Inoculating Algal Cultures

EVPP 111 Lab – Guide and Grading Rubric for Formal Lab Report – Fall 2018
8/27/18
Guide to the Formal Lab Report:
Students will complete one formal lab report. The report will be based on one activity
(experiment) conducted in lab class and completed the week of 10/1/18-10/5/18. The
activities upon which the report is based are:
 “Water Quality – Activity 8 – Pollutants – Inoculating Algal Cultures”
 “Water Quality – Activity 9 – Pollutants – Effects on Algal Growth”
The first activity constitutes the set up of this experiment and will be completed in lab
classes the week of 9/17/18-9/21/18 and the second activity constitutes its completion,
which will occur lab classes the week of 10/1/18-10/5/18.
The formal lab report assignment is to introduce students to the style of writing used
to present the process and results of scientific experimentation. Students will be
prepared for the task by:
1) reading the assigned lab activities in the lab manual which are structured in a
similar manner to the structure of scientific papers
2) completing the “Scientific Paper Tutorial On-Line Assignment”
3) listening to the lab instructor’s explanations of the expected content and format
of the formal lab report and the grading rubric for the assignment
4) reading the “Writing a Lab Report” section of the lab manual
5) reading and understanding the grading rubric for this assignment (included at
the end of this document) before writing the lab report
6) taking advantage of the individual assistance available from the lab instructor
and the learning assistants
7) taking advantage of the individual assistance available at the GMU Writing
Center (see https://masononline.gmu.edu/student-resources/writingcenter/ )
8) participating in the peer-review process in lab class
Data and observations will be made by the lab group during the execution of the
assigned lab activity, but the formal lab report must be the independent work of each
student. Students will submit their formal lab report electronically via the course
Blackboard page. Upon submission to Blackboard, students’ lab report will be subjected to
a plagiarism review via the SafeAssign program which is incorporated into Blackboard.
Students are not to copy each other’s graphs, figures, tables, illustrations or any written

