This format should be followed when writing any assigned lab report. Include all sections unless directed otherwise. All sections except the Methods and Materials should be written in paragraph form with complete sentences. The Methods and Materials sections can be numbered.

An overview of the entire experiment or study. It should answer the questions: what was trying to be accomplished or what was the purpose of the experiment? what was done? and what was the conclusion or what did you find out?

Give the reader all of the information s/he needs to be able to understand the experiment. Summarize and restate the information given in the National Parks video and the "Alien Invasion" article that relate to this project.

State this as a question. What are you trying to find out?

How did you go about finding out the answer? What items did you use and what did you do with them? Remember a cake recipe. Be precise. Someone reading this section should be able to duplicate the experiment to verify the results.

If the procedure was given to you, as in this case, you do not need to re-write it. State the name of the laboratory activity and where the procedure can be found: class hand-out, lab book, etc.

What did you find out? This is NOT a conclusion answering the question or problem, but a description of all the data (observations, measurements, tables and graphs) that were collected.

Be sure that you include the following:

• map of the study site with the names of the plants and their diameter measurements
• spreadsheet of individual plot
• spreadsheet of group data
• graph of group data

Describe what is in the charts or graphs in paragraph form. For instance, there were 10 native plants and 3 alien plants in the plot. The native plants covered 50% of the plot, the alien plants covered 25%. As a class, the average coverage was. . . etc.

Answer the problem or question you started with, if possible. Remember, all experiments teach us something, even if they do not answer the question you asked. Some experiments have inconclusive results. Refer to the data to back up and support your conclusion.