How to Write a Lab Report

8th Grade ScienceMorton Middle School

Cover PageYour NameDateClass PeriodTeacher’s NameTitle of the Lab

Report

Steve SkeletonAugust 19, 2013

1st PeriodMrs. Woods

The Effect of Water on the Growth of

Geraniums

SectionsSection 1 - Introduction

Introduce the research question or problem. (1 paragraph minimum)

Section 2 - HypothesisWrite the hypothesis.Should be only a few

sentences.Section 3 - Materials

Provide a list of materials used in the experiment or activity.

Introduction My mother grows geraniums at our house, they are her favorite flower. We noticed that some geraniums do not grow as well as others. I wonder how the amount of water they receive impacts their growth?

Hypothesis If I increase the amount of water, then geraniums will grow taller because plants require a lot of water to grow.

Materials The following materials will be needed for the experiment:• Geranium seeds• 6 inch pots (6 of them)• 1 small bag of potting soil• Tap water• Graduated cyclinder• Metric ruler

SectionsSection 4 –

Experiment/ProcedureA step-by-step

description on how to perform the experiment.

Should be detailed so that anyone could repeat your experiment exactly.

Procedure1. Fill all six inch pots with potting soil.2. Place three geranium seeds in each pot 2

cm below the surface of the soil.3. Cover seeds with potting soil.4. Place all six pots in a sunny area.5. Label two pots as 5 ml, two as 10 ml, and

two as 15 ml.6. Each day pour the amount of water into

each pot.7. Every Friday for three months, measure the

height of the plant.8. Record the data in a table labeled plant

growth.

Data

Table 1. Plant Growth

SectionsSection 5 – Data

Graphs, charts, and data tables are included in this section of the report.

All should have titles.Graphs should be

properly labeled and include a key.

Can be hand drawn or made on a computer.

How Water Effects Geranium Plant Growth

KEYTriangle = 10mL of waterSquare = 15mL of waterDiamond = 5mL of water

SectionsSection 6 - Conclusion

Summarizes your lab experiment or activity (1 paragraph minimum).

Explain how your experiment either supports or disagrees with your hypothesis.

Describe what you learned and/or how you could improve the experiment.

Conclusion In this experiment, plants were given different amounts of water to see the effect it would have in the plant’s growth rate. The data I collected was inconclusive. All three amounts of water kept the plants alive and allowed them to grow. Increasing the amount of water did not cause a significant increase in plant growth, which was surprising. I will need to develop another hypothesis and test it. Some other possible variables that control plant growth might be the size of the pot, the type of soil, or the amount of sunlight. I will need to pick one and try a new experiment. I hope I can discover a way to improve my mom’s ability to grow geraniums.