Literacy Skills in Science: HOW TO WRITE A LAB REPORT

When scientists do experiments, how do they share their data with the world?

Our Auxiliar de aconversación, Laura del Pino co-taught a lesson with our Literacy Adviser, Marina Hurtado on how to write lab reports. The students were taking notes during the lesson and found out that Lab reports may have up to seven main parts:

1. Title: precise, clear, informative

2. Introduction: background, research question, hypothesis

3. Materials & Methods: what you used, what you did (step by step, past tense, passive voice: “was measured”)

4. Results: tables, graphs, objective facts (no interpretation)

5. Discussion: explain results, compare with hypothesis, sources of error, relevance

6. Conclusion: summary in 2–3 sentences

7. References (if applicable).

The students had to imagine their report as a story: What did I want to know? How did I try to find out? What did I discover? Why is it important?

Language Focus: Scientific Style

Use:

• Past tense: “The mixture was heated to 80°C.”

• Passive voice: “The leaf was observed under the microscope.”

• Formal tone: Avoid “I/we” and casual words.

YOUR TASK: You must complete the rest of your lab report (Introduction, Results, Discussion, Conclusion) using class notes/data.