Labwrite: Extensive web-based instruction for helping college students write lab reports and learn science

 

Miriam Ferzli and Mike Carter

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2005, Volume 26

Abstract

LabWrite, funded by the National Science Foundation (award #: DUE-9950405 and DUE-0231086), is a structured set of online materials developed as an alternative to typical lab report instruction. LabWrite provides extensive resources designed to lead college students through the entire lab experience, beginning with questions that help students comprehend the essential elements of the lab before they start the procedure and ending with advice for improving their performance on the next lab report. The primary goal of LabWrite is to better enable students to take advantage of the potential that writing lab reports offers for learning science. In a control-group study of students in the biological sciences, those using LabWrite demonstrated significantly greater understanding of the science of the labs and a greater ability to apply formal scientific reasoning to the labs than did students receiving the typical instruction in writing lab reports.

Keywords:  writing, laboratory reports

Bowling Green State University, Ohio (2004)