Write a literature value for the enthalpy of neutralization.

CHE 1141 Instructions: Written Lab Report for Calorimetry
Each term students in CHE 1341 submit a written lab report for one of the experiments
performed in lab. Writing a lab report is an important skill that students need to develop, and
will become progressively more important in future classes. This term the experiment itself will
be virtual, but students will still write a report as if they had performed the experiment in
person.
A good lab report should be concise, yet contain all the information that another person needs
to reproduce the experiment. Reproducibility is an important concept in science so your written
report should walk the reader through all the steps you took to achieve your results, along with
an interpretation of the data including graphs and calculations and a discussion of the results
that leads to a calculation.
There is a long-standing convention about how written reports should be structured (see
accompanying document) with a purpose, list of materials, method, results, discussion of data,
and conclusion. Scientific documents are always written in the past tense, reports are written
in paragraph form (bulleted list won’t do) and never include personal pronouns.
Repeat the experiment using nitric acid and potassium hydroxide.
Find the literature value for the enthalpy of neutralization
Write a report that outlines the experimental details, results, worked calculations/data table,
discussion of results and conclusion.
The schedule for this term is:
Week 7 Complete online lab activity 5B calorimetry with post-lab online quiz
Week 8 Submit an initial draft of a lab report for Lab 5B Calorimetry that follows the
posted guidelines.
Week 9 Make adjustments to the report based on feedback in Blackboard gradebook,
and submit a final draft of lab report.
Guide to Writing a Formal Lab Report
Writing a formal lab report can be a big task to complete, the trick is to break it down into
manageable pieces and to start it early, giving yourself plenty of time to complete the
assignment.
Make sure to pay attention to any instructions your professor gives you about writing a lab
report for their course. Some have preferences on lay out and content that are specific to their
grading criteria.
Plagiarism is something that needs to be avoided at all costs. Your writing has to be your own
and citations are a must in a scientific paper. Make sure that all sources are cited correctly and
that paraphrasing is used for in text citations NOT quotations. Scientific writings do not use
“quotations”, paraphrasing is utilized when inserting information from outside sources.
Now that you have completed an experiment and have collected all of the necessary
information in your lab notebook and any supplementary data from analytical instruments, you
need to write up your results in a lab report. The purpose of writing a report over a procedure
or experiment you have performed is to:
1) Communicate what procedure was followed in the lab.
2) Document what was observed during the procedure.
3) Clearly discuss the results.
4) To use resources to support your experimental findings.
Formatting
12-point font
Double spaced or 1.5
Page numbers in the top right hand corner of the page. The cover page does not have a page
number
Grammar
The majority of a Lab Report is written in past tense for all verbs and avoids nouns such as me,
us, and us. If nouns are necessary, use third person pronouns. First or second person pronouns
are not used in technical writing.
I placed 10 grams of salt into a 500mL beaker. (NO)
Right way: Next 10 grams of sodium chloride (NaCl) were weighed and placed into a 500mL
beaker.
– The first time you name a chemical the written name and the chemical formula are used
then after that in your paper the chemical formula may be used.
– When scientific names of organisms are used:
o Write in italics
o Capitalize the first word of the name and lower case the second word
Example:
o Platanus occidentalis
o The first time an organism is mentioned in a lab report the full name is used,
after that if may be shortened ex: P. occidentalis
Cover page
NO page number
Title of experiment (May be from the procedure itself or the professor may ask you to think of
your own)
Title
Name
Professor’s name
Lab period/ class
Date
– All centered on first page
– If a professor has another request for an item to be on the cover page, make sure to
note it as well.
Abstract
Some professors do not require an abstract for a formal lab report, make sure you know what
their expectations are for this section.
It is also a good idea to read abstracts from other scientific papers for a better understanding of
what it is supposed to look like.
The abstract has a slightly different format to the rest of the lab report. It is typed single spaced
with justified margins. This is the only section that is formatted in this way.
The abstract is a one or two paragraph concise, yet detailed summary of the report. It should
contain these four elements:
– What the objectives of the study were (the central question)
– Brief statement of what was done (Methods)
– Brief statement of what was found (Results)
– Brief statement of what was concluded (Discussion)
Often, the abstract is the last piece of the report written and the first thing read by the reader
so make sure that it is well written yet concise.
May contain 1 citation or more depending on the length of your paper and the depth of the
experiment.
Introduction
This section tells the reader why you did the experiment. Include background information that
suggest why the topic is of interest and related findings. It should contain the following:
Descriptions of the nature of the problem and summaries of relevant research to provide
context and key terms so your reader can understand the experiment.
A statement of the purpose, scope, and general method of investigation in your study. Express
the central question you are asking.
Descriptions of your experiment, hypothesis, research questions. Explain what you are
proposing for certain observations.
– Your introduction should be rich in resources that support the reasoning behind
conducting your experiment. Look for sources that conducted experiments on a similar
question to yours.
