how to write a conclusion to an experiment

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How to Write up a Science Experiment

Last Updated: January 24, 2023

This article was co-authored by Michael Simpson, PhD . Dr. Michael Simpson (Mike) is a Registered Professional Biologist in British Columbia, Canada. He has over 20 years of experience in ecology research and professional practice in Britain and North America, with an emphasis on plants and biological diversity. Mike also specializes in science communication and providing education and technical support for ecology projects. Mike received a BSc with honors in Ecology and an MA in Society, Science, and Nature from The University of Lancaster in England as well as a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta. He has worked in British, North American, and South American ecosystems, and with First Nations communities, non-profits, government, academia, and industry. This article has been viewed 221,203 times.

Any time you have conducted a science experiment, you should write a lab report detailing why the experiment was performed, the results you expected, the process you used, the actual results, and a discussion of what the results mean. Lab reports often follow a very standard format starting with an abstract and introduction, followed by a materials and methods section, the results and discussion, and finally a conclusion. This format will allow the reader to find answers to common questions that are often asked: Why was the experiment performed? What were the expected results? How was the experiment conducted? What happened in the experiment? What do the results mean?. This article explains the basic format of a lab report.

Writing an Abstract and Introduction

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The introduction will outline what the experiment is, why it was done, and why it is important. It must provide the reader with two key pieces of information: what is the question the experiment is supposed to answer and why is answering this question important.

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For example, you might start with "Fertilizer affects how tall a plant will grow". You could expand this idea to a clear hypothesis: "Plants grow faster and taller when they are given fertilizer". To make it a testable hypothesis, you could add experimental details: "Plants which are given a solution with 1ml of fertilizer grow faster than plants without fertilizer because they are given more nutrients."

Explaining Your Research Procedure

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This section is extremely crucial documentation of your methods of analysis.

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Reporting Results

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Be sure to link back to the introduction and whether or not the experiment addressed the goals of your analysis.

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You can use software such as EndNote to help you cite and build a properly referenced bibliography.

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About This Article

When you’re writing up a science experiment for a class, break it into sections for your introduction, procedure, findings, and conclusion. In the intro, explain the purpose of your experiment and what you predicted would happen, then give a brief overview of what you did. In the procedure section, describe all of the materials you used and give a step-by-step account of your method. In the findings section, give the results from your experiment, including any graphs or diagrams you made. Then, explain if your expectations were met and what further research you can do. Finish with a brief conclusion that summarizes your experiment and its results. For more tips from our Science co-author, including how to write an abstract for your science paper, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to write a lab report conclusion.

Like other reports, without a conclusion, a lab report is incomplete. Conclusions are an integral part of lab reports and are fundamental to the demonstration of report objectives and reiteration of findings.

Although conclusions are often short, confined to a paragraph, they are nonetheless some of the most difficult aspects of a lab report.

This article will, therefore, explain how to write a good conclusion for a lab report. But before that, it will remind you of the basics and format of lab reports for a comprehensive exposition.

Basic Lab Report

All reports describe the process of an experiment or a study from the beginning to the end. There are several categories of reports and a lab report is one of them.

A lab report follows the same routine as a typical report. Except that in a lab report, you are mostly dealing with scientific and laboratory experiments. In other words, a lab report describes the process of a scientific and laboratory experiment from the beginning to the end.

A lab report is required to test what students — whether chemistry students or biology students — had learned in the course of an experiment.

Ideally, a lab report begins with an introduction and ends with a conclusion. Conclusion is often the part where the results of experiments are reiterated and readers are provided with a short but general overview of the whole process.

Science Lab Report Format

Unlike other reports, a lab report is fundamentally a science experiment report. A scientific report documents the process, procedures, and findings of scientific research.

An example of a scientific report is an academic essay a teacher asked you to submit about technology or the one you wrote about cancer.

Whether your lab report is biological or chemical, there is a format to all scientific reports. A typical scientific laboratory report will contain:

Lab Report Conclusion

As a university or college science student, writing a lab report might not be new to you but it is a challenging process. This is because the whole lab report structure consumes. From the objective of the experiment to lab report conclusions, each structure wrestles for time.

