Format of a Technical Lab Report
University of Trinidad and Tobago
LABORATORY REPORT
ENGINEERING SCIENCE – ENSC 1005
LECTURER: Asha Sooknanan
It is important that a student not only learns the physical concepts discussed in a laboratory exercise, but that the student also learns how to communicate those ideas effectively. In a technical lab report, the results will often be read by engineers, engineering technologies, and other scientists, but also by people in industry who may not have significant training in physics. Due to this fact, a technical lab report differs from a purely scientific lab report in its presentation.
1. Title Page
This is the cover page of the report and contains the following:
Name and Id#
Lab title
Date done
Date due
Date Submitted
Program
Course number
Group members
Instructor
2. Summary Page
This page informs the reader about the lab using the following sections:
Intent:
State the reasons why the lab was done. (The goal was to verify a physical law, or to determine a constant, etc)
Results:
State or show the result and the margin of error. No calculations are shown here, only the final result is reported. For multiple results a table is a good way to organize them.
The actual lab report begins here:
3. Theory
This section contains a brief description of the theory and equations used in the lab. Any derivations using standard equations should be shown here, including those that are relevant to a graphical relationship. If a relation is tested, discuss how this experiment will examine the relation.
4. Equipment
What apparatus was used? A diagram could be included here to show how the equipment was set up. Be sure to cite any changes that were made to the equipment when the lab was performed.
5. Method
How was the data taken? This is best done in short, point form. Be sure to include any changes to experimental procedure that were different from the lab handout.
(Both
LABORATORY REPORT
ENGINEERING SCIENCE – ENSC 1005
LECTURER: Asha Sooknanan
It is important that a student not only learns the physical concepts discussed in a laboratory exercise, but that the student also learns how to communicate those ideas effectively. In a technical lab report, the results will often be read by engineers, engineering technologies, and other scientists, but also by people in industry who may not have significant training in physics. Due to this fact, a technical lab report differs from a purely scientific lab report in its presentation.
1. Title Page
This is the cover page of the report and contains the following:
Name and Id#
Lab title
Date done
Date due
Date Submitted
Program
Course number
Group members
Instructor
2. Summary Page
This page informs the reader about the lab using the following sections:
Intent:
State the reasons why the lab was done. (The goal was to verify a physical law, or to determine a constant, etc)
Results:
State or show the result and the margin of error. No calculations are shown here, only the final result is reported. For multiple results a table is a good way to organize them.
The actual lab report begins here:
3. Theory
This section contains a brief description of the theory and equations used in the lab. Any derivations using standard equations should be shown here, including those that are relevant to a graphical relationship. If a relation is tested, discuss how this experiment will examine the relation.
4. Equipment
What apparatus was used? A diagram could be included here to show how the equipment was set up. Be sure to cite any changes that were made to the equipment when the lab was performed.
5. Method
How was the data taken? This is best done in short, point form. Be sure to include any changes to experimental procedure that were different from the lab handout.
(Both