Britney Reyes

March 6, 2019

Lab Report Analysis

The lab reports Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth and Acceleration Due to Gravity are both informative and persuasive in their own ways. Each part of the lab reports like the title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and references have there similarities and differences. The lab reports format is made in a way so that the audience has an easier time understanding what it’s about.

The title of the first lab report, Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth, uses familiar words for anyone interested in continuing to read it. The title of that lab report is very clear and gets to the point about what the experiment is going to consist of. One improvement of the title could be instead of writing factors that control the sunflower growth, write exactly the factor the experiment is going to deal with, which is sunlight.The title of the second lab report, Acceleration Due to Gravity, clearly uses the words acceleration so it has to do with speed being affected by gravity. A significant difference between these two labs title’s is that the first lab report uses more common and simple words, but the second lab report uses words that are more known for students or professionals.

For the first lab report, Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth, the abstract clearly states how the experiment will show the relationship between the amount of light and the amount of growth of the sunflower. Then it explains what is kept constant in the experiment such as the type of seed, pot, and how many times a week it’s watered. It talks about how many hours of light the sunflower will receive through the four week period. At the end the hypothesis is written, it is explained how it was successful, and how too much light also affects the growth. A big difference between the two lab reports is that for the first one the abstract gives a summary about what the experiment will consist of, but the second lab it does not have an abstract.

For the first lab report, Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth, the introduction is broken up into three components which is the purpose, the background, and the hypothesis. The purpose clearly states that the labs point is to understand how different amount of light affects the growth of the sunflower. The background is very well written due to explaining words so that the readers can follow along such as dichotic angiosperms, composite flowers, and photosynthesis. It also includes figure 1 which shows a picture of a sunflower. The formula of photosynthesis is written, it is expanded on what each variable means, and how it connects to the lab. Background information is given of the components within the sunflower, where it comes from, and how it got its name. Also, there is internal citations used within the writing. For the hypothesis it is explained what the amount of hours of light for the sunflower should be and how it would affect its height. The hours 4, 6, 8, and 10 would allow growth but once it get to 20 hours the growth decreases due to the damage it creates. However, for the second lab, Acceleration Due to Gravity, the introduction only includes a bit of background information, two formulas, and what each variable means in the formula. It talks about how there is constant acceleration and how the magnitude is 9.8m/s^2. Then the kinematic equation is given just to show that it is used when there is an initial velocity and constant acceleration to get the displacement of the object in time. After that, it explains that equation number 2 is used instead since for the experiment the vertical displacement, which is the height, is what is going to be looked at. It just says that the formula will be used to find the acceleration due to gravity. A similarity between both of the labs is that the purpose is stated so it is known what you are looking for in the experiments.The differences between lab one and two is that lab one is more organized having it split into purpose, background, and hypotheses and it clearly states that hypothesis turned out to be true. But for lab two there is no background information. It is just explained what is supposed to be known, what formula is being used, what is going to be found within the formula, and there is no hypothesis. The absence of background information in the second lab makes it harder to understand its purpose.

For the first lab report, Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth, the material and methods is clearly stated. The materials and method that were used throughout the experiment was a lab book, sunflower seeds, and allowing 4, 6, 8, 10, and 30 hours of sunlight. Although, the materials are clearly stated there is not procedure giving you step by step directions of how the experiment was done. However, for the second lab, Acceleration Due to Gravity, the experimental methods does explain both the equipment used and how the procedure should be done. The equipment and procedure are written together explaining that the weight is changed seven times and there are five trials for each release of the ball. The experimental methods section includes errors that occured due to the equipment such as the release contact and the detection pad. The timer would begin before the ball began to fall and the detection pad was not parallel to the floor as it should be. After that, it explained how although there were two errors he tried to minimize it by placing a stiffer spring which lessed the elapsed time and making sure that the location of the plate was consistent for each trial. The clamp had to be held steady each time. Then underneath the explanation of fixing the error a graph is given with no title. What is being compared in the graph is the height in meters and the time in seconds. The relationship shown is that the higher the ball is released the ore tie it takes to hit the metal pad. Then is clearly stated that the slope is supposed to show the acceleration due to gravity. Discussing the potential error helps clarify where the human error comes from. A similarity between both of the labs is that the materials used for the experiment were stated for both.The differences between lab one and two is that lab one only states what materials will be used. But lab two explains the materials used, the procedure, the experimental error, how the experimental error were lessened, and a graph which showed the acceleration due to gravity. The difference indicates that the labs are structured differently. The first lab has everything separate but then second has everything together.

For the first lab report, Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth, the results show two tables which is table one which is the seedlings heights and table 2 which is the average seedling heights for the class. For table 1 it shows that for the hours of 4, 6, 8, and 10 which occurred from week 1 to week 2 the height of the sunflower increases. But for 20 hours of sunlight the height started to decrease. For table 2 which is the average height of the class of the sunflower growing for the hours of light per day 4, 6, 8, 10, and 20 the height of the sunflower increases. It is explained that although is is shown that that for all hours the sunflower increases for 20 hours it increases but with the smallest height so it has the least amount of growth. For the second lab report, Acceleration Due to Gravity, the results are that the slope is g=9.930.08m/s^2 and the intercept is h=0.0030.011m. A similarity is that for both labs results which are the data is clearly written. A big difference is that for lab one the results is a data table but for lab two the results is based on a graph. For lab two the discussion and results are made in one paragraph but for the first lab it is written in different sections.

Discussion is where what is found from the results is analyzed. For the first lab report, Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth, the discussion explains that from 4 to 10 hours of the sunflower getting the sunlight that is where the hypothesis is supported. It is explained the relationship between having more light and more growth because of the data measured. Then it goes on to explain how having extra light makes it short and damages the leaves but the results of the initial hypothesis still end up being correct. It is discussed that although her experiment was not exact with the class average it still was correct. His class average is more accurate due to having way more trials to compare. Then is is discussed that there are errors that could have affected the experiment such as reading the manual incorrectly, impurities with the soil or the seed. Towards the end of the experiment is is added how more knowledge can be expended based on this experiment by making another but now including how light can affect different pans instead of just one. For the second lab, Acceleration Due to Gravity, the discussion is explain how the variables depend on each other, how h has to be consistent to the data so that there would not be any errors, and how having a slightly higher g is expected. The similarities between both lab reports is that they explain what the results mean. The differences is that the first lab report explains how the hypothesis is supported and the error that could affect the experiment but for the second lab report it just tastes at the data recorded means its not supporting a hypothesis but is supporting the equation.

The conclusion is supposed to cover all of the import points within the lab. For the first lab report, Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth, the conclusion restates the results, the hypothesis, and explains how the hypothesis was successful. For the second lab, Acceleration Due to Gravity, the conclusion explains how the acceleration due by gravity is measured, the data results, and what was expected. For the conclusion there are no differences both lab reports summarize the results and what they mean.

The references is whats is cited within the lab report do where the information came from. For both of the labs the way it is cited there formatting of it is significantly different. For the first lab report, Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth, the references is the internal citation and the works cited which has the MLA format.  For the second lab, Acceleration Due to Gravity, the references is more professional it it numbered and looks in IEEE format.

In conclusion, the lab reports Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth and Acceleration Due to Gravity have similar yet different structure in the way it is explained. The lab report Factors Controlling Sunflower Growth is explained in a way where every part of the lab is separate. However, the lab report Acceleration Due to Gravity explains the lab together rather than in separate sections. The second lab should further get fixed in adding background information so that the audience understands well what the lab is about.