INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING SBA LABS FOR

PHYSICS
Your report must be concise and logically presented. GOOD ENGLISH
GRAMMAR, SPELLING and NEATNESS are necessities. If you cannot
write legibly, then print your work in block letters. Remember your teacher
cannot be expected to give credit for work which cannot be read. Further
your report must be written in past tense and passive voice.

ABSOLUTELY NO USE OF CORRECTING FLUID/ TIPEX/WIPEOUT.

Instead cross out with a single stroke or use a piece of paper of exactly the
same type and stick it over the area that needs to be covered.

Your labs books shall be properly covered and your name and subject and
class must be place on the front cover. Covering should be plain with no
print.

All labs should have:

1. A lab number

2. Date of commencement of the particular lab, in the case of planning

and designing labs, date it was given

3. TITLE

4. AIM – the purpose of the lab

5. APPARATUS/ MATERIALS – List of all the materials and equipment to

be used in carrying out the experiment

6. DIAGRAM – drawing of the set up of the lab

• Should be done using a RULER and pencil, NO SHADING

• Should be properly labelled

• Labels, should be to one end of the page

 • All labels should either be in all small letters or all capitals

• All diagram should have a TITLE IN PENCIL AND UNDERLINED

• NO COLOURED INK, PENS, CRAYONS ETC, SHOULD BE

PART OF THE DIAGRAM OR LABELS

7. PROCEDURE - A description of the procedure (method) used. Always

write what you did.

• Should be in point form.

• Should be in PASSIVE VOICE, that is there should be no use

of the words I, We, They, Us etc

Eg: COMMAND VOICE : Measure the length of the stool

PAST TENSE: I measured the length of the stool

PASSIVE VOICE: The length of the stool was measured.

In planning and designing labs, procedure can be written in

command voice or passive voice.

8. OBSERVATION AND RESULTS – the OUTCOME of procedures carried

should be presented, without repeating the procedural details. You
may discover deviations from ‘expected’ results occur more often than
you would prefer. Nevertheless, be honest in what you record.

• Most results should be placed in table form or using graphs .

• All tables should have proper heading and units

• All tables should have an underlined title eg. Pg 27 – TEXT

BOOK –Physics for CXC
 • For graphs refer to page 27 – 32 – TEXT BOOK – Physics for
CXC

9. Calculations – Often, calculations involving data (i.e data analysis)

are required. Show ALL calculations.

• If the same formula was used more than once, only show
one example of the calculation done.

10. Discussion /Interpretation – Try to present the relationships and

generalisations shown by the results. Bear in mind that a good
discussion, you ‘discuss’; not simply restate the results and
observations. Remember your results do not have to agree with
expected results. Show how your results agree or disagree with those
expected. REMEMBER TO KEEP THE TENSE IN PASSIVE VOICE AND
PAST TENSE.

11. Sources of Error: State all the possible factors that may affect your
experiment

12. Precautions: What methods did you take to reduce or eliminate those
errors stated in your sources of error.

13. Conclusion: Refer back to the aim of the experiment when drawing
conclusion (s).

14. Answers to follow up questions should be placed in your

discussion.

Before you submit each report.

 1. Ensure that a copy of your report is placed in your
notebook, you will be tested on work done in the lab as
well as work done in the class.

2. READ it at least once to check for errors and tidiness. You might
be surprised that your report is full of errors.

3. Number all pages, make sure your name is on your SBA book

4. Stable or otherwise secure all loose pages (including tables and

graphs) together in sequence.

Example of instructions given for lab exercise

Date:

Title: Properties of Matter

Aim: To determine the relative density of alcohol, oil and salt water

Introduction: Relative density is used to determine if a material is denser

than water. In the following exercise you will attempt to find the relative
density of different materials.

Materials

Beakers, Oil, Alcohol, Salt solution, Electronic balance scale

Method:

1. Find the mass of empty beaker using electronic balance scale

2. Find mass of beaker with 25mm3 of water

3. Find mass of water. Mass of liquid = mass of liquid and beaker –

mass of empty beaker

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the same volume of oil, alcohol and salt water

5. Find the relative density of all four substances

6. Record all your observations

Questions:
What is relative density?
How can the relative density of a substance be useful?
Example of a lab report:

LAB # 1

Date: 12th November, 2008

TITLE: Properties of Matter

AIM: To determine the relative density of alcohol, oil and salt water

APPARATUS/MATERIALS: 5 beakers, 1 electronic balance scale, salt water

solution, oil, rubbing alcohol

DIAGRAM:

PROCEDURE:

1. The mass of an empty beaker was found and recorded using an

electronic balance scale

2. A second beaker containing 25mm3 of water was then placed on the

electronic balance scale and the mass of the beaker and water was
then recorded.

3. The mass of water was then calculated

4. Steps 2 and 3 were then repeated for the same volume of oil, alcohol
and salt water

5. The relative density of all four substances was then found using the
formula:
OBSERVATION/RESULTS:

Table Showing Mass of Liquid and Relative Density

LIQUID Mass of Mass of Relative

USED Liquid and liquid Density
Beaker M/ g Ml/g
Water 56.23 24.24 1.00
Oil 54.14 24.13 0.99
Alcohol 54.01 22.02 0.91
Salt water 57.14 25.15 1.04
Mass of beaker: 31.99g

CALCULATIONS:

Mass of liquid and beaker – mass of beaker = mass of liquid

56.23 g – 31.99g = 24.24g

DISCUSSION: Relative density measures the number of times a

substance is denser than water. Relative density is a ratio; it is a
dimensionless quantity, which means it has no units. If the relative
density of a substance is less than one, then that substance will float
on the surface of the water and likewise, if the relative density is
greater than one, then the substance will sink when place in water. The
theoretical relative density of water is 0.8 but in this is experiment it
was found to be 0.91. This can be attributed to the fact that the alcohol
used was not pure; rubbing alcohol contains other chemicals which
may have altered its density.
Sources of Error:

Systematic Error

Random Error

Precautions:

Electronic balance scale was zeroed before any readings were taken

Electronic balance scale was placed on a flat- levelled surface to

prevent systematic error

Readings were repeated to reduce random error

CONCLUSION: The relative density of oil, alcohol and salt water was
found to 0.99, 0.91 and 1.04 respectively.

Please note, in Planning and Designing labs, instructions are not given.
You will have to design the investigation and plan the most sensible
sequence of steps for carrying it out.

A situation will be given.

You are expected to:

Develop an appropriate hypothesis which will be place after the title

Hypothesis: a scientific theory to be tested based on the problem.

Procedure can be written in command voice or passive voice

You are expected to clearly identify the different variables

 • Manipulated variable – the variable that will be changed in
order to obtain different readings

• Controlled variable – the variable that remains constant

through out the experiment

• Responding variable – the variable that is measured after the

manipulated variable has been altered.

This can be place in your discussion.

REMEMBER everything else is the same as in the normal lab write up