There are two elements to a lab report in this course: “what?” and “why?”:
- In the what section, you will be describing what you did during the lab. Talk through the steps you had to take, going into more detail than would be found in the assignment description. You will also want to include any challenges you face and detailed steps about how you overcame them.
- In the why section, reflect on what you learned from the activity. You will need to divide this section into treatments of “observations” and “next steps.” On the one hand, observations ask you to move from a literal description of the steps taken in a lab to the concepts that underpin the things you did in lab. On the other, “next steps” needs to open the lab exercise outward: what did you enjoy from this exercise? What would you want to know more about? What skills are you going to do more research into?
Writing Lab Reports in Markdown
Try writing your first lab report as a .md file using the template below
Lab Report Format
# Lab Report: LAB NAME
**Name**: YOUR NAME
## What
This would be the space for your process description.
### Challenges I Solved
Describe any problems you solved and how you solved them. Be specific!
### Challenges I Did Not Solve
Describe any problems you did not find a solution to and what solutions you tried. Be specific!
## Why
### Observations
Talk about what conceptual ideas were sparked by the lab exercise.
### Next Steps
Talk about things you would like to try next or skills you want to learn more about.
Not feeling up to Markdown? Click here for a .docx version of the template you can use in MS Word