Learning how to write a discussion and conclusion for a lab report is not the same as learning how to write a lab report itself. While it could be said that knowing the latter should help with the former, it is not always so. There are several examples of great lab reports with shabby conclusions.

Conclusions can prove tricky and this is the reason why you need to learn how to write them. To conclude lab reports, you would need to be familiar with the lab report conclusion outline (also called the lab report conclusion template). You can consider the following 5 outlines:

The first step to take before you conclude your reports is to assess the whole report from the beginning to where it stopped. This means you would need to visit and revisit the whole experiment to be sure that no structure of your report is left out.

The purpose of this is for you to go through the process of the report again. Experiments are usually consuming and at some points, you might get lost or stuck in a part and thereby lose that sense of touch with other parts. But if you can assess the whole experiment again, it would be easy to jot down the process in the report for a succinct conclusion.

After you might have assessed the whole report, you would need to pay more attention to the introduction of your report under this step. You should be looking at the proposed purpose of your report here and see if it tallies with what you intend to conclude with.

The introductory part of your report must align with the conclusive part. The introduction part should not be saying something different from the conclusion unless your report risks a crime of inconsistency. Consistency is essential to every great scientific and laboratory report.

Now that you have assessed the general report and the introductory, the next stage is to apply the RERUN Method to conclude your report. The RERUN is a useful acronym for integrating the essential parts of your experiment in your conclusion. Just as the rest of the report, conclusions also contain key ingredients.

RERUN stands for Restate, Explain, Results, Uncertainties , and New . To brilliantly conclude your report, you would need to follow the acronym and apply what each letter stands for.

When you want to conclude, you should Restate the lab experiment and Explain what the whole project is set out to achieve. Then proceed to explain the Results through the generated data and confirmation of the hypothesis. After that, make provisions for the Uncertainty and discuss New matters or solutions arising from the experiment.

Examples of Lab Report Conclusion

Provided are examples of a good scientific report conclusion and a bad one. The good one follows the outlines of concluding a report while the bad one negates the outlines. Through the examples, you can glean how best to conclude your report.

Good Example

A good report conclusion will contain all 5 outlines (mentioned above) that can be deployed for summing up your reports. Here is an example:

“In conclusion, team management is a process and only indicates the many strategies that go into it, helped by effective decision-making sequential and procedural. Since most decisions begin from problems, it is pertinent that the processes of decision-making reflect the identification of problems, definition of them, decision, action, and feedback. Through the sequences, it would be noted that decision-making can be programmed or non-programmed, depending on the flexibility and occurrence; and can be operational, tactical, or strategic, depending on the duration of the problem needed to be solved. Besides, there are styles of decision-making, informed by actions. These actions, however, should always be checked and balanced through effective feedback.”

Before the report conclusion was written, a general assessment of the whole report was made to jot down the process and relearned the experience. The first report hinges on team management and decision-making, both themes were justified.

Also, through an introductory assessment, the topic sentence and purpose of the report were clear. The conclusion was well-organized and the report was not bereft of the conclusion outlines not excluding the RERUN Method.

Bad Example

This is one of the examples of a bad report conclusion.

“The infant stage is considered fundamental. It is the stage where all other stages are premised. It is thus plausible that development theories be looked at from this stage. The stage shows how Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories work, which in turn provide perspectives to understanding breastfeeding and mental health in infants.”

From the conclusion, it can be gleaned that the report does not follow the outlines as well as the RERUN Method. The thesis statement was unclear and the conclusion itself seems hurriedly done.

Need Help With Writing a Lab Report Conclusion?

Learning how to write a conclusion for a biology lab report or a chemistry lab report or just any other lab report can be challenging. You could bypass the challenges, anyway, by hiring cheap and trusted homework help or an expert. You would need to be certain they could be trusted with your deadline and are quality enough to earn you top grades in class. Otherwise, you should learn the nitty-gritty of lab reports yourself.

