Higher School Certificate
Biology 2 Unit Course
Practical Portfolio Contents:
Maintaining a Balance
1. Enzyme Activity
2. Microscopy and transport
Blue Print of Life
3. Nature vs Nurture
Search for Better Health
4. Pasteur’s Experiment
5. Microbes in Food
Task outcomes:
H11: Justifies the appropriateness of a particular investigation plan
H12: Evaluates ways in which accuracy and reliability could be improved in investigations
H13: Uses terminology and reporting styles appropriately and successfully to communicate information and understanding
H14: Assesses the validity of conclusions from gathered data and information
Task Description:
Prepare a report on each of the Practicals prescribed in this document
Each report should cover the headings, as far as possible, shown in the Lab Report Template;
Due Date:
Practical reports should be submitted in the week following the practical and must be maintained in a folder to be submitted on Monday 29th June 2014, week 9 of Term 2.
Lab Report Template
Title:
a brief, concise, yet descriptive title
Aim:
What question(s) are you trying to answer?
Background Information:
Include any preliminary observations or background information about the subject to help the reader understand the report
Reference information in Harvard style
Hypothesis:
Write a possible solution for the problem in a sentence making sure it is testable and clearly relates independent and dependent variables.
Variables
* Identify the independent, dependent variables and any others that should be held constant throughout the experiment
Materials:
Make a list of ALL items and amounts used in the lab.
Safety
Warn of any hazards, why it is a hazard and how it can be reduced
Procedure:
Write a brief paragraph (complete sentences) which explains what you did in the lab.
Your procedure should be written so that anyone else could repeat the experiment.
Include a correctly labelled diagram where appropriate
Results (Data):
* This section should include any data tables, observations, or additional notes you make during the lab.
* You may attach a separate sheet(s) if necessary.
* All tables, graphs and charts should be labelled appropriately
Discussion:
List one thing you learned and describe how it applies to a real-life situation.
Discuss possible errors that could have occurred in the collection of the data and what you did to overcome them
Conclusions:
* Accept or reject your hypothesis.
* EXPLAIN why you accepted or rejected your hypothesis using data from the lab.
* Include a summary of the data - averages, highest, lowest, graphs.etc to help the reader understand your results
Aim clear, hypothesis appropriate and testable and background information relevant
Any two present adequately and one missing or confused
Either present adequately and the others missing or confused
Variables
Accurately identified as appropriate
Method
Succinct statement, accurate and repeatable
Description unclear, couldn’t be repeated
Results
Results and data are clearly recorded, organized so it is easy for the reader to see trends. All appropriate labels are included
Results are clear and labelled, trends are not obvious, Results are unclear, missing labels, trends are not obvious at all
Results are present, though too disorganized or poorly recorded to make sense of Conclusions
1. Summarizes the essential data used to draw conclusions
2. Conclusions follow data (not wild guesses or leaps of logic),
3. Hypothesis is rejected or accepted based on the data.
All excellent conditions included but not clear
One of the
"excellent"
conditions is not met Two of the
"excellent"
conditions is not met
Discussion
1. Discusses applications of experiment ("real world"
connections)
