Elements of an Astronomy Lab Report

Writing a laboratory report is an exercise that enables the practitioner to convey the experience, the outcomes and the learning that took place during the exercise. Additionally, it provides a means of practicing style and construct needed in scientific writing.

All reports begin with a guide, usually found available on-line as assigned from respective class periods. basically, your instructor will indicate to you which activity will be completed each lab period. The report is a summary of the activity, explaining to the reader who and what was involved in the process. Students will generally work in groups of two to four, depending on the activity. The report will clearly identify who was involved, what each member of the team did, describe the data acquired, analysis, and conclusions. All reports will be completed in Microsoft WORD

Title: Use the same title as listed on the Guide sheets.

Names: Clearly list and spell out completely, all students participating in the lab exercise. next to their names indicate briefly what role each member of your team di to contribute to the group learning.

Objectives: Remember that the Guide sheet may already spell out the objectives. If so, indicate this. If not, explain clearly to your reader what you intend to accomplish. At the end you will need to ask yourself and explain to the reader to what extent you did accomplish your goals.

Data Acquisition, Analysis and Discussion: Here is where you explain to the reader what you did to get the needed data, how you analyzed the data and what assumptions you may have made to analyze the information.Explain your results, what they are, what they mean. Include and explain any constructed graphs here. There will almost always be someone in the lab who can help with the quantitative work.

Results: Clearly identify your results, maybe in a summary table or just with them boxed in so the reader can quickly identify the results of your work.

Conclusions: Explain to your reader what you learned and what, as a result of your work, you can say about the phenomena studied.

Recommendations: These are for your instructor. Discuss any idea you may have to make this better next time the activity is used.