It shouldn’t be difficult to learn how to end a conclusion in a lab report, considering that this article has taken you through the process of lab report itself and then the outlines of lab report conclusions. Also provided are lab report conclusion examples — both good and bad — that you can model yours after.

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How to Write the Perfect Chemistry Lab Report: A Definitive Guide

February 11, 2020 By Guest Posts Leave a Comment

Students have to deal with multiple academic tasks, and writing lab reports (lots of them!) is one of them. Its main purpose is to explain what you did in your experiment, what you learned and what the results meant.

Performing experiments and reporting them properly is a cornerstone of on your way into learning chemistry .

But how do you write a chemistry lab report properly?

It’s now time to find out!

writing a chemistry lab report for an experiment

Our ultimate guide sheds light on the main parts of lab report writing. You ought to be aware of every section and understand how to complete them properly. Therefore, we have divided our guide into three major sections that are:

General Information

It’s necessary to begin with an overview of the main sections that should be present on a laboratory report for chemistry.

Mind that sometimes these sections are called differently but have the same purpose. Some of the sections may be missing, but the general structure should be close to this. Everything depends on the educational institution.

It is important to know that usually lab reports are written after the lab session is finished . This means that you need to have everything previously recorded in your lab notebook . You are supposed to keep track of everything you do in the lab in your laboratory notebook, and then using that notebook to write down your lab report, not the other way around.

Reviewing Every Step

Now, we’d like to go through the main stages of a chemistry lab report. It’s necessary to add brief comments concerning each of them. Your laboratory report begins with a title page. You already know what it consists of. Let’s check how to compose it correctly. The information must be presented on the upper right-hand side of the page. All the points (the title, your name, collaborators, etc.) should be mentioned on the separate line.

Afterward comes the second part, which includes:

This data appears in the middle of the title page.

The next section is the Introduction and it begins with this word in the left upper corner of your report. It should consist of no more than a couple of paragraphs and end with at least one hypothesis.

The body of your project consists of the procedure, materials and methods employed; data; results and observations. The section Procedure commonly consists of several steps that were followed for the proper conduction of the experiment(s). They could be divided in different parts, and those would describe your actions.

The section Data contains the numerical facts and Observations that provide the changes that took place. Afterwards, you move to the Discussions, in which you ought to plainly explain all the numbers, observations and collected data. Your conclusions provide an overall summary of the entire lab report, and the whole experimental session itself.

Writing a Chemistry Lab Report

The last lap in our “race” is to write a laboratory report . We have already mentioned the main constituents of the title page. Therefore, we can hit the text of your project. Your abstract appears soon after the title page. An abstract is a quick summary that sums up the whole thing (hypothesis to be proven, and conclusions that are reached). Nonetheless, you should leave some space and skip it until the entire project is finished. It is recommended to write the abstract last. The main point is that this section provides a brief review of what your lab report is about and what you’ve managed to achieve.

Main Sections

The introductory part tells your readers what to expect from the project. Write a couple o paragraphs and explain the purpose of your experiment. Including references here is also highly encouraged. The last sentence of your introduction is called a hypothesis or a thesis statement. It shows what you hope to achieve at the end of your research.

The main body consists of several parts and of course, each has its purpose. You should introduce the materials and methods you need to conduct the research. Explain your choice and how your choice helps to conduct a safe and accurate study.

Take instant records of everything that happens during the experiment in your lab notebook . Never rely on your memory!

Afterwards, you’ll interpret the data and explain it using plain words. Don’t draw any conclusions when you record data and don’t explain it in the section called Results. This function should be fulfilled in the sections Discussions or Analysis sections, which should come right afterwards.

Your conclusion makes a brief summary. It should consist of 3-4 sentences, not many more. Restate your hypothesis in other words. Mention whether you’ve achieved your initial goal and explain its value.

Importantly, do realize that if a hypothesis cannot be proven, or an experiment doesn’t give you the results you expected, it doesn’t mean that your experiment and lab session was a failure. It is extremely common in chemistry to find yourself on this kind of situations! You only need to be able to explain why you got the results that you got, and how would you go around to fix them!

Further Sections on Your Report

Don’t forget about the contributors (labmates, supervisiors…) to your research.

