Allelopathic Effects of Volatile Compounds in Cloves on Germinating Lettuce Essay

Allelopathic Effects of Volatile Compounds in Cloves on Germinating Lettuce Essay

Lab Report Breakdown
Before we get into the breakdown, here’s some notes/reminders about the lab report
assignment:
• Each individual student will submit their own lab report. Although they will use data generated
by the class and all group members will use the same data, reports are to be written individually.
• 50 pts, due ONLINE, as per the deadline on your syllabus
• Reports will all have the same format that includes sections with headings in the order listed
below
• Reports will be submitted to Safe Assign to check for plagiarism and cheating. This compares
reports within and between labs as well as reports submitted in previous years.
• If you are suspected of cheating or plagiarism, at minimum, you will receive a 0 on the
assignment.
ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ARE CONSIDERED PLAGIARISM:
– turning in someone else’s work as your own
– copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
– failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
– giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
– changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
– copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work,
whether you give credit or not
Title
Your title should clearly represent your work. Creativity and humor are encouraged! DO NOT
title your report “Allelopathy Lab Report” or anything similar to that. The title should give the
reader an idea of what the report is about.
Introduction
The introduction section should be 2-3 paragraphs (roughly 10-15 sentences) that reviews
existing information of the topic to provide context for your study and ends with stating your
research question and hypothesis. You should have a minimum of 2 in-text citations in this
section. DO NOT use quotes! Summarize the findings in your own words and use an in-text
citation. If we broke this section down into sentences, it would look like this:
3-5 sentences of general introduction – i.e. what does the literature say about allelopathy, what
are allelopathic compounds, what are the consequences of allelopathic chemicals, why do plants
have allelopathic compounds
Followed by:
3-5 sentences of specific introduction – i.e. What does the literature say about the thing you’re
investigating? Write about the materials you used (lettuce seeds, garlic, etc) and how they
demonstrate the effects of allelopathy.
Followed by:
2-3 sentences for the research question and hypothesis – i.e. state the purpose of the study (your
research question) and what was your hypothesis (remember to write your hypothesis as an
IF/AND/Then statement).
Methods
This section should detail how you conducted the experiment. It should be written in a way that
the reader could execute the experiment based on the information you provide. In terms of
sentences, it should be:
4-5 sentences describing the materials you used, how you used them, how many replicates you
used, what the treatments were, how long the seeds were exposed to the allelopathic
compound, and how you collected the data. Include numerical descriptions! e.g. “We performed
3 replicates..”
This section SHOULD NOT be a bulleted list of items or steps; it should be written in full
sentences!
Results
The results section should be a summary of the data and DOES NOT include any speculations as
to why the results occurred.
4-5 sentences summarizing your data – i.e. how many seeds germinated, how long were the
roots, etc. Include figures with figure legends and appropriate axis labels – make sure you
reference your figures in the text! For example: “All 10 lettuce seeds in the control group
germinated compared to only 2 when exposed to the treatment (Figure 1).”
Discussion
This section should be 1-2 paragraphs (roughly 10-15 sentences) that explains what your data
mean. You’ll include your claim here, which should be supported by your data and the existing
literature. Address whether or not your hypothesis was supported by the data. You should have
a minimum of two references to research articles in this section. In terms of sentences, it would
look like this:
4-5 sentences of what your data mean – i.e. Explicitly state your claim based on your data, was
your hypothesis supported or rejected by your data, and at least 2 references that support your
claim.
4-5 sentences addressing problems and lurking variables – i.e. what problems did you encounter
during the experiment, identify lurking variables and the ways in which you could/could not
control them? Could these lurking variables have altered your findings?
3-5 sentences of conclusion – i.e. restate your claim and tie it back to the theory outlined in your
introduction. This should be a short, overarching conclusion that ties back into the big picture of
the lab.
Literature Cited
You must cite at least two scientific papers. Use APA format to cite literature both in-text and in
a section at the end of your report.
Pro Tip: Work smarter, not harder. Use Google Scholar to get your references in APA format.
Simply search the title on Google Scholar and find the article. Then, look for this symbol → “
and click on it. This will generate the citation for you, and you can copy and paste the APA
formatted one into your Literature Cited section at the end of your report.
Example Literature Cited Section:
1. Grimm, D., Altamirano, L., Paudel, S., Welker, L., Konkle, M. E., Chakraborty, N., &
Menze, M. A. (2017). Modulation of cellular energetics by galactose and
pioglitazone. Cell and tissue research, 369(3), 641-646.
2. Stokich, B., Osgood, Q., Grimm, D., Moorthy, S., Chakraborty, N., & Menze, M. A. (2014).
Cryopreservation of hepatocyte (HepG2) cell monolayers: Impact of
trehalose. Cryobiology, 69(2), 281-290.
Example In-Text Citation options (using the references listed above):
*Don’t bold or highlight your in-text citations, they are bolded/highlighted here to make them
obvious*
Stokich et al (2014) reported increased viability of human hepatocellular carcinoma post
freeze/thaw after loading with the disaccharide trehalose.
Loading liver cancer cells with trehalose increased viability in a monolayer format post
freeze/thaw (Stockich et al 2014).
Culturing liver cancer cells in galactose increased maximum uncoupled respiration of intact cells1
.