12 Lab Reports

A typical college-level lab report structure includes an abstract, introduction, procedure, analysis, results, discussion, and conclusion. Some high school students may have experience with lab reports, but college-level writing is often more complex.

Dr. Trevor Johnson-Steigelman (Associate Professor, Finger Lakes Community College) suggests an activity you can introduce early in the semester by providing your students with a model lab report (this example can also be used to demonstrate your expectations and serve as a guide for your students).

Students can use generative AI to write abstracts or conclusions for lab reports by inputting their lab report’s main body into the generator. As we mentioned earlier, it can be a helpful activity for students to compare their own abstracts or conclusions to what the AI produces.  AI can summarize key findings and AI-generated results may offer valuable insights by helping students see what they may have missed.

As with many of the assignments and activities suggested here, it is important to encourage your students to continue to think for themselves instead of copying results into a final report: to focus on the process of evaluation and quality of sources, rather than the outcome alone.