You should also obligatorily use some secondary sources to support your theory. Therefore, you have to cite and make references according to the assigned writing format. You can reference other articles all over your manuscript (especially in the introduction and discussion sections), but don’t forget to put them together (or at the bottom of each page), and cite them properly.

The final step is to proofread your lab report. You’re free to use reading aloud and in your head, reading everything again, and using special grammar and spelling checking applications.

To sum up, keep in mind all these guidelines when you’re assigned to write a lab report. Thus, you’ll never miss something important, which can cost you essential grades. Write each section properly to receive the highest grades for your experiment. Always be clear, cite the appropriate references, and be objective with your analysis and conclusions!

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Sample Conclusions

According to my experiments, the Energizer maintained its voltage (dependent variable) for approximately a 3% longer period of time (independent variable) than Duracell in a low current drain device. For a medium drain device, the Energizer maintained its voltage for approximately 10% longer than Duracell. For a high drain device, the Energizer maintained its voltage for approximately 29% longer than Duracell. Basically, the Energizer performs with increasing superiority, the higher the current drain of the device.

The heavy-duty non-alkaline batteries do not maintain their voltage as long as either alkaline battery at any level of current drain.

Conclusions

My hypothesis was that Energizer would last the longest in all of the devices tested. My results do support my hypothesis.

I think the tests I did went smoothly and I had no problems, except for the fact that the batteries recover some of their voltage if they are not running in something. Therefore, I had to take the measurements quickly.

An interesting future study might involve testing the batteries at different temperatures to simulate actual usage in very cold or very hot conditions.

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5 Ways to Write a Good Lab Conclusion in Science - wikiHow
Wrapping Up Your Conclusion 1. Describe possible errors that may have occurred. To provide an accurate depiction of the lab experiment, describe... 2. Talk about uncertainties. There may be uncontrollable circumstances that impact your experiment, such as weather... 3. Propose future experiments. In ...
How to write a conclusion for a lab report + examples
How to Write a Conclusion for a Lab Report 1. Restate the Experiment’s Goals.. At the beginning of your lab report, you should state the goals of your experiment. 2. Discuss the methods used.. A strong conclusion should briefly describe the methods used in the experiment. This will... 3. Include and ...
Preparing Conclusions for Your Science Fair Project
Your conclusions summarize how your results support or contradict your original hypothesis: Summarize your science fair project results in a few sentences and use this summary to support your conclusion. Include key facts from your background research to help explain your results as needed.
How To Write A Lab Report | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples
One way to write your introduction is with a funnel (an inverted triangle) structure: Start with the broad, general research topic. Narrow your topic down your specific study focus. End with a clear research question.
Guide to Experimental Design | Overview, Steps, & Examples
There are five key steps in designing an experiment: Consider your variables and how they are related; Write a specific, testable hypothesis; Design experimental treatments to manipulate your independent variable; Assign subjects to groups, either between-subjects or within-subjects; Plan how you will measure your dependent variable
How to Write up a Science Experiment - wikiHow
Write a conclusion. [11] This summarizes the experiment and what your results told you about the problem the experiment addressed. Summarize the problem the experiment addressed and the researched questions which framed the analysis. Next, explain what the experiment shows your problem.
How to Write Conclusion for a Lab Report: Useful Tips
When you want to conclude, you should Restate the lab experiment and Explain what the whole project is set out to achieve. Then proceed to explain the Results through the generated data and confirmation of the hypothesis. After that, make provisions for the Uncertainty and discuss New matters or solutions arising from the experiment.
How to Write the Perfect Chemistry Lab Report: A Definitive Guide
Let’s check how to compose it correctly. The information must be presented on the upper right-hand side of the page. All the points (the title, your name, collaborators, etc.) should be mentioned on the separate line. Afterward comes the second part, which includes: The course title. Title of the experiment.
Sample Conclusions - Science Buddies
Sample Conclusions Made possible with support from: Results According to my experiments, the Energizer maintained its voltage (dependent variable) for approximately a 3% longer period of time (independent variable) than Duracell in a low current drain device.