Science Lab Report Template - Fill in the Blanks

Dr. Helmenstine holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and is a science writer, educator, and consultant. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels.

If you are preparing a lab report, it may help to have a template to work from. This science fair project lab report template allows you to fill in the blanks, making the write-up process easier. Use the template with the instructions for writing a science lab report to ensure success. The PDF version of this form may be downloaded to save or to print.

Lab Report Headings

Generally, these are the headings you'll use in a lab report, in this order:

Overview of the Parts of a Lab Report

Here's a quick look at the types of information you should put in the parts of the lab report and a gauge of how long each section should be. It's a good idea to consult other lab reports, submitted by a different group that received a good grade or is well-respected. Read a sample report to know what a reviewer or grader is looking for. In a classroom setting, lab reports take a long time to grade. You don't want to keep repeating a mistake if you can avoid it from the start!

• Title: This should accurately describe the experiment. Don't try to be cute or funny.
• Date: This can be the date you did the experiment or the day you completed the report.
• Lab Partners: Who helped you with the experiment? List their full names. If they represent other schools or institutions, credit this too.
• Purpose: Sometimes this is called the objective. It is either a single sentence summary of why the experiment or product was performed or else a single paragraph.
• Introduction: Describe why the topic is of interest. The introduction is other one paragraph or a single page. Usually the last sentence is a statement of the hypothesis that was tested.
• Materials: List chemicals and special equipment used for this experiment. Ideally, you want this section to be sufficiently detailed another person could repeat the experiment.
• Procedure: Describe what you did. This can be a single paragraph or one or more pages.
• Data: List the data you obtained, before calculations. Tables and graphs are good.
• Results: If you performed calculations on the data, these are your results. An error analysis is usually here, although it may be its own section.
• Conclusion: State whether the hypothesis was accepted or the project was a success. It's a good idea to suggest avenues for further study.
• References: Cite any resources or publications you used. Did you consult a paper that somehow related to the project? Give credit. References are needed for all facts except those that are readily available to the intended audience of the report.

Why Write a Lab Report?

Lab reports are time-consuming for both students and graders, so why are they so important? There are two key reasons. First, a lab report is an orderly method of reporting the purpose, procedure, data, and outcome of an experiment. Essentially, it follows the scientific method. Second, lab reports are easily adapted to become papers for peer-reviewed publication. For students serious about pursuing a career in science, a lab report is a stepping-stone for submitting work for review. Even if results aren't published, the report is a record of how an experiment was conducted, which can be valuable for follow-up research.