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.

Tip 6: Method/Procedure guide

You know you have to write the process of the Lab report. Now, if you are in MYP one or two, you are more than likely have an assignment sheet of the experiment. However, from MYP 3-4, you will have some Inquriry labs. Trust me, Inquiry labs are quite annoying. It's not the writing, but the thinking of your own experiment, then converting them into your own words.

Anyways, if you don't know how to write a Method/Procedure, you can think it this way. Think you are writing for someone who is a complete idiot. He/she also wants to do the experiment, so now you need to write down the steps very clearly to him. He/she then then able to redo the experiment you done.

A few little tips:

• Use diagrams to help you think, but don't include them inside the actual Lab report.
• Give sample results and tables
• Use numbers to represent your method like step 1, step 2, step 3....rather then using bullet points or just in paragraphs. Since quite a lot of people forget where they left off when interrupted.
• When saying "Set up the experiment", you should say how to set it up. They didn't see you doing it (Unless you drew a diagram on how to represent your experiment)
• At the end, you should say what to do with the data. Draw a graph or plot it inside a table. I don't know. You decide.

Tip 5: Adding real life situations

You may be asked by the teacher for adding a real life situation. Real life situation is basically asking yourself "How could this experiment link with the human world?" or "Can this really happen?" When it comes down to this case, I really suggest is to sit down and think. Some you can think of something very easy, but if I ask you a question like: "Can you link a situation where centre of gravity takes place inside two water bottles?" That is really difficult.

But here is the fun part. You can make anything up. So if I ask "Can you determine a real life situation of two objects droppping down from the same height?" So now you can make something up like "A fat alien and a thin man dropping down. The fat alien would hit the ground first." So be creative.

In the same time, you can make a digram/picture to explain your real life situation as well. So then you can use your pen to draw an alien and a man falling. Remember to give data, include them in your labels.

So the data you can add is the weights of the alien and man. Then linking with the Hypothesis, explian why the alien would hit ground first.

Tip 4: How to write a good Evaluation

A lot of people don't really know how to write a perfect evaluation. Some even don't write one. So here are some simple facts of what the evaluation should contain.

1. A fair test or not?
2. Explain why it is(n't) a fair test.
3. What could be done for future experiments?
4. Was the data you collected precise?
5. Was the data you collected reliable (are you able to trust it?)
6. Were there any problems?
7. If there were problems, how did you solve it?

Theses things should be manditory in any evaluation. However, if you or your teacher wants you to add something extra, do what they say! This info inside the evaluation may lead you to a good score!

Tip 3: Drawing a diagram

Although it is not mandatory (meaning not needed), it gives a teacher clearer idea on how the experiment is presented. Especially when doing an Inquiry Lab, where you can't really explain on how to set up the experiment. The diagram can be hand drawn or computer drawn. Doesn't matter. As long as it includes labels. When deciding on where to pop in the diagram, put it near the method. However, this is where a lot of people mess up. People often think they can just draw a diagram and skip completely the method. No, the diagram is there to made the method clearer.

Also if you are using a lot of equipment, a diagram could be helpful on showing where each equipment is placed. But, like I said above, don't replace the words with pictures!

Tip 2: Present your knowledge

When writing a hypothesis (Only for MYP 3-5), you would write on what you predict to happen during and after an experiment. A Hypothesis with only a guess on what happens (Example: I guess the Fingertips are more sensitive than the back of the hand) Alright, so you guessed what happens. But to actualy bring a pretty good Hypothesis, you should write what made you think that way. Why do you think the Fingertips is more sensitive? Now you have to support your guess by saying something like "I guess the Fingertips are more sensitive than the back of the hand because there are more touch sensors in the fingertips"

This is just a very simple Hypothesis which would at least give you a better grade than no explanation. The Hypothesis that I am wrting can take half a page. I am currently working on one so heres what I got:

"Hypothesis: We predict that the bottle filled with water would fall first. We
think that because according to what water and sand is made out of, water is
made out of Hydrogen and Oxygen. While sand is mainly made out of Silicon and
Oxygen. Silicon is a semi metal, which is heavier than the non-metals. Also,
sand is a solid material, water is liquid. We all know that a liquid is not
strong as sand, so therefore it would be lighter. However, a concept later
occurred in our heads. We think that the sand could have a higher centre of
gravity than water, due to the weight. So now we are a deadlock of which one
would fall first but the end we still decided that water would fall first."

That was only my first paragraph...Anyways, for MYP 1 and 2, I do recommend you start this practice. Although you won't get any marks for it, it is good practice so you don't panic when you come to MYP 3 (And believe me, teachers are very happy to see that)

Tip 1: Thinking the Beyond

Thinking and doing more than you have to do does get you a 5-6 in any lab reports. What I mean is that the teachers are already expecting a result from the test, but you can be researching beyond of whats needed.

Example:
Find how much Oxygen are there in a Magnesium Oxide.

So now you conducted an experiment, and got the results:
There is 0.012g of Oxygen inside a Magnesium oxide.

This immedietly brings you to 3-4 level.

However, to get a 5-6, you need to think beyond. In this case, you use Maths for this.

To do beyond of whats needed, you could just measure the percent. So after doing some simple (I think MYP 2 Maths level) calculations, you should come up with something like 0.5%-2%. Boom. That brings you to 5-6 immedetlly.