https://oai.gmu.edu to make sure that you understand the Honor Code and the
consequences of violating it. The minimum sanction recommended for a violation of the
Honor Code will be a zero on the assignment.
Students who are repeating this course may incorporate portions of their previous lab
report into the current lab report provided that the new data is utilized and all sections
EVPP 111 Lab – Guide and Grading Rubric for Formal Lab Report – Fall 2018
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are adjusted accordingly. A student who chooses to utilize this approach must keep in
mind that plagiarism checking software will be able to compare the current report to
reports submitted in the past. In other words, if a student plagiarized portions of their
previously submitted report, it will be detected on the currently submitted report and will
still be considered a violation of the Honor Code.
The first version of the formal lab report will be graded via a peer-review process
conducted during your lab class the week of 10/22/18-10/26/18. Students must print out
and bring to their lab class the week of 10/22/18-10/26/18 TWO hard copies of
their formal lab report. If students arrive at lab class without the hard copies of their
lab report they will be permitted to go to an appropriate location on campus to retrieve or
print the hard copies but they will be assessed the normal penalties for being tardy to
lab class. During lab class, each student will grade the formal lab reports of two of their
classmates using the grading rubric. This means the each student will have their formal
lab report graded by two of their classmates. The purpose of the peer-review process is
to 1) provide an incentive for students to scrutinize, evaluate and understand the formal
lab report grading rubric prior to their lab instructors using the grading rubric to grade
the formal lab report, 2) give students the opportunity to learn from seeing examples of
formal lab reports of different qualities, and 3) give students the opportunity to improve
their formal lab report based on input from their peers prior to it being submitted for
grading by the lab instructor.
The grades that students receive on their formal lab report from their peers WILL
NOT COUNT TOWARD THEIR FINAL GRADE ON THE FORMAL LAB REPORT!
HOWEVER, THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS WILL BE THE ONLY OPPORTUNITY
STUDENTS WILL HAVE TO RECEIVE FEEDBACK ON THE REPORT PRIOR TO IT BEING
SUBMITTED FOR GRADING BY THEIR LAB INSTRUCTOR. The purpose of the grades
received from one’s peers is to give students a sense of the grade they might receive from
the lab instructor grading the lab report with the same grading rubric used by the peers.
Participating in the peer-review process will be worth 12 points of the 300 possible
lab points, or 4%. Full credit for the peer-review process will be given for a student who
is present on the day of peer-review, brings two hard-copies of their formal lab report,
and reviews and grades (using the grading rubric) the formal lab reports of two peers in a
thoughtful, thorough, conscientious manner. Fully-participating students will leave their
lab class the week of 10/22/18-10/26/18 with two peer-graded copies of their formal lab
report.
Students will have two weeks to revise their formal lab report, incorporating as
appropriate the comments received and corrections suggested in the peer-review process.
Students must submit to the folder for their lab section an electronic copy of the
formal lab report, in the form of a .doc or .docx document, to the lab portion of the
course Blackboard page by the beginning of their lab class during the week of
11/5/18-11/9/18. NO LATE SUBMISSIONS OF THE FORMAL LAB REPORT WILL
BE ACCEPTED. It is NOT acceptable to email your lab instructor the electronic
version of your formal lab report instead of submitting it to the submission folder. It
is your responsibility to submit your formal lab report to the submission folder
EVPP 111 Lab – Guide and Grading Rubric for Formal Lab Report – Fall 2018
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successfully by the due time and date. This means you are responsible for making sure
that there are no technical difficulties that will prevent you from submitting your formal
lab report in a timely manner. This may mean that you should plan on submitting the
formal lab report prior to the due date/time so that if a technical difficulty arises you will
have time to resolve it and still submit your formal lab report in on time.
The formal lab report submitted by the beginning of each student’s lab class the week
of 11/5/18-11/9/18 will be GRADED EXTREMELY STRICTLY!!!! If students have given
due diligence to this assignment, participated fully in the peer-review process, and taken
advantage of all resources available to assist in executing this assignment, then their
grade should be satisfactory. Lab instructors will be grading the formal lab report based
on the grading rubric and utilized in the peer-review process. It is the student’s
responsibility to understand the provisions of the grading rubric.
Lab instructors will complete the grading of the formal lab report electronically by
the beginning of each student’s lab class during the week of 12/3/18-12/7/18. The
instructor-graded submission will be graded using the same grading rubric used to grade
the original paper during the peer-review process. The grade for the formal lab report
that is posted in the Blackboard gradebook will be a percentage grade. The final grade for
the formal lab report will be worth 57.25 of the 300 points for lab, or 19.08% of
the lab grade.
If a student does not participate in the formal lab report peer-review process (or is
absent from lab on the day the process if conducted), they will receive a grade of 0 for
the peer-review process. They can submit the formal lab report but they will not have the
opportunity to receive feedback prior to the submission.
Format and Content Requirements
The following sections are required. Format and content requirements are summarized
below. Please refer to “writing a lab report” in the lab manual and the grading rubric for
additional detail.
 General content and format information
o Font: Times New Roman
o Font size: 12 point
o Tense: Past
o Person: Not 1st
o Margins: top and bottom = 1”; left and right sides = 1.25”
o Writing style: Scientific
o Sentence structure: Extremely well-developed
o Grammar, punctuation, spelling: No more than two insignificant errors
(meaning the errors do not detract from the message or interfere with
reader’s comprehension
o Minimum length: There is no minimum length for the lab report. The goal is
to say everything that must be and should be said as concisely as possible.
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o Section headings: Should be centered on the page before the beginning of
each section. New sections do not need to begin on a new page, except that
the abstract and literature cited sections will begin on new pages.
 Section-based content and format information
o Title
 Content: Title must be thoroughly descriptive of the experiment (not
the assignment)
 Format: Title should appear on a cover page with title mid-way down
the page, centered. At the bottom of the cover page, centered,
student’s name should appear on its own line, followed on the next line
by the name of the instructor (centered), followed on the next line by
the lab section number (centered), followed on the next line by the
date of submission.
o Abstract:
 Content: A “miniature” version of the lab report that will contain
enough information about the experiment for the reader to decide
whether or not they should read the entire paper. All information
should be presented in the same order in which it will be encountered
in the lab report.
 Format: Abstract will be on a page to itself following the title page
and will be single-spaced.
o Introduction:
 Content: The problem or issue being studied must be described.
Background information on this problem/issue must be provided. This
requires doing some research into the problem/issue and providing a
summary of the key information. This background information should
also familiarize the reader with the topic. The source of the
background information must be cited in the body of the introduction
section. For this report, students must cite literature from three
sources in their introduction section. This section must include a
statement of the hypotheses, a description of the main objectives of
the experiment, and a brief explanation of the experimental design.
The following five general questions must be addressed/answered in
the introduction section:
 what is the basic biology of the issue you are studying
 why is it important
 can it be disrupted by pollutants
 what types of pollutants are known to adversely affect it and
why
EVPP 111 Lab – Guide and Grading Rubric for Formal Lab Report – Fall 2018
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 what are the consequences to organisms, ecosystems, the
environment of a disruption of biological process by a
pollutant(s)
 Format: Will begin on its own page following the abstract. In-text
literature citations will be in APA format.
o Methods:
 Content: This section should contain an explanation of the
procedures that were carried out in the experiment in sufficient
detail that someone reading the methods could repeat the
experiment, if desired. The materials used are not listed but are
mentioned only in the context of the description of their use.
Include a description of what data will be collected, when in the
experiment it will be collected and how it will be analyzed.
 Format: Must be in paragraph form with no bulleted or numbered
lists. This section does not have to begin on its own page.
o Results:
 Content: All main findings of the experiment, supported by key
pieces of data, should be described in paragraph form. There must
be no interpretation of data in this section. All data must be
summarized in at least one table or figure. Tables and or figures
must be labeled and numbered sequentially followed by a descriptive
title. This label/title is placed above tables and below figures.
Graphs in figures must have labels that identify the parameter and
units involved. All tables/figures must be referenced in the
paragraph portion of the section by the table/figure number.
 Format: This section must not begin with a table or figure. It does
not have to begin on its own page.
o Discussion:
 Content: Restate the hypotheses. Do not include any results not
mentioned in the results section. Interpret all data by explaining how
the results link to basic scientific concepts and how they link to the
findings of other researchers. Address other issues including
sources of uncertainty in the experiment, further investigations that
could/should be done to gather more information, suggestions for
improving the experiment, and an alternative explanation for positive
or negative results. State whether or not the data supported the
hypothesis and the conclusions that can be drawn from the results.
 Format: This section does not have to begin on its own page.
o Literature Cited:
 Content: The sources for all citations contains in the report must be
listed, in alphabetical order by author, using the APA format. A
minimum of three peer-reviewed sources must be used and the lab
manual does not count as one of those.
EVPP 111 Lab – Guide and Grading Rubric for Formal Lab Report – Fall 2018
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 Format: Use the APA format. Within a source use single-spacing and
a 0.5” hanging indent and between sources use double-spacing.
Formal Lab Report Project Timeline

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Grading Rubric for the Formal Lab Report:
The following grading rubric will be used by students during the peer-review process and by lab instructors when grading the
formal lab report. Before submitting your report, you should “grade” your report for yourself using this rubric. This will enable you to
identify whether or not you have included all the required components of the report and take corrective actions prior to submission.

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