Executive Summary

Background & Purpose: The background should be a paragraph that contains the goals of the lab and briefly explains what significance it has to the scientific community.

• State the objective of the lab exercise. Though this is provided in the lab documents, the purpose should be restated in your own words. The purpose should be specific and focus on scientific principles. Example: In this lab, four types of beams were tested to determine which has the greatest strength-to-weight ratio (grams-pounds).
• In a sentence or two, explain why the purpose of the lab is important to the scientific community. What is the motivation behind performing this lab? Example: ABC Company wants to determine whether lighting is better in parallel or in series. The results of the lab will allow the team to make a recommendation for the company.

Results and Analysis: In 1-2 paragraphs, summarize the most important results and trends in the experiment. In a stand-alone document, figures and tables in an appendix can be referenced to support your analysis.

• State results and content independent of your own influence. These observations should be relevant to the purpose of the lab experiment.
• Describe trends and implications by referencing your results. What can you infer from your data? Example: Increasing wind speeds caused the turbine to produce more power, as shown in Table 4. To maximize power production, turbines should be placed where they will receive the strongest winds.
• Briefly describe possible errors and discuss potential solutions.

Conclusion & Recommendations: The final paragraph should emphasize the conclusions drawn from the results and how the results can be used in your scenario.

• State your conclusions based on the results of the lab.
• Provide recommendations for the scenario posed at the beginning of the lab procedure, based on the lab results. Example: Based on the results of the procedure, the team recommends a tapered channel with a toothed check valve that leads to an oval detection well.

Appendices: Create a new appendix for each category of content.

• Title each appendix using the format Appendix A: Descriptive Title. For example, an executive summary might contain the appendices:
  • Appendix A: Experimental Data
  • Appendix B: Equations and Sample Calculations
• Arrange appendices in the order in which they are referenced within your summary. Every appendix must be referenced within the document.
• Start figure and table labels at 1 in each appendix. Each numeric label will be preceded by the appendix letter and a period with no spaces (e.g., A.1, or B.3) . Labels should be formatted as described in Using Graphics and Visuals Effectively.
• Organize and format each appendix neatly. Appendices should not be storage for messy or extraneous information.
• Place any necessary figures and tables in an appendix. Executive summaries should not have figures and tables within the summary. It is acceptable to choose the most important content to limit the figures and tables to 1-2 pages.

Introduction: Briefly describe the goals of the lab and explain its significance to the scientific community.

• State the objective of the lab exercise. Though this is provided in the lab documents, the purpose should be restated in your own words. The purpose should be specific and focus on scientific principles. Example: In this lab, four types of beams were tested to determine which has the greatest strength-to-weight ratio (grams-pounds).
• In a sentence or two, explain why the purpose of the lab is important to the scientific community. What is the motivation behind performing this lab? Example: ABC Company wants to determine whether lighting is better in parallel or in series. The results of the lab will allow the team to make a recommendation for the company.

Experimental Methodology: An abstract will typically be read by someone who is not familiar with the experiment. Mention the methods used in your experiment.

• Include a brief description of the experiment. Example: The efficiency of each design was measured by retrieving data from the Arduino and analyzing the energy usage in MATLAB.
• Discuss what data was collected and how you collected it.
• Do not discuss specific equipment unless it is unique and vital to the purpose of the experiment.

Results: Provide a summary of the results of the experiment in a few sentences.

• Present the final, processed results and observations of the experiment. Example: A circular check valve with tapered channels leading to an ovalur detection well required the smallest fluid sample to fill the detection well.
• State any possible sources of error.
• Do not include or reference any raw data, calculations, graphs, or tables.

Conclusion: Summarize the conclusions and recommendations from the experiment in 1-2 sentences.

• State the conclusions that can be drawn from the results of the experiment and connect these conclusions to the purpose as described in the introduction.
• Briefly describe possible solutions to the limitations of the experiment and suggest any further studies that may be meaningful.