Tip 13: Templates

Sometimes (often) teachers say out what they are expecting from your lab reports. They could do it visualy or verbally. Either way, remember to take notes for future development. However, rarely do teachers give out "templates". Templates are a few phrases that have been told to you. The only thing you need to do is to fill the missing words.

When I said "rarely", it is because it is rare (duh). After studying four years in MYP, I only meet one teacher who is kind enough to say what she expects, AND give a template to it. This would get your chances higher of getting a 6.

Anyways, she gave the following template for an Aim. That means you should include the following:

To Find the affect of ... on ...

All you need to do now is just fill the blanks:

Example: To find the affect of a flame on a Magnesium
strip.

To put it into an actual aim:

Example: In this experiment, our goal is to find the affect
of a flame reacting on a Magnesium strip.

Of course, that was just a simple aim. Aim have to grow as you proceed further into MYP.

Next, the kind teacher gave us a template for hypthesis as well

If ... then ... because ...

It may seem confusing, but once you got it, it is easy cake.

Example: If we ignite the Magnesium strip, then the Magnesium
would ignite and burst into white light. Because magnesium is very flammable,
and has the same affect on fireworks.

Templates: Very Useful. Ask your local science teacher for one, because each teacher expects something different!

Tip 12: Playing with scientific words

By time, you would sometimes be graded in B (communication). For people whose English that are not so good, this will be pretty challenging. Firstly, you have to use your own words(duh...), secondly, you must understand a difficult the meaning of important words (Example: Reverse Osmosis, bet you don't know what this means.) And thirdly, you have to find the right word. This is probably the hardest, since sometimes internet could be confusing and frustrating.

My opinion is, that look in a scientific dictionary, which only focuses of science. This would minimize your time to just look up one word. Also, sites like wikipedia is a great recource to get information. Lastly, find books in the library

Tip 11: Criterion F

If you want to do good in criterion F, I recommend you take a look at this tip. Year by year, you would have to do more and more lab experiment. All lab experiment have a criterion F by default. It is the decision of the teacher to decide whether it is necessery to rate criterion F.

Teachers look at your behavior during the experiment, physically, mentally and verbally. So for example you Run around the classroom, not concetrating and say inappropriate language, you would get a definate 3 or lower.

So heres the list I can think of you should do inside a lab experiment. Of course, they are many more you could think of, so consider adding it to your own list.

• Tie long hair
• Don't leave bunsen burner unattended
• Dont eat/drink
• Dont' run
• Use protective equipment
• Don't cause potential hazzards

Tip 10: The jobs

When distributing (giving) each job to people, you often do find it hard. Some people don't want to do this while other people feel fine with their job. So how exactly do you combat this? Well, there are several ways you could approach this sitation.


If your group has time and patience...
List the jobs, then tell everybody in the group to order their favorite job to the least. When everyone is done, tell them to say out their first choice, then the second, the third etc. Once that is done, start giving out the jobs. If more than one person wants to do the same job, ask if it's ok to chose their second choice as their job. However, if their second choice is taken, you must play around a bit until everybody's happy. Therefore, this is method is recommended for a group of 2-4.


If your group is inpatient...
Tell them that they have to switch jobs during the experiment, so each person gets at least one time each job. This can be for any amount of people. It's just time that is important here. If there is not enough time, not all jobs could be done by each person.

The universal rule to combat this situation...
Tell them this is just an experiment. It is not a life time carrier. If any of them refuse (very strongly), let them be it. It would be worse if the whole experiment would be interrupted by this. It could even lead to failure if you are not careful.

Tip 9: Quoting

Quoting is when you put the " " around what someone else said. This can be useful, and can be put almost anywhere inside a lab report. Most of the time, quoting is seen in Hypothesis, since it is presenting your knowledge. On the other hand, it is also a great thing for teachers. Why? You'll see...

A few months ago, I have produced a 7 page lab report which contained a lot of quoting (Topic was a ballon rocket compared to real-life situation) Using what I know about force and gravity, I quoted what Isaac Newton said (For those who don't know, Newton "discovered" gravity). So I said something like " The object would stay moving/still unless a force is reacting to it." On the same time, I added something the teacher told me in class.

When the teacher saw this, she was impressed. My guess is that she was impressed because I paid attention to her class (I always do...by the way).

To conclude this, use quotes from textbooks, scientist whatever. Use it. It may add score to your research skills.

Tip 8: First things first

The only real way you can get 4 and higher is actualy spending at least 30 min to write your lab report. If you left your lab report at the last second to write, I gurantee you you aren't going to get great (Unless, of course, you are someone who is ultra good at writing at lab reports. You know who you are). To my standards, I guess 1-4 hours on lab report shall be enough.

Don't get what I mean? Well, it's like having a boyfriend or girlfriend. It's impossible to have a good replationship unless you spent time toegether. Same applies for lab reports.

However, before you start writing your lab report, be sure you got all the data and nothing is missed out. Otherwise, when you noticed you screwed up the info, you might as well start again.

So heres my tip (And probably what other teachers hope for as well): Start as soon as you can, because that is when you remember every single detail of what happened in the experiment. Thats one thing that notes can't assist you.

Tip 7: Find out what your teacher wants

This tip is not with Lab Reports, but with your science teacher. Each teacher has a different thought on what a good lab report is. So each teacher is aiming at something else. I hate to say, most of the teachers in the world who teach MYP is most concerned with your results (conclusion). The results contain can contain a few Criterions (Criterion B, C, D, E). If you do really good in everything but the conclusion, I'll say you'll get a low mark and a shouting from your teacher/parents.

What you should do is to at least attempt each part of the Lab Report. They don't have to be perfect, but at least an attempt is good enough. But to make your teacher happier, work a little bit harder on the part he/she focuses on. In that way, she would be more impressed.

Before even trying to impress your teacher, first find out what he/she focuses on. So just work equally on all parts on the lab report when you meet your new teacher. Gradually, lab report by lab report, you will begin to notice which oen she focuses on the most. Sometimes it could be the parts where she writes the most comments on. But don't mistaken yourself, if you now you do bad on that part, the comments aren't there for nothing.

After about 2-4 Lab Reports, you should have identified her interest. If you don't see any, it might be that your teacher doesn't have a special focus, so you are pretty safe.