Bio 201 Fall 2024 Prof. N.
Starkova
City University of New York; York College
Bio 201 Principles of Biology Laboratory
LABORATORY EXERCISE 3: SEXUAL SELECTION IN GUPPIES
NAMES: ________________________
________________________
LABORATORY REPORT
[I. Title]
The title should describe the topic of your study (lab) concisely, adequately, and appropriately in one
sentence
II. Introduction
Introduce important concepts and biological processes that are important for understanding your
experiment. Assume that you are writing for a curious, science-literate, but non-expert audience.
Describe the purpose of your study (briefly describe the research problem you were given to solve.
You can define the problem by giving the knowns and the unknowns). Then state the research
question that you used to guide the research to solve your problem.
Clearly state your hypothesis (or hypotheses) and expected results (predictions). Each hypothesis
must be paired with a prediction
III. Materials and Methods
Describe the lab procedure Think of your audience as someone who does not know what experiment
you performed. Include enough details about both the materials you used and what you did so that
the audience has a clear picture of the experiment. However, assume that you write it for a scientist
who has a laboratory experience. Do not describe minute details.
Write the procedure in paragraph form. For relatively simple labs, one paragraph will do; more
complex labs will take multiple paragraphs. Keep the paragraphs relatively short because it's hard for
readers to process detailed information like this without sufficient breaks.
Do not include background (belongs in the Introduction section), results (belongs in the Results
section), or conclusions / interpretation of results (belongs in the Discussion).
Bio 201 Fall 2024 Prof. N. Starkova
Use the proper past tense and passive voice. Methods are usually written in past tense because you
are describing what you have already done. They are also typically written in passive voice ("Two ml.
were pipetted into a test tube"). Do not use Imperative mood (e.g. “Add a solution and mix” - you are
describing what has been done, not giving instructions).
Include the methods you used for both gathering data and analyzing the data.
Do not include a bulleted list of supplies. Instructions for teaching labs include these lists, but
scientific papers do not.
IV. Results
Present your data in graphs (collectively known as figures) and/or tables (depending on the type of
data you have).
Check that axes are labeled and have units of measurement, the figure (graph) has a legend
(placed under the figure), different series of data are labeled on the graph or explained in the
legend to the figure.
If you present you data in a table, the table should have a legend describing its content. Data
categories in the table should include units of measurement, where applicable (i.e., “Change
in volume, ml”) to avoid adding units to each cell of the table
Describe trends in your data in complete sentences. Highlight trends that you will interpret, explain,
and draw conclusions from in your Discussion section. Trends may include but are not limited to:
expected or unexpected changes in the studied parameters, aberrant results; high/low standard
deviations, etc.
Provide sufficient support to the description of data trends, i.e., your description must be quantitative.
This is an example of a qualitative (i.e., not quantitative) description: “blood glucose level increased in
response to sucrose consumption” vs. quantitative description: “blood glucose level increased from
82.52mg/dL to 124.26mg/dL in response to 50g of sucrose”.
Do not include background (belongs in the Introduction section), methods (belongs in the Methods
section), or interpretation of results (belongs in the Discussion section).
IV. Discussion (Conclusion)
Briefly reiterate the purpose of your study.
Evaluate your hypotheses: discuss whether data presented in your Results section support or refute
the hypothesis (or hypotheses) described in your Introduction section. Refer to Results as appropriate.
Here you can be qualitative in using results to support/refute the hypothesis
If your results do not confirm the hypothesis, either identify the sources of error (or suggest an
explanation why your hypothesis might be invalid.
Bio 201 Fall 2024 Prof. N. Starkova
If you have unexpected results (high standard deviations, and/or unexpected changes in the
dependent variable), explain them as well. Unexpected results may be caused by both instrumental
and human error (or some unknown phenomena that you just discovered).
