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Lab Report Guide for a Virtual OrganismThis is a guide for writing your lab report. Lab reports are due April 29, 2021, when you take the Practical Exam. They should be submitted through Canvas (and checked by DropItIn for originality).
You will be writing a scientific paper which is unlike any history, English or philosophy paper. Your report should be written in prose and should follow APA format.
Pay attention to grammar, spelling and correctly writing the name of your organism. The report should be 10 paragraphs (about 3-5 pages) long.The paper is to be divided into sections. Each section must have its own heading.
The Headings are:
1. Title: Choose something descriptive, for example: Identification and analysis of Bacillus cereus
2.Introduction: 1-2 paragraphs
a. Assume you are a consultant to a medical laboratory.
The lab tech calls you and says, “I have been given an unknown sample. What do I do?”
b. Background information – A little information about what you tell the lab tech and why.
c. Purpose objective – what was the purpose of your advice?
3.Materials and methods: 1-2 paragraphs
a. Written in prose (not as a list) include what should be used in order and how it would be done. Use the flow charts as a guide for which test would be done in which order.
In your conversation with the lab tech, if there is a choice for direction of the flow chart (for example: Streptococcus versus Staphylococcus) describe WHY you went the direction you did.
b. This should be written so anyone could reproduce your procedure. Do NOT include unnecessary information such as ‘walk to the sink’. Remember that all this information is in a lab
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manual so if you can refer to that manual, do so without describing each step.
4. Results: 1-2 paragraphs AND a table/graph or figure (pictures are acceptable).
a. This is for all the tests that were done
b. Include a table, flow chart, or figures of depicting your results (both positive and negative)
c. Include text describing your results and the final outcome
5. Discussion or conclusions: 2-3 paragraphs
a. Analyze your data (explain what your results mean- did you confirm the correct organism?)
b. Based on your knowledge as a consultant, describe any other experiment or procedure that you found that we did not cover in class that would be helpful in identifying the unknown.
c. Discuss CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF YOUR UNKNOWN! You will need to do some research and include this in your report with references to those cited in the next section (Dolan, and Vuilleumier, 2003; Eastwood, et al., 2001).
i. Include the diseases/infections it causes
ii. Route of transmissioniii. Treatment and prevention
6. References
a. You need at least 3 references. One may be a lab manual.
b. Properly cited: use the APA format for referencing (including in the text). Examples of APA citations: (for more information visit for a tutorial)Dolan, R. J., & Vuilleumier, P. (2003). Amygdala automaticity in emotional processing. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 985, 348–355.Eastwood, J. D., Smilek, D., & Merikle, P. M. (2001). Negative facial expression captures attention and disrupts performance. Perceptual Physiology, 65, 352–358.
Lab Report Guide3Examples of Online ReferencesFreakonomics. (2010, October 29). E-ZPass is a life-saver (literally) [Blog post]. Retrieved 6/20/2041 from College of William and Mary. (n.d.). College mission statement. Retrieved 6/20/2041 from
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