you guys are able to choose your options, but when that comes out I hope I’ve convinced you to put CHEMMAT somewhere on that list.

As of writing this sentence, it’s Thursday morning. I’m sitting in the Leech, as I always do, this time listening to music (there were some perfectly good earphones lying around in my house somewhere)!

Today I’d like to talk about one of the most fundamental parts of CHEMMAT life; a type of assignment only done by us CHEMMATers, and Biomed students. So if you’re considering Biomed (in which case, go check out Iz’s blogs), listen up too! Yes, I’m talking about the fabled Lab Report. We usually do lab reports after, well, labs…obviously…and after the lab there are usually questions which we’d answer in a certain section of our report. The rest, though, is a layout of background, theory, methods, etc etc. Honestly, it makes me feel quite fancy and posh when I write one.

So sit back and relax as we dive into the world of Lab Reports. But first, our time-honoured bad joke. This one comes straight from Thomas Loho himself, as us 2nd years actually have him for one of our courses.

What do you call an illegally parked frog?
TOAD!

Wow this one was actually crap…

Okay, duh, you’ll actually have to do the lab first. It comes as no surprise that CHEMMAT involves labs. We’d usually get like 3 or 4 per semester. This semester was quite lax, but last sem was laboratory hell!

Depending on when you have the labs, you’ll either have them before or after you’ve covered the content in relevant lectures. That’s okay, because this can be accounted for by doing one thing: READING THE LAB MANUAL BEFOREHAND. I speak from experience when I say that doing this will save you a lot of trouble, because while the content may be covered in lectures, the lab equipment definitely isn’t. I’ve seen some pretty fancy stuff throughout my labs this year which I don’t think any of us would like to break…unless you happen to have millions of dollars to spare.

Oh, and take pictures! Not only it’ll help you with your lab report, it’ll help you know what to do if you see the equipment again. Remember, this isn’t high school and the “hOw iS tHiS gOnNa HeLp Me iN My JoB?!?” excuse isn’t really gonna work anymore. Especially if you’re gonna go into Research and Development as a career. I’ve kinda been slacking off on this and copy-pasting images from the manual onto the report. I do however have a picture from a CHEMMAT 204 lab from last semester which I’ll put here. You might recognise this machine that my friend is using. Relationships may be temporary, but Rockwell Hardness Tests are forever.

(If you don’t know what CHEMMAT 204 is, then read my first blog!)

This bit isn’t actually there for all the labs, but I’ve seen this part for one course this semester. It’s likely that we’d have to do them in 3rd and 4th year too.

After some of the labs, they’ll get you to format all your calculations and send them over to them. This actually isn’t part of the final grade but is more there for feedback. Now, while you COULD spend hours and hours toiling away at doing them by hand (please don’t do that), let me introduce you to one of your best friends from now on: Microsoft Excel.

Okay, I know Microsoft software is kinda buggy and stupid, but working on a spreadsheet with your lab partners will be MUCH easier than doing everything by hand. Also, since Microsoft stuff is always used in industry, it’ll be a great way to learn how to use them in chemical engineering contexts. Maybe you can finally add it as a skill on your CV…to look for…int*rnships…ugh.

Okay, now onto the final part: the lab report itself. Every lab report has the following parts:

  • Abstract – A one-paragraph summary of the report and its findings
  • Background – What the lab report is about and why we’re doing it
  • Theory – A list of the theory and equations relevant to the lab report
  • Methods – Your procedure, as well as a diagram of the setup (this is why you take photos!)
  • Results – Tables and graphs. Again, Excel is your best friend.
  • Discussion – What do the results mean? How could we make the experiment better?
  • Conclusion – Summarise the findings of the report in bullet points

I recommend that straight after the lab, you write down the methods and maybe the results section, because it’s still quite fresh in your mind. Don’t do what I did in my first lab and write the methods a few weeks after, desperately trying to remember which of the many buttons I pushed on the fancy equipment.

Then, do the discussion section. Usually, the lab manual comes with a guide to the discussion. Answer all the questions they ask you, and you’re all set for that section! To be even fancier, you can reference what other articles say about their results. Gets you familiar with citing sources too, which I imagine we’ll be doing a LOT of in our final year. Do the conclusion next, just to get it out of the way.

Finally, do the rest of the report. All the equations needed for theory are sometimes included in the lab report, too, but other times you’ll need to think a bit harder for what you’re gonna put in that section. Do your abstract LAST, because its a summary of the whole report.

Fun fact about that side photo btw, that’s the profile picture of our Part II Bloggers chat. Cheers Arren!

Hopefully, after spending some time polishing your report, you should get a very, very good paper! This is the part when you start feeling posh and fancy like I mentioned earlier. Especially if you’re the kind of person that likes using fancy essay language. But if (or when) in the future you find yourself struggling hard with your reports, don’t worry; that’s quite common. I was SO BAD at my first few reports it genuinely bought my grade down a few ranks.

But remember this: there’d be like 40 other students struggling at the same thing. Feel free to collab and help each other out.

WITHOUT VIOLATING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, as I’m writing this sentence, it’s a Friday afternoon. I’m in the Leech as always and we have a test tonight! I also have lab calculations due this Sunday, come to think of it. Calculations that I really need to finish…The last few weeks of uni are always hell.

Well, I’ll see you in the next and final blog!

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