Materials and Methods
This section should describe all experimental procedures in enough detail so that someone else
could repeat the experiment. Some guidelines to follow:
This section needs to be in paragraph form. NOT a list and NOT numbered steps.
Explain the general type of scientific procedure you used to study the problem.
Describe what materials, subjects, and equipment you used (Materials).
Explain the steps you took in your experiment and how did you proceed (Methods).
Make sure that quantities and time are also referenced in this section. Remember it is written
in a way that someone else could repeat the procedure you did, they need to know how much
and how long as well.
Mathematical equations and statistical tests should be briefly described, you will go into more
detail in the results and discussion about these.
– Make sure to cite the lab manual that the experimental procedure was retrieved from in
this section
– Make sure to cite the software used, if any, that generated your graph or statistics. ( we
use LoggerPro for this)
Results
The results section should present data that you collected from your experiment and
summarize the data with text, tables, and/or figures.
Effective results sections include:
All results should be presented, including those that do not support the hypothesis.
Statements made in the text must be supported by the results contained in figures and tables.
This section is relatively short but should contain all of the graphs and tables generated from
your procedure.
An effective graph or table has 3 main parts
1) Title
2) Properly labeled graph or table with all of the sections or axis clearly labeled with units
3) A 1 to 2 sentence description at the bottom of the graph or table that gives the reader a
brief overview of what the graph or table is depicting and why it is important to your
experiment, even if the data is skewed or there is a problem, those things need to be
discussed as well.
Pictures taken during the conduction of the experiment may also be included in the results
section of your lab report. Their formatting follows a similar one to a graph or chart:
1) Title labeling the image
2) The image itself with any notations required on the image
a. Use textboxes and different colored fonts to achieve this
3) A 1 to 2 sentence description at the bottom of the picture of image describing to the
reader what they are looking at and why it is relevant.
If your experimental procedure included conducting statistical analysis, it is discussed in the
results section at length and briefly mentioned in the discussion. Make sure to talk about what
tests were conducted and why you chose them. If for some reason the statistical analysis you
chose to do was not as beneficial as it could have been due to sample size or another reason,
mention it.
Discussion
The discussion section should explain to the reader the significance of the results and give a
detailed account of what happened in the experiment. Evaluate what happened, based on the
hypothesis and purpose of the experiment. If the results contained errors, analyze the reasons
for the errors. The discussion should contain:
Summarize the important findings of your observations.
For each result, describe the patterns, principles, relationships your results show. Explain how
your results relate to expectations and to references cited. Explain any agreements,
contradictions, or exceptions. Describe what additional research might resolve contradictions
or explain exceptions.
Suggest the theoretical implications of your results. Extend your findings to other situations or
other species. Give the big picture: do your findings help us understand a broader topic?
The Discussion is the meat of your lab report and should be rich in resources that support
your experiment and procedure. Think of this section as the “Why is this important” part of
the report.
Statistical analysis and values may also be mentioned in the discussion of your lab report, make
sure to note significance as well as if another analysis would have been more beneficial.
Mentioning sample size and other factors that could potentially alter your data set can also be
done here.
The discussion is a good place to propose future research that can be extended from your
procedure or experiment as well as any changes that could be made to the procedure.
Conclusion
A brief summary of what was done, how, the results and your conclusions of the experiment.
It is similar to the Abstract but should not be the exact same words that were used in the
abstract. This section is usually 1 to 2 paragraphs and usually contains at least 1 reference
citation.
References
A listing of published works you cited in the text of your paper listed by author in alphabetical
order
APA formatting:
Hanging first line indentions
Typically in alphabetical order
Make sure to reference any software like LoggerPro
Make sure to reference any lab manuals used for the procedure
References must be from reputable sources and are usually peer reviewed papers from
scientific journals. Searching for these sources can take time, if there is any doubt concerning
whether a paper is suitable for a lab report, just ask the professor. Print out the article for the
professor to review so they can help with this process if needed.
Chemistry 1 Lab Reports contain 4 to 5 resources/citations:
1) Lab Manual
2) LoggerPro Software
3) Peer-reviewed article
4) Peer-reviewed article
Good sites for finding reputable resources:
– Concordia’s library website with access to databases
– JSTOR and EBSCO databases
– Google scholar: proceed with caution and make sure to read all of the credentials of
these papers carefully before deciding to use as a resource.
Ask for help if you are struggling of have questions concerning any of the aspects of writing a
lab report, The Writing Center and the tutors are good resources for help as well, they know
what the requirements are for lab reports.
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After you complete your lab report have it edited by a tutor, the writing center, or an
upperclassman. Having a second person read your document helps with catching mistakes in
formatting, grammar and content.
For Chemistry 1 and Healthcare Chemistry Lab Students
You will be asked to complete a rough draft of your lab report
This is worth half of your total grade for the lab report
It is required to have this rough draft reviewed by either a peer tutor, in the writing center, or
via tutor.com. If there are other options for having your rough draft reviewed they will be
announced in class.